--Meanwhile, Comcast Spotlight to Offer New Cross-Platform Marketing Opportunities for VOD
Comcast Media Center (CMC) announced Tuesday that its national video-on-demand platform--which it says every day delivers more than 9,000 VOD assets from over 275 content providers to over 90% of the US's top cable MSO's and over 30-million VOD households--is now offering a "C3 VOD" service for delivering TV programming that can be counted in time-shifted mode, using The Nielsen Company's C3 commercial ratings. C3 ratings are billed as measuring average commercial minutes in programs that were viewed live and timeshifted through VOD or DVR playback in the three days following a linear broadcast. CMC also said that three TV networks, including AMC, are planning to use the new service. "Buyers and sellers of television advertising need clear information on how consumers watch timeshifted television," Nielsen's SVP of media product leadership, Scott Brown, said in a prepared statement. "Nielsen has measured VOD since 2006, and we're thrilled that Comcast Media Center has joined the effort to provide the media and advertising community with what it requires."
According to CMC, the new C3 VOD service uses the company's rapid-turn capabilities to acquire linear TV programs during their original broadcast; provide real-time encoding of each program, including its original advertising; and incorporate the profiles for C3 commercial ratings provided by Nielsen. The VOD-encoded programs are then delivered to local cable systems for timeshifted viewing within hours of their original broadcast, the company says. According to CMC, its rapid-turn capabilities for on-demand programming are powered by its Content Distribution Operations Center (CDOC) ingest service, which it says features full national fiber and satellite arc capabilities and managed over 5,000 live event feeds last year, including direct feeds from linear TV networks that used its rapid-turnaround service for timeshifted VOD programming.
CMC also announced Tuesday that Comcast's advertising sales arm, Comcast Spotlight, recognizing the growing usage of timeshifting technologies and the need for programmers and advertisers to get accurate audience estimates, will offer a suite of cross-platform marketing opportunities to TV programmers looking to drive awareness and viewing of their VOD content. These opportunities will include banner ads on Comcast's iGuide, the EPG it co-developed with Macrovision: according to CMC, these ads will allow viewers to use their remotes to telescope directly to linear and on-demand programming. In addition, "tune-in" spots will be available on linear channels promoting awareness of the programs and helping drive further VOD viewership, CMC says. "As more and more consumers shift their viewing, it is important for us and for our advertising clients to know who they reached and when," Chip Meehan, Comcast Spotlight's VP of advanced advertising sales, said in a prepared statement. "Working with CMC and with Nielsen to quickly watermark assets we hope to make that possible."
Nielsen bills its C3 TV ratings as measuring the average commercial minutes in a program that was viewed live and timeshifted through VOD or DVR playback in the three days following a linear broadcast. Commercial C3 ratings allow TV networks to monetize the VOD audience, Nielsen claims, by aggregating it with linear viewing in a metric known to advertisers. CMC says it will replace original advertising containing Nielsen profile data at the discretion of participating programming networks and their cable affiliates. "Nielsen's affirmation of our ability to help support its on-demand audience measurement systems is a tremendous benefit for our content services customers and cable MSO affiliates," CMC COO, Gary Traver, said in a prepared statement. "By demonstrating the value of advertising that accompanies VOD programming, television networks and other content providers can measure the value of their investment in on-demand television programming. Moreover, these audience measurement tools will complement the ability of ETV applications and promotional capabilities, including the services that Comcast Spotlight is providing, to help drive additional audience demand for linear shows that are also available in local VOD libraries."
