Web TV startup Brightcove executive Adam Gerber told media buyers and planners - who seem to have made up their minds that pre-roll is inferior to TV advertising - that pre-roll has positives that need to be focused on, reports MediaPost. He was speaking on a "New Channel for Content Distribution" panel at Media Magazine's Outfront conference Thursday. "We're not even in the first inning of broadband," Gerber said. "It's more like batting practice."

Referring to critics who consider pre-roll awkward and not yet mature, Allison Bodenmann, EVP of national sales of broadband services provider WorldNow, told the audience that "the tech will be there very soon".

"The general idea is that broadband deserves a much closer look by agencies than they gave cable originally," Gerber is quoted as saying. He said behavioral and contextual targeting technology is pre-roll's great hope. "The challenge is audience metrics," he said.