Canoe Ventures, the ad-tech company owned by the biggest cable companies, said it has made a deal making satellite companies DirecTV and Dish Network part of addressable ad campaigns.

The arrangement increases Canoe’s addressable footprint to 54 million homes–a bigger chunk of a shrinking pay TV universe at a time when streamers also offer addressability.

AMC Networks and Warner Bros. Discovery have signed up as the first programmers to offer this new capability to advertisers.

The satellite rivals have been working together to serve advertisers looking for addressability.

The growth of addressable advertising has been limited by less than optimal scale and difficulty in making arrangements with numerous distributors with different technology and business rules. 

Canoe said the new arrangement ameliorates those problems.

Also Read: AMC, WEtv Go Addressable In All Original Programming

“In the intricate world of MVPDs, each endpoint has distinct, and sometimes complex, nuances. We’re excited to team up with DirecTV Advertising and Dish Media to empower programmers to run addressable advertising campaigns in a more streamlined manner, with even greater efficiency and simplicity, in today’s fragmented and complicated TV ad landscape,” David Porter, CEO of Canoe Ventures, said.

Canoe is now working with Invidi, the ad-server technology company that satellite companies work with, to create an integration that allows programmers to easily execute addressable advertising campaigns across all of U.S. multichannel video programming distributors at once. 

We applaud Canoe for helping to drive scale in the addressable advertising space,” said Tim Myers, head of strategy, products, and enterprise partnerships at Dish Media. “The addition of satellite households means programmers can now offer a true national addressable solution with a unified workflow, providing more value and reach for marketers.”

“Whether your goal is to reduce waste, manage frequency or extend reach, there is no doubt that addressable advertising works,” Matt Van Houten, senior VP product, business development at DirecTV Advertising, added. “We’re looking forward to this new partnership with Canoe, which will provide programmers with more inventory and households, translating to greater value, scale and reach for marketers.”

Canoe Ventures said it signed agreements with four national programmers -- AMC Networks, Discovery, TelevisaUnivision and WarnerMedia -- to enable national addressable television advertising campaigns.

Canoe, owned by Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Cable, acts as a one-stop shop, effectuating addressable advertising for programmers in homes served by its parent company’s cable systems.

All four national programmers have either started or will be initiating addressable TV advertising campaigns in the first quarter, Canoe said.

AMC recently announced that it is working with Canoe on an addressable campaign for Amazon that started during this week’s episode of The Walking Dead.

“By partnering with these four programmers, we can now help them and their advertisers better manage frequency across this new, expanded footprint, as well as reach and engage the right audiences,” said Joel Hassell CEO of Canoe. “It is a win on both sides as the consumer sees more relevant ads, and agencies and marketers will derive better ROI. We see all of this as being good, beneficial and necessary for the industry.”

The new deals with the programmers is a sign of progress for addressable advertising.

Canoe first announced its addressable advertising pilot with AMC Networks and Discovery in 2020.

“This is a milestone moment for the entire industry that is no longer a target or an aspiration – it's actually here,” said Evan Adlman, senior VP of advanced advertising and digital partnerships at AMC. “We are making three national, addressable spots available in every hour of original programming for all of 2022 on our AMC and WE tv networks. In partnership with Canoe, we can now offer the smartest and most relevant ads in television, at a time when reaching consumers with relevant and targeted advertising has never been more important.”

“National programmer addressability represents a significant opportunity and the synergy between Canoe’s footprint with Discovery’s audience scale will greatly benefit our advertising partners,” added Steve Silvestri, senior VP, Advanced Advertising at, Discovery. “For the first time, we can offer them the ability to execute live, linear, audience targeting at scale, which is a major industry milestone.”

Discovery will be merging with WarnerMedia after WarnerMedia is spun off from AT&T in the second quarter.

“During our 2021 upfront, we shared an ambitious goal to reach 52 million households across our addressable footprint by the end of the year,” said JP Colaco, president of advertising sales, WarnerMedia. “I’m thrilled to announce that we have exceeded our objectives for our addressable capabilities through this important collaboration with Canoe. National addressability within premium, live, linear programming is the gold standard for advertisers who need reach, precision and most importantly, results, when delivering a message to their audiences.” ■

AMC Networks, an advanced advertising pioneer, said it has enabled addressable ad inventory in every hour of the original programming on AMC Network and WE tv.

Amazon has made a year-long commitment and will launch a campaign Sunday during the The Walking Dead, which is starting the second chapter of its final season. Amazon will also be airing addressable ads in the final season of Better Call Saul and in new programs like the upcoming series Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire.

AMC has been aiming to make all of its linear inventory addressable, but current technology limits it to three single-advertiser spots per show, said Evan Adlman, senior VP of advanced advertising and digital partnerships for AMC.

Also: AMC Networks Goes Programmatic With Linear Addressable Campaigns

The Amazon campaign will be addressable in 35 million households that subscribe to Comcast, Charter Communication and Cox cable using technology from Canoe Ventures. The campaign will also be addressable in homes with activated Vizio smart TVs.

Amazon will run its national ad campaign on the AMC networks. With the first-party data it has at its disposal, Amazon has created specific audience segments. When Canoe or Vizio detects that a viewing household matches an audience segment, a different commercial for Amazon is delivered to that household that is much more targeted to that particular household. AMC uses the OAR watermarking technology to merge the cable and Vizio footprints.

“It makes this advertising extremely relevant, the most relevant advertising that we've ever been able to sell on our network, because they can use their first-party data,” Adlman said. 

AMC will be using data company 605 to track and measure the campaign’s results as it progresses.

Addressable advertising technology has been around for years, but it has been difficult to mount national addressable campaigns on linear networks because they are carried by multiple distributors, each with their own ad sales and serving systems. Most addressable advertising had appeared in the local time on national networks controlled by cable operators and satellite providers. 

AMC began working with Canoe, a joint venture of Comcast, Charter and Cox, in 2020, to make addressable work and ran a campaign with Volkswagen later that year.

AMC has been testing addressability on its linear networks using promotional inventory.

“We’re still testing with other pockets of inventory, but we’re launched and capable now. It’s no longer an aspiration,” Adlman said.

Also: AMC Networks Signs Up With Addressable Ad Group

Beyond Amazon, AMC is talking about addressable campaign with other clients. “There’s plenty of opportunity for all of our clients to take advantage of this new capability,” he said.

It might be a while before all of AMC’s addressable inventory is used in addressable campaigns.

"We’re probably ahead of the majority of the market,” Adlman said. “There’s a large amount of education that still has to happen within the industry on how to execute these types of campaign and how to implement these capabilities across a linear network.” ■

Canoe Ventures was awarded a Technology and Engineering Emmy for cross-MVPD dynamic ad insertion for cable network video-on-demand content.

“We’re extremely honored to be recognized by the NATAS with a Technical and Engineering Emmy,” said Sid Gregory, Canoe’s CTO. “I will proudly accept this prestigious award on behalf of the Canoe team, our owner MVPDs, and our technology and programming partners, all of whom have worked tirelessly over the years to grow the availability of VOD content to over 35,000 titles.

Canoe was founded in 2008 by cable companies Comcast, Time Warner, Cox and Brighthouse to provide VOD and ad insertion technology. Working with multiple hardware and software partners, Canoe built a dynamic ad insertion (DAI) platform and integrated it with the unique VOD infrastructures of the four founding MVPDs.  

Today, VOD represents 15-20% of all television viewing while Canoe serves 85% of the 45 million U.S. households with VOD, resulting in an estimated $1.5 billion market.

Canoe will be honored at the 72nd Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards Ceremony, which is tentatively scheduled to be done virtually on Oct. 10.

Canoe Ventures said that it launched the first linear addressable ad campaign across multiple distributors, working with AMC Networks, Comcast and Charter.

The campaign was run as part of cable’s On Addressability initiative launched by Canoe’s owners--Comcast, Charter and Cox Media--to make addressable advertising grow with standards and scale, both in linear and on-demand programming.

Related: Top Cable Operators Issue Playbook for Addressable Ads

“AMC is the first national cable network to run multiple ads in a single avail across multiple distributors, using aggregated and de-identified data,“ said David Kline, executive VP at Charter Communications, and president of Spectrum Reach. “We are excited to help make our network partners’ avails more valuable through On Addressability by allowing them to send more relevant creative, at scale, to households that are most likely to act on it, and therefore make TV more competitive with digital alternatives.”

In an addressable ad campaign, viewers being targeted by a marketer are served a specific commercial, while the other viewers see a different ad at the same time in the same show.

“We are so pleased to have reached this milestone moment in addressable TV’s evolution to become a scalable—easy to execute—solution for advertisers,” added Marcien Jenckes, president, Comcast Advertising.

Addressable campaigns have been difficult to run nationwide on cable because multiple distributors needed to be engaged and they often had different technical standards, buying procedures and measurement regimens. Getting the industry on the same page as demand for data-based target advertising grew is a priority being tacked by On Addressability.

Related: AMC Networks Signs Up With Addressable Ad Group

“We are thrilled to make AMC the first cable network to offer a first ever addressable, performance-based solution across a national footprint,” said Kim Kelleher, president of advertising sales and partnerships, AMC Networks. “On Addressability is an important step toward realizing the future of addressable television advertising. There is so much potential to bring an audience-first product to our advertising partners that reaches desired viewers and allows the delivery of relevant messages to the household level. We are proud to be on the forefront of this meaningful technological advancement.”

Canoe, the cable industry’s ad tech provider, handles delivery, service management and reporting of addressable campaigns on behalf of its owners.

Related: Nielsen Readies Big Data Metrics for TV Advertising

“At Canoe, we like to think of ourselves as the ‘simplification layer’ between our programmer customers and our distribution partners,” said Joel Hassell, Canoe’s CEO. “By enabling and managing addressable campaigns for major TV distributors, we offer a one stop shop for programmers who only need to interact with one entity to reach a large, unified footprint of addressable households.”

Canoe, the MSO-backed supplier of dynamic VOD ad tech and services, said ad impression on its platform surpasses 6 billion in Q1 2018, up 25% from the year-ago period.

Canoe, which shared new data in concert with this week’s Pay TV Show in Denver, said those impressions spanned set-top boxes, IP and mobile platforms.

In Q1, the bulk of VOD ad impressions were mid-rolls (5.25 billion), versus pre-roll (806.75 million) and post-roll (90.71 million). The average ad opportunities per mid-role break was 3.85 in Q1, compared to 1.18 for pre-roll ads, and 1.52 for post-roll ads.

Canoe said 99% of ads in mid-roll slots were watched to completion 99% of the time, on average.

With respect to ad frequency, 57% of the time in a given episode, viewers saw the same campaign ad one time, and about 36% of the time they saw the same campaign ad twice.

Some 2,522 campaigns were run on Canoe’s platform in Q1, with 83% coming from external clients, and 17% for network tune-in ads.

Canoe’s footprint currently covers 36 million cable households and the top DMAs in partnership with Charter Communications, Comcast and Cox Communications. More than 100 national TV networks are running campaigns with Canoe, including A&E, ABC, AMC, CBS, CMT, CW, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, Hip Hop, HGTV, Kabillion, Kid Genius, MTV, MGM, Music Choice, NBC, Sony, Starz, TNT, TVOne, and Univision, among others.

“We continue to see consumer video consumption trending toward on-demand in the living room and cable VOD has played a big role in that,” Joel Hassell, CEO of Canoe, said in a statement. “Even with connected devices capturing more market share in 2017, VOD DAI commands a 19% share of overall premium video ad views.”

Video-on-demand programming continues to grow as an advertising medium, according to new figures from Canoe.

Ads served by Canoe in video-on-demand programming registered 6.995 billion impressions in the fourth quarter, up 37% from 5.111 billion a year ago.

Canoe ran 3,412 campaigns in the fourth quarter of 2017, up 46% from 2,341 a year ago. Campaigns for clients represented 82% of the campaigns while network tune in ads comprised 18% of the campaigns. A year ago, 79% of the campaigns were run for clients.

Related: Set-Top VOD Ads Must Evolve to Survive

For the full year, Canoe racked up 23.326 billion impressions in 2017, up 30% from 17.903 billion in 2016.

Canoe ran 7,822 campaigns in 2017, up 35% from 5,783.

On average, Canoe is putting more ads in each VOD program. During fourth-quarter breaks in the middle of programs, an average of 4.04 ads ran in the fourth quarter, up from 3.73 a year ago. During pre-roll, 1.17 ads appear, up from 1.1, with 1.41 appearing in post-roll, up from 1.02.

During the fourth quarter nearly all of the impressions came from mid-roll ads. There were 5.9 billion impressions in mid-roll, compared with 969 million in pre-roll and 102 million in post roll ads.

Related: Canoe Marks 100 Billion Spots Inserted in VOD Programming

Campaigns that employ frequency capping put that cap at two impressions, on average.

The ads are overwhelmingly run completely. In mid-roll, 99% of the ads run to completion. In pre-roll, it’s 90.2% and in post-roll its’s 93.4%.

VOD viewing and ad delivery peaks during the weekend. Canoe delivered 1.196 billion impression on Sundays and 1.185 billion on Saturdays, the two biggest days of the week during the fourth quarter.

Canoe inserts ads in programming in 36 million households service by Charter Spectrum, Comcast and Cox, up from 35 million households a year ago. Those operators own Canoe as a joint venture.

The number of ad impressions in video-on-demand programming from cable operators working with Canoe jumped again in the third quarter.

Ads served in VOD programming generated 5.668 billion impressions in the third quarter, up 48% from 3.812 billion a year ago, the company said. Canoe serves 36 million households that subscribe to Charter, Comcast and Cox.

Canoe ran a total of 3,208 campaigns in the quarter, up 51% from 2,123 a year ago.

Related: Canoe Marks 100 Billion Spots Inserted in VOD Programming

VOD ads are becoming increasingly popular as viewing increases and as more networks enable dyanmic ad insertion technology, which allows advertisers to better target their commercials. Last year's totals were impacted by the election, which soaked up viewer attention.

About 24% of the Q3 campaigns were network tune-in campaigns. The others were for clients in a wide range of categories. The breakdown was similar last year.

So far this year, Canoe’s ads have generated 17.9 billion impressions, up from 12.8 billion at this point a year ago.

Related: Set-Top VOD Ads Must Evolve to Survive

Canoe said that 99% of the time consumers watch mid-roll ads to completion. In pre-roll the completion rate is 99.18% and it is 91.35% in post-roll breaks.

The bulk of Canoe’s ad impressions are created by mid-roll ads, which generated 4.684 billion impressions, compared with 896.7 million pre-roll impressions and 87.2 million post-roll impressions. 

Read more at broadcasatingcable.com.

NEW YORK — Though there’s some frustration about set-top box video-on-demand advertising being undervalued, the category must continue to evolve, or risk getting overrun by other, more agile platforms.

Cable VOD advertising needs to get better and faster, “or it will fall out of the mix,” Scott Rosenberg, senior vice president and general manager of advertising at Roku, warned at VideoNuze’s 2017 Online Video Advertising Summit here.

Related: Set-Top VOD Ad Views Surging

Set-top VOD can suffer from delays in reporting and from other shortcomings that aren’t present in the OTT advertising realm, he said.

Set-top-box VOD tends to focus on C3 and C7 ratings, but from days eight and beyond, “it’s feeling fragmented,” Maureen Bosetti, chief partnerships officer at media planning and buying company Initiative, said. “There’s an opportunity to get the measurement right.”

It’s also important to get the right creative for dynamically inserted ads, Pooja Midha, senior vice president of digital ad sales and operations at Disney/ABC Television Group, added. “It’s a different pitch process,” she said, noting that such inventory tends to get lumped in with traditional TV.

Although set-top VOD faces challenges ahead, it’s still a significant growth business. Canoe, the MSO-backed advanced ad joint venture, reported in April that VOD ad impressions reached 5 billion in the first quarter, a 21% jump. Canoe, now on track for more than 20 billion ad impressions for 2017, delivered a record 17.9 billion impressions in all of 2016.

However, in the digital advertising realm, there is an increasing pivot toward TV-connected devices. Last week, FreeWheel, the online ad-tech firm owned by Comcast, said Roku players and other TV-connected OTT devices toppled PCs/desktops to jump into the lead with respect to online ad view share in the first quarter of 2017.

Related: OTT Devices Gobbling Up Ad View Share: FreeWheel

“There’s incredible growth to be had there” when set-top VOD and OTT are combined, James Rooke, general manager, publisher platform at FreeWheel, said here as he presented those results.

“We’re very bullish on OTT,” Bosetti said. “The growth there is tremendous … but we need to plan for it appropriately.”

MOBILE MUST BE ‘AGNOSTIC’
A separate panel here focused on the evolution of advertising in another big growth area — mobile.

Mobile video advertising faces a significant challenge because it’s supporting a wide variety of short-form as well as premium, long-form TV content.

Mobile video must be approached as “agnostically as possible,” but the way the market is evolving also means one can’t put a 30- or 60-second spot in front of every piece of content heading to a smartphone, Mike Law, executive vice president and managing director of video investment at Dentsu Aegis Network U.S., pointed out. “I don’t know if we’ve completely solved for that.”

But what type of content is being viewed also matters. Shorter ads and smaller ad loads should be tied to shorter videos viewed on mobile devices, but not so with a show such as ABC’s Scandal, if it’s being viewed on a smartphone.

“That shouldn’t limit the [ad] supply,” Law said. “They’re still a viewer.”

For something like Scandal, those core metrics will be the same across multiple platforms, agreed Justin Fadgen, vice president of business development at Beachfront Media.

Spotify, the music streaming service that has expanded into video, is experimenting with ad models that use smaller loads in order to provide a better overall experience, Brian Danzis, head of global video monetization at Spotify, said.

Using TV-like ad loads on a mobile device can be “kind of annoying” to the viewer, he added.

Spotify has also created an ad matrix that delivers a certain ad format, depending on the device the consumer is using. “Fragmentation is a result of convergence,” Danzis said.

Canoe announced last week at CES in Las Vegas that the MSO-backed advanced ad joint venture had generated more than 18 billion ad impressions through its VOD dynamic advertising insertion platform in 2016, up from the 11.8 billion pumped out in 2015, and the 6.3 billion that ran in all of 2014.

Canoe is still working on its full report for 2016, including Q4 numbers, but the J.V. floated 5.2 billion VOD ad impressions in Q4 of last year, versus 4 billion in the year-ago quarter, Chris Pizzurro, Canoe’s head of business development, sales and marketing, confirmed to Multichannel News.

Though viewing trends are shifting to mobile and OTT devices, set-top box VOD remains a solid growth market. Last month, FreeWheel, the Comcast-owned online ad-tech company, reported last month in its Q3 Video Monetization Report that set-top VOD ad views for programmers with DAI enabled surged 103% year-over-year, and a share of 16%.

RELATED: Set-Top VOD Ad Views Surging

Canoe’s footprint, which spans about 35 million homes, is also about to grow. Following initial deployments by Comcast, Cox Communications, Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, Canoe confirmed last August that Charter Communications (which acquired TWC and BHN last year) has committed to roll out Canoe’s VOD DAI platform to the legacy Charter systems, though exact timing of the deployment was still being determined.

Charter, along with Cablevision Systems, was an original members of the Canoe J.V., butdropped out several years ago. Charter’s now back on board following its acquisitions of TWC and BHN.

Canoe, the MSO-backed advanced advertising joint venture, said it delivered 4.84 billion VOD ad impressions in Q2 2016, up from 4.13 billion in Q1.

Canoe noted that it has delivered 9 billion ad impression year-to-date, putting it on pace for 18 billion for all of 2016. Canoe delivered 11.8 billion VOD ad impressions in 2015, and 6.3 billion in 2014.

In Q2, Canoe delivered 4.17 mid-roll ad impressions, versus 569.28 million pre-rolls, and 100.32 million post-roll ads. Canoe also supported 2,166 ad campaigns in the period, with 78% coming way of external clients, and the balance from network tune-in ads.

Canoe’s footprint today covers about 35 million homes and 130 plus DMAs through deployments by Comcast, Cox Communications and Charter Communications (via Charter’s recently purchased Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks systems).

The TWC and BHN acquisitions put Charter back on board with Canoe. Charter, along with Cablevision Systems, were original members of the Canoe J.V., but dropped out several years ago.

It was not immediately known if Charter intends to extend support for Canoe in the legacy Charter systems. We will update the story as more details are known.

Update: Chris Pizzurro, head of business development, sales and marketing at Canoe, confirmed via email that Charter has committed to rollout Canoe's platform in its legacy systems, through the timing of deployment is still to be determined.

Arthur Orduña, an executive and engineer well known in cable circles, has been appointed chief innovation officer of vehicle rental company Avis Budget Group, effective August 29.

In that new role, Orduña will be tasked with working across functions at the company “to deliver state-of-the-art solutions to keep pace with changing customer expectations and to drive sustained, profitable growth,” the company said.

Parsippany, N.J.-based Avis runs more than 11,000 rental locations in about 180 countries. It also runs Zipcar, a top car-sharing network that touts more than 1 million members.

Orduña will report to Avis Budget Group CEO Larry De Shon. “We see innovation as a key enabler for our future success.  Arthur’s role will be to foster a culture of innovation to strengthen our brands and drive our business forward,” De Shon said in a statement.

Orduña is joining Avis from home security and automation giant ADT Corp., where he also served as chief innovation officer.

Orduña, who also had a stint at PayPal, is the former chief product officer of Canoe Ventures, the MSO-backed advanced advertising J.V., and served as SVP, policy and product at Bright House Networks (now part of Charter Communications).

Canoe, the MSO-backed supplier of a dynamic ad insertion platform for VOD, said it delivered about 4.13 billion ad impressions in Q1 2016, a 70% increase over the year-ago period.

Based on Q1 figures, Canoe is on pace to deliver 16.52 billion VOD ad impression in 2016. The advanced ad joint venture delivered 11.8 billion impressions in 2015, and 6.3 billion ad impressions in 2014.

Canoe also pumped out 1,751 total campaigns in Q1 2016, of which 75% were for external client ad campaigns, and 25% were for network tune-in ads.

Canoe’s platform currently supports about 35 million homes via systems served by partners Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks. Two in that group, TWC and Bright House, are in the process of being acquired by Charter Communications, a former member of the Canoe crew.  Canoe also works with more than 80 national networks, including ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, NBC, Discovery, HGTV and TNT, among others.

Per Canoe’s latest report, the bulk of the VOD ad impressions were for mid-roll spots (3.55 million), versus 465 million pre-roll spots, and 115.9 million post-roll spots. The average ad opportunities per break boiled down to one for pre-rolls, four for mid-rolls and one for post-rolls.  

Ad impressions for the quarter were spread fairly evenly by day of the week, though were unsurprisingly the heaviest on the weekends.

 “Cable Video on Demand continues to be an incredibly valuable advertising vehicle for programmers, cable operators, and brands” Canoe CEO Joel Hassell said in a statement. “We are well on our way to doubling the number of dynamic ads impressions delivered through Canoe for the fourth consecutive year and we couldn’t be happier with positive results reported by our programming customers.”

OTT devices such as Roku boxes, Apple TVs and gaming consoles have become key conduits for digital video advertising, but the traditional set-top box remains a significant player in the overall market.

In its Video Monetization Report for Q3 2015, FreeWheel, the multiscreen ad-tech firm acquired by Comcast in March 2014, discovered that the set-top VOD accounted for 18% of total video ad views studied by FreeWheel, making it the second largest device category following desktops and laptops. This report was FreeWheel’s first to incorporate metrics on STB VOD devices.

“To be sure, there is significant scale to be tapped in the STB environment and Publishers and cable/satellite operators are only scratching the surface,” FreeWheel noted. “The volume we see here represents another step towards truly unified, full screen, fully viewable, and fraud-free television.”

The Q3 report from Canoe, the MSO-backed VOD advertising joint venture, amplified those numbers, noting that ad impressions in cable VOD programming jumped 40% versus the year-ago period.

Still, digital video continues to gravitate across a variety of screens. Per FreeWheel, monetization of digital content across platforms outside of desktops and laptops reached nearly 50% of video ad views in Q3, driven by strong growth across OTT devices (up 157%) and smartphones (up 67%).

The study also took another look at TV Everywhere trends, which continue to rise. While ad views from TVE products jumped 242%, authenticated viewing for long-form and live TV accounted for 65% of monetization in Q3, up from 46% in the year-ago quarter, FreeWheel found.

FreeWheel’s report also amplified how different content tends to be consumed on different devices. Viewers watching video on desktops/ laptops and smartphones gravitated to short-form clips (accounting for 59% and 69% of their respective ad views), long-form viewing was most popular on tablets, which saw 43% of ad views coming from shows that were 30-minutes or 60-minutes in length. TV-connected OTT devices, meanwhile, saw 61% of their ad views originate from live TV content, FreeWheel said. 

In yet another example of a consolidating advertising technology sector, Cross MediaWorks has agreed to acquire BlackArrow, a dynamic ad insertion specialist that counts a reach of more than 40 million homes.

BlackArrow, which has been rumored to be on the block for several months, counts several major pay TV operators as customers, including Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Charter Communications, Bright House Networks, Rogers Communications, Liberty Global/Virgin Media.  BlackArrow is also a partner of Canoe Ventures, the MSO-backed advanced ad J.V. backed by Comcast, TWC, Cox Communications, and Bright House Networks.

Financial terms of the deal were not announced, but Cross MediaWorks said it will use BlackArrow to power the expansion of Cadent, its national TV advertising network. Founded in 2005, BlackArrow has raised about $65MM. 

Update: The cash and stock deal is valued between $90 million to $120 million, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter. 

They said the deal will help BlackArrow to service new customers and expand its solutions to new TV platforms by tapping into Cross MediaWorks’ pay TV partnerships and linear TV advertising technology. As a subsidiary of Cross MediaWorks, BlackArrow will continue to operate separately alongside other Cross MediaWorks units, but will collaborate with all of the Cross MediaWorks’ portfolio companies.

The deal also follows a flurry of M&A activity in the ad-tech arena, including Comcast’s recent acquisitions of This Technology, Visible World and FreeWheel.

Founded in 2007, Cross MediaWorks has relationships with agencies such as IPG, WPP, Omnicom, Havas and Publicis, and works with top brands that include Allstate, Dannon, Dr. Scholl’s, FedEx, Jimmy Dean, Kumon, L’Oreal, Liberty Mutual, Macaroni Grill, Merck, Red Robin, Sears, StubHub and Welch’s.

Nick Troiano, CEO of BlackArrow, will serve as CEO of Cross MediaWorks, and Stephanie Mitchko-Beale, CTO of Cross MediaWorks will assume CTO/COO responsibilities. Mitchko-Beale, a former Cablevision Systems exec, joined Cross MediaWorks in July 2014.

Troiano will also join Barry Baker and Bob Wright, senior advisors to Lee Equity Partners, on the board of directors of Cross MediaWorks, which is part of Lee Equity Partners’s.  Baker previously headed Boston Ventures' communications and entertainment practices, and was CEO of USA Interactive, parent company of USA Networks, Sinclair Communications and River City Broadcasting.  Wright formerly was chairman and CEO of NBCUniversal and was a vice chairman and executive officer of GE.

“Cross MediaWorks and BlackArrow individually have deep roots in the pay-TV community,” said Joan Gillman, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Media Services for Time Warner Cable and a member of the Board of Directors of BlackArrow, in a statement. “The integration of BlackArrow into the Cross MediaWorks family will provide operators with the tools and services they need to maximize revenue from their TV inventory, whether that's traditional linear TV spots or addressable advertising on VOD or OTT platforms” 

“Both Cross MediaWorks and BlackArrow have a proven history of delivering in this space and their combination will serve to accelerate progress for our clients at MAGNA GLOBAL and across the industry,” added Todd Gordon, EVP, U.S. director for Magna Global.

“By combining BlackArrow’s multi-platform expertise and advanced advertising technology with Cadent Network’s best-in-class media sales force and deep pay-TV provider relationships, Cross MediaWorks will have the leading technology platform and sales organization across all forms of television viewing,” Troiano said. 

Canoe, the MSO-backed advanced ad venture, cruised to more growth in the second quarter as it handled 2.77 billion VOD advertising impressions, beating the 2.56 billion impressions it pumped out in Q1.

The bulk of those Q2 impressions (2.34 billion) were mid-rolls, versus 330.3 million pre-rolls, and 94.75 million post-rolls.

Canoe also handled 1,241 VOD ad campaigns in Q2, up from 912 in Q1 2015. Most (89%) were external client ad campaigns, spanning categories such as auto, toys, technology, pharma, hospitality, theatricals, retail, pet care, home improvement, packaged goods, healthcare and booze. The rest were network tune-in ads.

Through first half of 2015, Canoe dealt 5.34 billion ad impressions, closing in on the 6.3 billion impressions produced for all of 2014. Canoe crossed the 10 billion ad impression mark last November, a milestone that came about two years after it launched its VOD dynamic ad insertion platform.

Canoe’s latest growth surge comes as its footprint that now covers 35 million-plus homes and 48 of the top 50 DMAs. Following initial rollouts with Comcast and Time Warner Cable, Canoe has also been rolled out in markets served by Cox Communications and Bright House.

Charter Communications, which is in the process of acquiring TWC and Bright House, is not currently a member of Canoe. 

Update: Chris Pizzurro, Canoe's head of product, sales and marketing, said discussions with MSOs outside the J.V. "have stepped up quite a bit" as Canoe's ad impressions continue to ram up.  He said no deals were imminent, but noted that conversations are ongoing with major and independent cable operators. 

Advertising-technology provider Canoe said today that Music Choice, the music-TV programmer, will use Canoe's dynamic ad insertion for video-on-demand ads. Music Choice generates more views with its VOD content than any network, the companies said in a release, and Canoe's DAI will offer more flexibility on ad campaigns. 

Music Choice chief operating officer Christina Tancredi said in the release: “As the leader in the On Demand space we are thrilled to offer DAI to advertisers. This is especially important to our clients that cover the entertainment categories so that they can seamlessly optimize their messaging to our audience.” And Canoe CEO Joel Hassell said in the release: “We are very pleased to add Music Choice to our ever expanding group of programming networks. Their programming is very popular on our cable operator’s systems and we look forward to adding to their client offerings the VOD ad campaign scheduling flexibility Canoe provides.”

Canoe said its national VOD DAI platform is in 35 million households covering more than 130 DMAs. In 2014, more than 6 billion viewed ad impressions ran through the Canoe platform, and more than 2.5 billion ads were viewed in the first quarter of 2015. Canoe was founded by Bright House Networks, Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner Cable.

David Grabert, a cable, media and ad industry vet late of Cox Communications and the MSO-backed Canoe joint venture, has been named global director of corporate communications at GroupM, the New York-based media investment giant.

Grabert, who most recently led corporate communications at Clear Channel Outdoor, will now lead strategic external and internal communications for GroupM.

Grabert will be based in New York and report to GroupM global head of marketing Elizabeth McCune.

“Having David in this important role shows GroupM’s commitment to being a vocal industry leader,” McCune said, in a statement.

Grabert has previously held senior communications and marketing positions at Cox Communications, Comcast and Canoe, the cable J.V. that is now focused on dynamic ad insertion for VOD.

Canoe, the MSO-backed advanced advertising venture, said its dynamic VOD ad insertion platform served up 2.56 billion ads in the first quarter of 2015, soundly beating the mere 803.84 million it pumped out in the year-ago quarter, and just ahead of the 2.52 billion it delivered in Q4 2014.

The Q1 total, which reflects the venture’s broader rollout with MSO partners and with a bigger group of programmers, puts Canoe on pace for 10.24 billion viewed ad impressions for all of 2015 and crush the 6.3 billion viewed ad impressions it served up for all of 2014.

In its VOD Viewed Ad Impression 2015 Q1 Report, Canoe said the vast majority of ads were mid-rolls (2.1 billion), versus 273.1 million pre-rolls and 94.73 million post-rolls (see chart above). During the quarter, ad impressions were weighted the weekends -- Saturdays (439M ads) and Sundays (432.1M ads).

Canoe ran 912 VOD ad campaigns in the quarter – 86% were for external ad client campaigns, while the rest were for network tune-ins. That’s up from 864 campaigns in the fourth quarter of 2014, which was comprised of 78% external client ad campaigns.

Canoe, a J.V. of Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks, said its DAI-VOD footprint currently covers 35 million-plus homes in over 130 MDAs.

Canoe, the MSO-backed advanced advertising joint venture, said its video on demand (VOD) dynamic ad insertion platform now spans 130 DMAs, including 48 of the top 50.

That’s coming way of deployments across the board with Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and at Cox Communications markets. Canoe, whose VOD DAI platform is enabled in MSOs serving more than 35 million digital cable homes, said its platform now touts a national reach.

“Canoe has achieved national reach and meaningful scale with its VOD DAI platform,” said Canoe CEO Joel Hassell, in a statement. “Many advertisers are finding it delivers a great complement to their TV campaigns by delivering younger, wealthier and more engaged audiences. We look forward to the continued expansion of VOD advertising into 2016.”

In February, Canoe announced that its platform handled 6.3 billion viewed ad impressions in 2014, including 2.52 billion in the fourth quarter alone. It said it’s delivered a better than 20% surge in viewed ad impressions in each quarter of 2014, and that it handled 1,924 campaigns during the full year. 

Canoe said it has already served up 2 billion ads so far in 2015, and that its ad insertion platform currently stewards ads for more than 50 TV networks, with another 70-plus in the on-boarding process. 

As part of a major restructuring, Canoe shut down its interactive advertising unit in February 2012 to refocus efforts solely on VOD dynamic ad insertion. The J.V. began to insert ads into set-top-based VOD content in October 2012.  

Canoe, the MSO-backed advanced advertising joint venture, said it has crossed a milestone of inserting its 10 billionth ad into video-on-demand (VOD) content, reaching that mark in roughly two years.

Following a major restructuring in February 2012, when Canoe shut down its interactive advertising unit to refocus efforts solely on VOD dynamic ad insertion, the J.V. began to insert ads into set-top-based VOD content in October 2012.  

The bulk of 10 billion ads inserted so far occurred during 2014, according to Chris Pizzurro, Canoe’s head of product, sales and marketing. He expects Canoe to “easily double that number next year.” Pizzurro is scheduled to join a panel on “Big Data” on Thursday (November 13) at 9:55 a.m. ET at the Advanced Advertising component of NYC Television Week, an event hosted by Multichannel News, Broadcasting & Cable, TV Technology and RatingsIntelligence.

Canoe’s VOD DAI platform currently reaches more than 30 million digital cable homes nationwide. Following initial deployments across Comcast and Time Warner Cable, Canoe is in the process of getting fully deployed with its two other MSO partners – Cox Communications and Bright House Networks – during the fourth quarter of 2014.

On the programming end, Canoe now has DAI deals in place with the nation's Big Four broadcasters, as well as Viacom, Angry Birds Toons, Scripps Networks, AMC, A+E Networks, several networks from the Turner Broadcasting System stable, and Sportskool, among others.  Canoe recently added The CW Television Network to its programming partner roster according to this page on the Canoe Web site.

Canoe estimates that it is stewarding ads on behalf of more than 50 TV networks, with another 70 networks in the “on-boarding” process.

Canoe is also looking to complement its current QAM-based VOD platform with support for DAI in VOD streams delivered over IP to the home.  

Canoe, the advanced advertising joint venture, has a fairly deep reach thanks to its ongoing work with its four MSO owners, but a technology integration deal with AdGorilla could help the J.V. to paddle into some shallower waters and work with some independent pay-TV operators as well.

Canoe and Littleton, Colo.-based AdGorilla announced that they have forged a “technical agreement” that will pave the way for AdGorilla to interface its Black Widow Spyder ad platform with Canoe and bring its dynamic ad insertion system for video-on-demand to its clientele, which is made up of small- and mid-sized operators.

Canoe is in the process of getting its platform deployed with a growing number of programmers as well as its MSO backers, which include Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Communications and Cox Communications. Comcast and TWC have deployed Canoe across the board, Bright House Networks has Canoe up and running in markets such as Indianapolis, and Cox is expected to have rollouts underway early into the fourth quarter.

Canoe anticipates that deployments will be done with all four operators by the end of 2014, so the J.V. is already starting to seek ways to grow its footprint beyond them. “That’s where AdGorilla could come in,” Chris Pizzurro, Canoe’s head of product, sales and marketing, said.

He said the technical agreement will enable AdGorilla to hook into Canoe’s systems and bring dynamic ad insertion for VOD to its customers. AdGorilla has the specs to plug into Canoe’s systems, so the heavy lifting will fall on the shoulders of AdGorilla.

“It’s about bringing our capability to their installed base,” Pizzurro said.

By working with the primary company focused on delivering dynamically inserted advertising to VOD programming on consumer devices in the home, AdGorilla can now offer the next level of advanced advertising solutions made possible by our Black Widow Spyder technology to the industry,” said AdGorilla EVP Lenny Melamedas, in a statement. “As we continue to expand our capabilities, presence and customer base, establishing this relationship with an industry leader reinforces our value to our client base.”

AdGorilla’s clients include Cross Mediaworks’ WizeBuys Network, MTA (Matanuska Telephone Association), DTV America Broadcasting, and ICAN (Iowa Cable Advertising Network), among others.