Canoe runs aground
February 23, 2012
By Colin Mann
Canoe Ventures, the advanced television joint venture of the US’s leading cable companies, is shutting down the bulk of the venture that lets viewers interact with TV ads, laying off 120 employees. It will shift its operation from New York to Denver, where it will concentrate its resources and efforts solely on video-on-demand advertising.
In a statement, newly-appointed Canoe Ventures CEO Joel Hassell said the operation was evolving to focus its business on providing a platform for MSOs and national programmers to monetise on-demand content across multiple platforms-both video-on-demand inside the home, and TV Everywhere outside the home. “This is in line with Canoe’s founders’ original vision which is to make cable television households the most attractive platform for advanced advertising. It also aligns with the priorities of Canoe’s direct clients – national programmers,”
Hassell said Canoe’s new focus would be on giving programmers the ability dynamically to insert advertising into on-demand TV in a common way nationwide, by expanding its current technical platform and operations to facilitate advertising between many programmers and distributors.
“As we establish our on-demand business, we’ll make it easy for national programmers to work with us, and easy for our MSO partners to deliver relevant and timely ads. Once we establish the market for dynamic ad insertion within cable’s VOD platform, our vision is to offer more robust reporting and data insights, introduce addressable dynamic ad insertion, and support dynamic ad insertion across a wide array of devices both inside and outside the home,” he revealed.
“To succeed, we must prioritise and focus our resources. Therefore, Canoe will conclude its national interactive TV initiatives. Cable’s ITV business will continue through the ad sales teams and video business units at the individual MSOs, as they pursue business opportunities with these capabilities within their own footprints,” he advised.
“Each of the founding MSOs continue their support for Canoe, and are committed to our new mission. We look forward to continuing to serve the industry by making dynamic advertising for on-demand a valuable reality,” he confirmed.
Canoe was set up by Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications, Cablevision Systems and Bright House Networks.