Canoe today announced that it is exiting the interactive TV advertising business and laying off 120 employees. It will shift its operation from New York to Denver, where it will concentrate its resources and efforts solely on video-on-demand advertising.
Newly appointed Canoe Ventures CEO Joel Hassell released the following statement, describing the company's direction and thanking employees for their dedication:
"Today, Canoe Ventures is evolving to focus its business on providing a platform for MSOs and national programmers to monetize on-demand content across multiple platforms-both video-on-demand inside the home, and TV Everywhere outside the home. This is in line with Canoe's founders' original vision which is to make cable television households the most attractive platform for advanced advertising. It also aligns with the priorities of Canoe's direct clients -- national programmers.
"To make on-demand ad inventory as valuable as traditional broadcast (linear) or online inventory, the industry needs a standard, ubiquitous way to steward and monetize on-demand advertising. Canoe is committed to making this happen. Our new focus will be on giving programmers the ability to dynamically insert advertising into on-demand TV in a common way nationwide, by expanding our current technical platform and operations to facilitate advertising between many programmers and distributors.
"As we establish our on-demand business, we'll make it easy for national programmers to work with us, and easy for our MSO partners to deliver relevant and timely ads. Once we establish the market for dynamic ad insertion within cable's VOD platform, our vision is to offer more robust reporting and data insights, introduce addressable dynamic ad insertion, and support dynamic ad insertion across a wide array of devices both inside and outside the home.
"To succeed, we must prioritize and focus our resources. Therefore, Canoe will conclude its national interactive TV initiatives. Cable's ITV business will continue through the ad sales teams and video business units at the individual MSOs, as they pursue business opportunities with these capabilities within their own footprints.
"We thank all of our dedicated employees, programming partners, vendors, and other supporters, as well as pioneering national advertisers and their agencies for their work with Canoe and the industry. In particular, the members of the joint venture thank Kathy Timko for her outstanding leadership during her tenure.
"Each of the founding MSOs continue their support for Canoe, and are committed to our new mission. We look forward to continuing to serve the industry by making dynamic advertising for on-demand a valuable reality."
