Marketers are hopeful they will get new insights into online ads as TV Everywhere initiatives such as the rollout of Comcast's on-demand, streaming TV service, Fancast Xfinity TV get underway.
Xfinity contains 2,000 plus hours of content, and includes shows - indeed, entire seasons of shows - from content partners including HBO, Cinemax, Starz, TNS, TNT, A&E, AMC, Discovery Channel, History, and BBC America. Comcast also plans to roll Xfinity out to mobile devices next year, the company said.
It is the biggest step so far in the cable industry’s TV Everywhere initiative, which hopes to keep the cable TV model viable and profitable as viewers increasingly move to the web to watch free programming, writes MediaBuyerPlanner.
Ad Strategy Still Forming
Its ad strategy, though, is still a work in progress with the big question - how many ads will customers be willing to view on the web - as yet unanswered. Conventional wisdom in the TV industry is that web users will be less receptive to viewing the same number of ads that air during a regular television show, Reuters reports.
Some networks are experimenting with abbreviated ad load that have an ad before and after the program. Others are testing a full ad load, similar to what is on television. Comcast and the networks are also working with Nielsen's Commercial Ratings system, or "C3," to make sure its on-demand video offerings can be measured using the C3 system.
Pure VOD
Eventually the industry will develop a business model that works in the pure VOD [video on demand] environment - whether it's VOD based on a package of services like TV Everywhere, or an a la carte version, which hasn't worked so far, according to Harry DeMott, a long-time media analyst who now runs the venture capital firm Riva Ridge Ventures.
"They're not going to get the same dollars they've gotten for television advertising on the Internet anytime soon," he said (via MarketWatch). "But sooner or later, the advertising will get more targeted. When you can aggregate the same sized-audience, and actually know who they are."
