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Six of the nation's largest cable companies have joined in a venture to give advertisers more options and increased reach, reports The New York Times.

Comcast, Cox, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Charter and Bright House have come together under what has been dubbed Project Canoe. The goal of the new entity is to deliver targeted, customized ads to cable subscribers in a manner similar to the targeted online advertising.

Interactive ads, which advertisers have sought from cable operators, will also be a focus of Project Canoe.

The six companies sunk a combined $150 million in Project Canoe to build a national ad network across their systems. This may allow them to expand beyond the local ad market they are largely confined to, tapping into national ad campaign dollars.

Project Canoe came about after General Motors and Procter & Gamble pushed cable providers to build a unified network that addresses their national ad placement needs.

In January, ISPs expressed public interest in investing in online advertising, a market that is expected to grow to $50 billion by 2012 in the US alone.