Happy Friday, cable gang. Interactive advertising news kicks off today's roundup.

Honda, State Farm and other major media buyers will tap a panel of up to 2,000 consumers to study the impact of interactive TV ads delivered by Canoe Ventures LLC and its MSO owners. (See Cable's Canoe Ads Ad Partners and Canoe Boots Up Interactive Ad Campaign .)

Discovery Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK), set to to launch its new 3DTV channel on Sunday, saw ad revenue at its U.S. networks jump 9 percent during the fourth quarter. (See DirecTV Set to Launch New 3-D Net .)

Touting a "long-tail TV strategy," Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Director of Video Ads Michael Steib says media buyers should run ads on networks that have less than a 1 percent audience share, and spend cash on Internet video ads. (See Google Signs TV Ad Data Partner.)

Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), conceding that it is "not so optimized for new and fresh," says it would rather offer subscribers the complete season of a TV series than the ability to stream shows the day after their broadcast premieres. (See Netflix Turns Up Heat on HBO.)

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) hasn't even confirmed that it'll add online gaming to the Apple TV, but that's not stopping reporters from predicting trouble for Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)'s Xbox 360, Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE)'s PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo of America Inc. Wii. (See Apple TV: A 'Hobby' No More? )

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) watchers are starting to wonder if the company's purchase of Flip video camera maker Pure Digital Technologies was a flop, as Pure's CEO Jonathan Kaplan exits today. (See Consumers Clobber Cisco and Cisco's Latest Buy: Flippin' Sweet.)

Cox Communications Inc. showed it's getting more serious about business services by promoting two -- Tim McKinley and Steve Rowley -- to become officers of its commercial services division, which eclipsed $1 billion in annual revenues for the first time in 2010. They've been named VPs of field operations for their respective territories. (See Cox Biz Unit Promotes Two and Cable's Newest Billionaire: Cox Business.)

Volkswagen's "The Force" won the online battle of Super Bowl ads, topping one of our favorites, Doritos's "Pug Attack."



— Steve Donohue, Special to Light Reading Cable