Soon Cablevision customers will be able to interact with the advertisements streamed into their TV sets. With the launch of its Optimum Select service, subscribers will be able to use the "Select" button on their remote control and click on banners at the bottom of their screens to get a free sample of a product or to access longer form content. Cablevision, which will make the service available to 3 million of its digital TV subscribers, is one of the first U.S. cable MSOs to launch interactive advertising.
Cable's interactive advertising efforts, however, have been less than stellar. After Cablevision joined up with five of its cable brothers last year to create Canoe Ventures to launch a nationwide interactive push, privacy issues and dealing with older set-top boxes drove Canoe to delay trials of its product in June.
Cablevision, which began testing interactive advertising in March, has taken the lead in the interactive advertising market. Already the service has attracted paint company Benjamin Moore as an initial advertiser. Through the new interactive advertising feature, users will be able to press the select button and get a free color sample.
Meanwhile, fellow cable operators Comcast and Time Warner are trialing and introducing new advertising features. Time Warner Cable in April launched its "promotions on demand" offering which enables customers to click on an ad and then be routed to an on-demand channel related to the advertised product.
For more:
- Bloomberg has this article
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