Canada-based media and broadcast company Corus Entertainment has formed an exclusive deal with Visible  World, the ad-tech company acquired by Comcast last year, that will enable programmatic advertising capabilities for linear TV services.

Corus, they said, is the first Canadian broadcaster to commit to bringing a more automated, data-driven programmatic-style to linear television, claiming it will enable advertisers to get higher returns on their TV ad buys.

For the rollout in Canada, the solution will use traditional Numeris ratings, as well as aggregate, anonymized data, and audience segmentation information.  

They said advertisers and media planners can use existing in-house demand-side platforms or connect into the Visible World system to plan, buy, and report on their campaigns.

Corus’s portfolio includes 45 specialty television services as well as 15 conventional TV stations.

“Through our Next Generation Advertising offering, we are delivering superior results to our advertisers by leveraging advancements in data and technology,” Greg McLelland, EVP and chief revenue officer at Corus, said in a statement “Bringing programmatic capabilities to television will not only streamline the buying process across platforms, it will also enable advertisers to gain new insights into audiences to optimize their media buy.”

³We are looking forward to the partnership with industry-leading broadcaster, Corus,² said Seth Haberman, Founder & CEO, Visible World.

“We believe the collaboration will help enhance ad sales efforts with data-driven insights and automation across the Canadian marketplace and further Comcast Platform Service¹s partnership with Corus,” added Visible World CEO Seth Haberman.

Comcast acquired New York-based Visible World and its programmatic TV subsidiary, AudienceXpress, last year.

Programmatic advertising is a small but growing piece of the TV ad pie. And it’s only going to get bigger.

“It’s not here today and gone tomorrow; it’s here for good,” David Kline, the new president and COO of ad tech company Visible World, told Mutichannel News in an interview. “There’s not an advertiser out there that doesn’t want to be able to target their audience more finitely.”

Given that as the set-up, it’s little surprise that expanding Visible World’s programmatic business is a top priority for Kline, a former Cablevision Systems and Ensequence exec who came on board soon after Comcast acquired Visible World.

But he’s pretty familiar with the company, as he helped to put together Visible World’s programmatic ad arm, AudienceXpress, as a consultant, and has been serving as a company director.

Kline said he’s now tasked with launching more products and getting Visible World’s programmatic business “super-charged, as we get more distributor partner and more advertiser partners.”

AudienceXpress, Kline said, is already working with several MVPDs, including Charter Communications, Comcast, Cablevision Systems and Cox Communications, and has a distribution footprint of about 75 million homes.

These days, the Visible World unit is buying inventory from them and using its programmatic platform to make more than they can selling ads locally, and “making those 30-second spots work harder.”

Kline acknowledges that programmatic represents a small piece of the broader landscape but it’s expanding rapidly. “We think we can be on the forefront of that growth,” he said.

As for next steps, the company is also developing software that will enable MVPDs, networks and local broadcasters sell their own inventory on a programmatic basis. 

Visible World, the Comcast-owned maker of targeted and programmatic advertising technology company, has appointed industry vet David Kline to the post of president and chief operating officer.

Kline joins Visible World more than a month after Comcast acquired the company, which counts Bright House Networks, Cablevision Systems, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Suddenlink and Time Warner Cable among its clients.

Kline most recently was COO at Ensequence, which introduced a distributor-agnostic interactive advertising platform for MVPDs, programmers and smart TV manufacturers in 2013. Prior to that, Kline was a long-time exec of Cablevision Media Sales, where he oversaw operations for Cablevision's advertising businesses, including local cable, interconnects, regional news channels, national cable networks, newspapers and introduced industry leading advanced advertising products and services.

Before going full-time with Visible World, Kline had been serving as a director of the company and consulted on several initiatives supporting MVPDs and their programmatic inventory sales, the company said. New York-based Visible World offers a programmatic TV platform via its AudienceXpress subsidiary.

"We are delighted that David has officially joined our team," Visible World CEO Seth Haberman said, in a statement. "Because of our shared forward-looking take on the space and his leadership, he has been a critical advisor to Visible World for some time. He joins us now, as we take the company to new heights in increasing the performance of TV ad inventory. Visible World has been a frontrunner in our industry -- and now we are taking the next step in our suite of products."

Comcast’s acquisition for Visible World came about a year after the operator  acquired online advertising specialist FreeWheel.

Bringing more advanced advertising capabilities in-house, Comcast has struck a deal to acquire Visible World, the New York-based maker of targeted ad systems and a programmatic TV platform via its AudienceXpress subsidiary.

The announcement, made Thursday in this blog post by Visible World CEO Seth Haberman, comes more than three months after The Wall Street Journalreported that Comcast and the vendor were in M&A talks.

Visible World’s partners include Comcast, Bright House Networks, Cablevision Systems, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Suddenlink and Time Warner Cable, among others. Cox Media and Suddenlink are among the known customers of AudienceXpress.

Comcast’s proposed acquisition for Visible World also comes about a year after Comcast  acquired online advertising specialist FreeWheel.

Financial terms of the Comcast-Visible World deal were not announced, but the MSO plans for Visible World to operate as an independent business.

Haberman said the deal will help to take the ad tech firm to the “next level.”

“As the industry continues to evolve and expand, we’ve also looked for new opportunities to change, expand, strengthen and position our business for future success,” Haberman wrote. “So today, I am thrilled to announce that we have found the perfect partner to help us achieve our goals and help us take our business and services to the next level: Visible World has signed an agreement to be acquired by Comcast.”

“Visible World is a dynamic company and a real complement to our existing advanced advertising initiatives,” added John Schanz, executive vice president and chief network officer for Comcast Cable. “Visible World offers a diverse spectrum of services that serve a variety of needs across the television advertising landscape. This partnership reflects the business and technology trends we are seeing in the television industry today. We look forward to helping the talented Visible World team expand and accelerate their business and create more value for distributors, advertisers, agencies, programmers and affiliates.”

Founded in 2000, Visible World has raised about $33 million, including a $25 million "C" round, according to CrunchBase. 

Advanced advertising company Visible World said it will use next week’s INTX show in Chicago to demo a household addressable TV ad application for a set-top running the Reference Design Kit (RDK), the preintegrated software stack for IP-capable set-top boxes and gateways.

Visible World, a company that’s rumored to be an acquisition target of Comcast, said the demo will show how the system can switch between video streams  in tandem with household-based addressable TV advertising. Visible World, an official noted, said the spots for the demo will be delivered via IP using the DOCSIS 3.0 model built into the RDK-based set-top. 

"RDK enables MVPDs to easily customize applications that can enhance viewer experience and serve as a powerful platform to accelerate the growth in deployment of Household Addressable TV Advertising,” Seth Haberman, founder and CEO of Visible  World, said in a statement. “Our new application makes TV advertising more relevant for viewers, as well as more valuable for advertisers and MVPDs."

“Visible World aims to leverage the advantages that the RDK provides in product development cycles and post-deployment in terms of speed to market and innovation,” added Gerrit Niemeijer, Visible World’s CTO.

RDK Management, a joint venture of Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global, announced earlier this week that more than 220 companies, including a group of 25 made up of cable operators, telcos and satellite TV service providers, have licensed the Reference Design Kit. Those licensees also include a mix of CE manufacturers, chipmakers, software developers, and system integrators.

Comcast is in talks to acquire Visible World, a maker of targeted advertising systems and a player in the white-hot programmatic TV sector, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing unnamed sources. 

Comcast and Visible World were not immediately available for comment, but the paper noted that a deal isn’t imminent and the discussions could instead lead to a deeper relationship between the two companies. 

While an acquisition of Visible World would give Comcast direct access to key targeted/addressable advertising technologies aimed primarily at set-top boxes, the company’s AudienceXpress subsidiary is focused on programmatic TV systems that bring digital-like automation to the advertising sales process.

Visible World’s partners include Comcast, Bright House Networks, Cablevision Systems, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Suddenlink and Time Warner Cable, among others. Cox Media and Suddenlink are among the known customers of its AudienceXpress subsidiary. 

Comcast Ventures is also one of the investors in privately held Visible World.

Comcast has already signaled its interest in owning Web-style advertising companies and technologies. Last year, the MSO acquired online advertising specialist FreeWheel, which just issued a report showing that TV Everywhere advertising jumped significantly in the fourth quarter of 2014. 

Developing… 

Video industry vet Michael Malcy has been named senior vice president, business development at Visible World, a New York-based company that specializes in targeted TV advertising technology and offers a programmatic TV ad platform through its AudienceXpress subsidiary. 

Malcy most recently served in a similar role at video software specialist Alticast, where he handled business development, marketing and business affairs. Before that, he was an exec with set-top maker ADB Americas and at Vidiom Systems. He is also late of Samsung Electronic Product Innovation Lab, where he helped to introduce the company’s HDTV, MP-3 and cable industry products, and of Sharp Laboratories of America.

“Michael brings a wealth of experience in the cable, satellite, and broadcast fields,” said Scott Falconer, Visible World's COO, in a statement. “His background provides him with a unique perspective on the needs of the industry.”

“Visible World is perfectly situated to lead the growth in programmatic and Smart TV and I look forward to helping bring their solutions to the market,” Malcy added.