--Technology Powering 3,000 Interactive TV Ads per Week
Backchannelmedia--a Boston-based company which late last year announced that it had received an investment of $3 million, bringing the total raised by its initial funding round to $9.5 million--says that WCVB-TV/DT Channel 5, Hearst-Argyle's digital ABC affiliate in Boston, has now begun its previously announced trial of Backchannelmedia's TV-to-Internet click-through system. The trial will last 12 months and will involve up to 1,000 viewers equipped with TV sets or set-top boxes loaded with Backchannelmedia software. "Today we are happy to say WCVB-TV 5 ABC Hearst-Argyle is now streaming up to 3,000 interactive ads a week over the digital spectrum," Backchannelmedia co-founder and VP of sales, Damon Hunt, wrote in an email to [itvt]. "Developing an interactive content and advertising system for the over-the-air spectrum was challenging. The Backchannelmedia system will work in cable and satellite, however, we felt it important to develop a solution for the free over-the-air market as well."
Backchannelmedia bills its software as allowing viewers watching a live or DVR-recorded show to use their remote controls to "bookmark" or transfer information in ads or programming to a personal and customizable Internet homepage--without interrupting their viewing experience--and then order products featured in those ads or programming using their favorite ecommerce sites. The company describes the solution as using the Internet as a backend. In materials on its Web site, Backchannelmedia describes how its solution might be used: "a viewer could see a popular recording artist perform on television and then through one click of their remote control could either bookmark the CD in Amazon or immediately download the song from a digital music site, thus capturing the value of the transaction for all parties to enjoy." Backchannelmedia says that the solution--which it has been developing for the past 10 years--will also allow advertisers to "know who is responding to their advertising dollars and broadcasts, precisely who is shopping from their Web sites, based on television exposure, and immediately improve upon campaigns, and link advertisers' traditional and digital advertising budgets forever."
