Canoe Floats Its 10 Billionth AdCanoe Floats Its 10 Billionth Ad

Think you've seen more ads in video-on-demand shows lately? You're not wrong.

Canoe Ventures LLC , the cable-backed ad technology company, announced this morning that it has now served 10 billion ad impressions in video-on-demand (VoD) programming nationally.

The rate of growth for VoD advertising appears to be accelerating too. According to Chris Pizzurro, head of product, sales, and marketing at Canoe, cable operators inserted more than 2 billion ads last year into free VoD content. That number was already at 1.7 billion ads in just the first four months of 2014, and at 3 billion ads by the end of May. (See Ad Industry Eyes Shift From Ratings to Impressions.)

Dynamic ad insertion (DAI) technology is critical for cable companies as they look to monetize growing VoD libraries and to counter ad-skipping on digital video recorders. However, Canoe has traversed a rough road (river?) on its way to measurable success. Led by cable operators Bright House Networks , Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), Cox Communications Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC), the organization nearly collapsed in 2012 when it shuttered its interactive advertising business and had to lay off 120 employees.

However, Canoe's effort to refocus solely on VoD ad insertion appears to be paying dividends. The company's DAI technology is now implemented by cable operators across 30 million households, with ad insertions taking place across more than 50 television networks. (See Cable's Canoe Sinks Interactive Ad Business.)

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Most recently, Bright House became the latest MSO to start dynamically inserting ads into VoD programming. The sixth-largest US cable operator uses BlackArrow Inc. 's DAI technology solution, similar to Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Rogers Communications Inc. (Toronto: RCI). The BlackArrow solution is integrated with Canoe and allows customers to deliver dynamic advertising through any Canoe-enabled programmer. (See Bright House Launches VOD Ad Insertion.)

Cox is the only Canoe member that has not yet started rolling out VoD DAI campaigns, but the company is expected to do so later this year.

— Mari Silbey, special to Light Reading