Project: Virgin Media’s deployment of on-demand TV advertising
End user: Virgin Media
Supplier: SeaChange International, On Demand Group
Virgin Media, the UK’s largest cable television operator, runs one of the world’s most successful video on demand services, delivering more than half a billion clips to its viewers in 2008 alone. Much of the content is free to view, so Virgin is keenly looking for ways to realise revenues from the success of the offering.
One solution is to place advertising into the on-demand stream. For this to be successful the advertising needs to be added at the time of delivery: content can be available on the service for many years, but advertisers want their current campaigns to be added.
Julia Smith, head of TV product at Virgin Media said: “We’re extremely proud to be recognised by IBC and delighted to have made the Innovation Award shortlist. With our trial partners, we’ve proven the technical viability of dynamic ad insertion and shown that viewers are receptive to relevant and engaging ads. As we continue to add to our pioneering on demand TV platform, we are successfully demonstrating how we can leverage this service and offer content owners and advertisers a compelling new opportunity.”
Working with Seachange, Virgin has developed a system which dynamically adds commercials in real time, ensuring that the advertising is up to date, and specific to the time of day, geographic region of the consumer and the content of the programme. Feedback from the system also allows the operator to better understand the impact of on-demand advertising on viewer behaviour.
Simon McGrath, Chief Marketing Officer, SeaChange International said: "SeaChange is truly honored that our work with on-demand advertising at Virgin Media has been recognized on the short list for an IBC Innovation Award. We’re clearly among esteemed company, given this year’s other nominees as well as those from years past, and we are steadfastly committed to continuing to help our partners worldwide develop and launch new, more effective forms of advertising capabilities."
For more information, visit the Seachange website.
