ActiveVideo Networks, a provider of cloud-based interactive television services, and This Technology, LLC, together announced a joint initiative to develop dynamic advertising capabilities to monetize iVOD. The joint solution will facilitate dynamic mid-roll advertisement replacements, such as advertisement content from the Web, according to a press release.

Utilizing the capabilities of the ActiveVideo CloudTV platform and This Technology’s Metamore and Spotbuilder software, both the companies together will create an SCTE 130-compliant ad serving and delivery solution.

The newly created solution will facilitate cable system operators and programmers to dynamically target traditional, Web-based and interactive advertising in conjunction with viewers’ on-demand activity. In turn, it will help improve monetization as well as allow having control over advanced VOD advertising, thereby helping the iVOD category to grow, said officials in the release.

Jeffrey Sherwin, founder of This Technology, said, “This Technology’s work with ActiveVideo to incorporate mid-roll replacements, metadata and SCTE 130 compliance into a robust VOD environment creates yet another compelling opportunity to capitalize on better monetization capabilities and network efficiencies, as well as to promote enhanced subscriber value. Additionally, networks are now empowered to use MetaMore to repurpose ad metadata from the Web and make them accessible to VOD infrastructure using ActiveVideo’s iVOD infrastructure.”

According to the release, the joint solution maximizes opportunities in an iVOD environment, which comprises of web-like functionality such as seamless, personalized navigation, search and discovery, recommendations, social television and interactive television. This is due the fact that the new solution is intended to levrage This Technology’s dynamic metadata and advertising supply management software

Enabling operators and programmers to replace pre-encoded ads, including mid-rolls, with new or different ads, the joint solution is capable of providing increased control and flexibility -- by allowing operators to insert and manage delivery of new or repurposed Web-based advertising directly to the set-top box.

Company officials said that the joint solution is designed for compatibility with standards-based systems that are already deployed by cable operators. In addition, the solution utilizes the This Technology platform to create an accurate view of available ad inventory, including contextual information such as time, region or content.  

“As iVOD combines historic programming silos into a single content stream, the need for more flexible on-demand advertising approaches will grow significantly,” said Jeff Miller, president and CEO of ActiveVideo Networks.  ”Our work with This Technology is intended to help operators and programmers to overcome the static nature of on-demand advertising by replacing pre-encoded ads with spots that are targeted to specific viewer interests – similar to the personalization that occurs on the Web.”

The solution was showcased at the Cable Show ‘10 held Los Angeles.

ActiveVideo combines Web video, Web 2.0 functionality and traditional television. It utilizes intelligent MPEG streaming to deliver the Web 2.0 experience to TV audience via both legacy and digital set-top boxes and broadband-connected devices.