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.”

RipCode and CSS Strike China Distribution Partnership for Transactional Transcoding

RipCode, Inc., the leader in transactional video transcoding, announced a distribution alliance with Century Sage Scientific (CSS), a premier reseller and systems integrator of broadcast, Internet, and streaming technologies to the Chinese media and telecommunications markets.

As a certified systems integrator to some of the world’s largest broadcast and telecom equipment manufacturers and operators, CSS has a proven track record of delivering fully integrated, turnkey systems for IPTV, Web, and communications applications. Recent CSS projects include large-scale deployments for CCTV, Shenzen Media Group, and the upcoming master-control build-out for the 11th National Games in the People’s Republic of China. RipCode’s transactional transcoding technology expands the CSS portfolio for broadcast, broadband and 3G mobile services, while also providing cost-effective options for Internet delivery of educational and other entertainment content.

China’s broadcast and mobile communications market has unique requirements and regulations relative to other geographical regions. The number of mobile users is expected to surpass 1.2 billion within four years, leading to a growing appetite for quality content over broadband and wireless connections. “Given the sheer number and model variance of devices, optimizing transmission and encoding recipes for local browsers and mobile handsets is both a significant undertaking and opportunity for a value-added service,” says Alex So, CSS vice president of marketing. “In order to best serve the local market, CSS and RipCode have already begun joint testing and development to ensure smooth adoption of RipCode transcoding technology in China. RipCode’s solution portfolio provides leading transcoding technology – but goes beyond what we’ve seen from traditional vendors by also addressing on-demand ad insertion, client detection, and policy-based bandwidth optimization – key factors in our selection of RipCode for the China market.”

“We are seeing increasing interest and demand in China – not only for three-screen content delivery – but also in the innovation RipCode delivers through its end-to-end transactional transcoding solution approach,” says Greg Lowitz, RipCode executive vice president of sales. “CSS represents the top brands in the broadcast and communications business, and we’re thrilled to be part of their solution portfolio for the Chinese media and telecommunication markets.”