(30 March 2009 8:00 pm)

MUMBAI: SeaChange International and Sigma Systems in the US have announced a partnership aimed at removing one of the remaining technical hurdles to the widespread use of on-demand cable television for targeted advertising.

Chief among their initial goals for enabling targeted ad delivery in accordance with SCTE 130 Part 6 guidelines, the companies will allow ad insertion systems to source subscriber information databases for making ad placement decisions on the fly.

SeaChange, which works in the area of cable advertising and on-demand systems, and Sigma, which offers advanced IP service fulfillment solutions, are looking to bridge the communication gap between subscriber information databases and the mechanics of dynamic ad insertion.

Ultimately, the companies aim to ensure that real-time ad targeting decisions for pre-roll, post-roll and interior break insertions will take full advantage of SCTE 130-compliant aggregated geographic, demographic and audience tracking data by establishing interoperability between SeaChange’s AdPulse On Demand software and the Sigma Subscriber Information Service (SIS). The integrated solution will be demonstrated for the first time in June at the CableLabs®’ SCTE 130 Interop.

SeaChange VP product marketing Alan Hoff says, "The advanced cable advertising ecosystem of disparate vendors and products needs a direct connection to the available intelligence about viewers to finally deliver the value of on-demand television.

"Leveraging standards in our product design is one step. Another is embodied by our collaboration with Sigma, which is one of many strategic alignments SeaChange is creating to bring ad ecosystems to their full potential so advertisers can capitalize on the cable industry’s unique connection to 40 million North American VOD homes."

Sigma Systems VP product management Rick Mallon says, "Sigma Systems has taken a leading role in building an advanced advertising ecosystem for communications service providers by bringing together best-in-breed, SCTE 130-compliant vendors and solutions, such as SeaChange and its AdPulse On Demand.

"Our Subscriber Information Service provides audience qualification, a key component advertisers need to better target viewers. With SeaChange, we are looking to accelerate on-demand TV advertising"

Deployed around the world, SeaChange AdPulse On Demand delivers revenues with on-the-fly, real-time insertion of ads anywhere within on-demand program streams, including on-demand video games and DVDs, taking full advantage of SCTE 35 descriptors. Making ads independent of the content in which they run allows each to be trafficked separately, at long last reducing lead times for ad copy and enabling ad rotation, targeting and message refresh throughout a campaign.

Sigma’s service fulfillment solutions are deployed with MSOs with more than 100 million IP services under management, including broadband, digital TV, VOD, wireless, and residential and business VoIP. Its SIS provides a federated view of subscribers including demographic data, services usage and behavioral information for identifying unique audience qualifiers. SIS is a critical component for any communications service provider’s advanced ad solution.