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Comcast Allows for Real-Time Ad Insertion into VOD Streams in Test Market

Comcast’s new video-on-demand ad insertion platform has gone live in Jacksonville, Florida, allowing for the dynamic insertion of ads into its VOD inventory.

Using technology developed by software vendor BlackArrow, Comcast will let advertisers insert fresh ads into VOD streams on the fly.

Traditionally, advertising campaigns in video-on-demand content have had limited effectiveness due to the static nature of the ads being encoded directly into the VOD stream. In order to insert new ads, the entire VOD stream had to be recoded, which could take up to 60 days. In the Jacksonville market, Comcast is inserting standard 15- and 30-second promotional spots, as well as newly introduced 20-second spots designed to drive tune-in for upcoming shows and specials on PBS KIDS Sprout and FEARnet, in a dynamic environment.

Diana Kerekes, vice president of Video Content for Comcast, said, “The ability to update VOD advertising will help us offer feature parity with traditional linear and internet-based advertising systems. We’re pleased to be working with a technology leader like BlackArrow as we look for ways to offer our programming partners expanded opportunities to monetize their content offerings.”

Deployment in additional markets is expected in the coming months, though there has been no specific schedule announced.

If real-time deployment of ads in VOD streams takes off, it would help networks monetize their video-on-demand channels, the lack of which has long been a frustration for networks.

Operators delivered a record 589 million video-on-demand transactions in June, up 15% from June 2008. There was also a 16% increase in the number of unique set top boxes accessing video-on-demand. Additionally, free-on-demand kids content was up 7%.