SkyLife, Kudelski in advanced advertising JV
January 19, 2011
Korean satellite and hybrid services operator SkyLife and digital security and convergent media solutions specialist the Kudelski Group have agreed to form a joint venture to develop Advanced Advertising solutions, enabling operators to offer and monetise addressable and interactive advertising.
The pair say that this will enable TV advertising to become more relevant and interesting, therefore more profitable, as ads will be both interactive and specifically addressed to households.
Based on existing Kudelski Group technologies and know-how, the Joint Venture company will develop an Advanced Advertising solution, which SkyLife will deploy to its entire subscriber base. As part of the solution, each SkyLife set-top box will have reserved hard disk space for advertising features, addressable commercials and interactive ads. The Joint Venture company will market this hard disk space in Korea and enable advertisers, agencies and broadcasters to deploy advanced advertising on the SkyLife STB footprint and subscribers base.
After successful introduction of the Advanced Advertising solution in the Korean market, the Joint Venture company will promote the solution internationally.
Andre Kudelski, Chairman and CEO of the Kudelski Group, said that Korea was once again the world test bed for a new technology solution and an innovative business model. “Deploying first our joint Advanced Advertising solutions over SkyLife’s 3.5 million households in Korea will be a major step to develop and refine these advanced technologies and business before launching world-wide,” he added.
“Together with subscription, advertising is the lifeline of our industry,” noted MR Lee, CEO of SkyLife. “Developing our presence in this area is considered as a strong growth factor for SkyLife. Our mission is to allow our subscribers to receive more interesting and relevant ads and to enable the industry to make a more profitable use of their ad investmen,” he said.