BlackArrow Provides VOD Ad Insertion Technology for Comcast On Demand Service

BlackArrow, a leading worldwide provider of advanced advertising solutions for New Television platforms, announced that its video-on-demand (VOD) ad insertion platform has gone live in Jacksonville, Florida with Comcast Corporation, the nation’s leading provider of entertainment, information and communication products and services. Comcast has chosen BlackArrow’s Advanced Advertising System to lead its ad insertion technology for its On Demand programming.

BlackArrow’s Advanced Advertising System gives programmers and cable operators a real-time, multiplatform campaign management and decision system for offering more timely and relevant ads in their On Demand sessions. Traditionally, advertising campaigns in video-on-demand content have had limited effectiveness due to the static nature of the ads being encoded directly into the VOD stream. In the Jacksonville market, Comcast is inserting standard 15- and 30-second promotional spots as well as newly introduced 20-second spots designed to drive tune-in for upcoming shows and specials on PBS KIDS Sprout and FEARnet in a dynamic environment.

Diana Kerekes, vice president of Video Content for Comcast, said, “The ability to update VOD advertising will help us offer feature parity with traditional linear and Internet-based advertising systems. We’re pleased to be working with a technology leader like BlackArrow as we look for ways to offer our programming partners expanded opportunities to monetize their content offerings.”

“Comcast has led the industry in creating new opportunities to reach consumers in the on-demand marketplace, and we’re excited to be working with them,” said Dean Denhart, chief executive officer, BlackArrow. “By combining BlackArrow’s expertise in advanced VOD advertising platforms with Comcast’s VOD leadership, we hope to expand the business model significantly for on-demand advertising.”

Wowza Media Systems Nominated for the Third Consecutive Year in Streaming Media's Readers' Choice Awards

Wowza Media Systems, the media server software company, announced that the company has been selected as a nominee in two categories in this year's Streaming Media's Readers' Choice Award. The Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced is in the running for the Best Streaming Innovation category which is designed to acknowledge a product, technology, or service that most changed the streaming landscape in the past year. In addition, Wowza will once again be competing in the Best Server Hardware/Software category, which the company won last year.

This is the third consecutive year that Wowza received nominations for Streaming Media's prestigious Readers' Choice Awards. In 2007, as an upstart, Wowza won recognition against Adobe and Microsoft. In 2008, the company received the title Best Server Hardware/Software and was a finalist in the Best Streaming Radio Solution category.

"The ongoing recognition by the Streaming Media community is a reflection of our focus and our ability to consistently deliver high-performance software," said Dave Stubenvoll, CEO and Co-Founder, Wowza Media Systems. "These awards are particularly meaningful because the voters represent the professionals that are using these products to stay ahead of the curve in the business of online video and audio. We are looking forward to the announcement of the winners at Streaming Media West in November."

Voting for the awards is now open at www.streamingmedia.com/readerschoice/ and will remain open until October 16. The finalists in each category will be announced on October 23, 2009 and the winners will be revealed at Streaming Media West on November 19, 2009. For more information on the awards and the categories, visit www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=11372.