Cox Media is ready to begin trials with Invidi to deliver addressable ads into live linear television.

Mari Silbey, Senior Editor, Cable/Video

March 26, 2014

2 Min Read
Cox Eyes Addressable Ad Trials

Cox Media has a new targeted advertising plan in the works.

The advertising division of Cox Communications Inc. is about to begin trials with Invidi Technologies Corp. to deliver addressable ads into live linear television. A spokesperson confirmed that the trials are for linear TV only, and are not related to the operator's work with Canoe Ventures LLC to implement dynamic ad insertion (DAI) across its video-on-demand platform.

"Addressability creates a new class of premium television advertising inventory, which is why Cox Media is committed to bringing it to market as another tool for our clients to connect consumers to the products they care about," said Mike Zeigler, vice president of Cox Media operations and business development.

Invidi's technology works at the set-top level and uses demographic data to target individual households with relevant advertising. Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) also started a trial with Invidi last year and is expected to go live with the new system in 2014. Additional customers include DirecTV, Dish, and Verizon.

Last fall, FierceCable reported that Cablevision would also test Invidi's solution as part of a settlement in a case that had Invidi suing the MSO for patent infringement. (See Comcast Preps Ad Targeting Trial.)

Cox, which currently serves more than 20 markets with advertising solutions across the US, is also a founding member of Canoe Ventures along with Comcast, Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC), and Bright House Networks . Canoe has slimmed down its advanced advertising ambitions in recent years and today is only focused on dynamic ad insertion for VoD.

A recent Heavy Reading report predicted that DAI will be in 40 million homes by the end of the year. (See Cable's Search for Advanced Advertising Treasure .)

— Mari Silbey, special to Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Mari Silbey

Senior Editor, Cable/Video

Mari Silbey is a senior editor covering broadband infrastructure, video delivery, smart cities and all things cable. Previously, she worked independently for nearly a decade, contributing to trade publications, authoring custom research reports and consulting for a variety of corporate and association clients. Among her storied (and sometimes dubious) achievements, Mari launched the corporate blog for Motorola's Home division way back in 2007, ran a content development program for Limelight Networks and did her best to entertain the video nerd masses as a long-time columnist for the media blog Zatz Not Funny. She is based in Washington, D.C.

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