News Releases
BigBand Networks Unveils Capabilities to Target Advertising And Programming By Switching Digital Video
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April 9, 2006
NCTA NATIONAL SHOW, ATLANTA - BigBand Networks, Inc., a leading provider of broadband multimedia infrastructure for video, voice and data, today announced that it will highlight the potential for cable operators to precisely target advertising and other content at the National Show of the NCTA (National Cable & Telecommunications Association). These capabilities are based on technologies designed to switch digital video in order to assure that groups of subscribers or even specific subscribers view the content most relevant to their interests. At the National Show, relevant papers developed by BigBand Networks entitled "Individually Targeted Advertising In A Switched Services Environment" and "Switched Unicast: It's Not Just About Capacity" are being presented, and the company is demonstrating targeted advertising based on switched broadcast at its booth, #2252.
Local advertising is a multi-billion dollar annual business for the cable industry. Over the last several years, local insertion into digital programming has become increasingly geographically precise through zoning. With targeting, different subscribers within the same zone watching the same program could receive different advertisements based on their demographics or other relevant factors. This would be achieved by individually directed streams with switched broadcast, or techniques in which subscribers' set-top boxes dynamically tune to different digital streams or frequency channels at moments of ad insertion. Switched broadcast may also play an important role in the latter case by freeing sufficient capacity to accommodate the inserted advertisements.
"BigBand Networks has pioneered the switching of digital video in close collaboration with the cable industry with benefits of improved bandwidth efficiency, expanded program offerings and enhanced operator control," said Ran Oz, CTO of BigBand Networks. "Our unveiling of targeted advertising capabilities that leverage switched digital video technologies could empower cable operators with new benefits such as broader 'Long Tail' participation in targeted advertising, making this a notable next step in the BigBand Networks track record of providing the cable industry with valuable and innovative technologies at the right time."
BigBand Networks is demonstrating switched broadcast used to target advertising according to subscriber demographics at its booth. In this demonstration, multiple set-top boxes receiving the same program display different advertisements during a particular time slot. Because each set-top box may receive its own stream, ads could be specifically selected for each recipient, or for particular refined groups of recipients. Fundamental to enabling the insertion of multiple simultaneous advertisements with targeting is the fact that switched broadcast is designed to enhance bandwidth efficiency, as has been established in multiple deployments completed to date by BigBand Networks.
In a practical example of how targeted advertising could work, a viewer changing to a cooking program after a significant amount of time watching sports might receive an ad about an upcoming local sporting event. This is based on the subscriber likely being a sports fan, even when watching something different. Recent studies reveal that subscribers are more inclined to view ads that interest them, while advertisers are willing to pay more to address targeted audiences likely to generate better response rates. Large advertisers could leverage this technique to insert multiple ads catering to different demographics within a time slot. The practice also has potential to open participation to new advertisers interested in economically addressing smaller or more dispersed audiences, based on the "Long Tail" premise of large cumulative demand aggregated across refined niches of offerings.
BigBand Networks provides several platforms with capabilities relevant to targeted advertising. The BigBand BMRŽ (Broadband Multimedia-Service Router) is designed to perform digital ad splicing based on the SCTE-30 and SCTE-35 insertion standards. The BigBand BMEŽ (Broadband Multimedia-Service Edge) is designed to perform multicasting and QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) as one of several components the company provides which may be used in switched broadcast deployments.
On Sunday April 9 at 3:00 PM in room B407 of the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Time Warner Cable principal architect Steve Riedl will present a white paper entitled "Individually Targeted Advertising In A Switched Services Environment" which was co-authored by BigBand Networks. The company will also present its white paper "Switched Unicast: It's Not Just About Capacity", which includes considerations of how this technology applies to targeted advertising, in the same session. BigBand Networks' demonstration of switched unicast with targeted addressable advertising can be viewed at booth #2252 of the National Show exhibition area from Sunday April 9 through Tuesday April 11.
About BigBand Networks
BigBand Networks, Inc. is a leading provider of broadband multimedia infrastructure for video, voice and data. The company's solutions are designed to process, optimize, and deliver services such as broadband Internet, VoIP, digital broadcast television, HDTV, transport of high quality video, local advertising, VOD, interactive TV and IPTV through any network. Service providers use BigBand Networks' platforms in efforts to cost-effectively expand revenue-generating offerings of rich content and advanced interactive services. Customers include cable operators, U.S. telecommunications companies, as well as leading service providers in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Founded in 1998, BigBand Networks is based in Redwood City, Calif., with offices worldwide. For more information, please call 650-995-5000, email info@bigbandnet.com or visit www.bigbandnet.com.