-- Interactive TV Vendor Touts Rollout as Model for Cable-Broadcast Cooperation
Billing it as a model for the way local cable operators can team up with broadcasters on interactive advertising and programming, BCM landed the first deployment of its new Onyx enhanced TV platform in Montomery, Ala.
Local NBC affiliate WSFA-TV and Fox affiliate WCOV-TV are using BCM's Onyx MetaCast and Onyx Vantage products to deliver interactive programming and advertising to subscribers of local cable operator Knology Inc. The local advertisers using the platform to create RFI ads include a Hardee's franchise.
"We brought a broadcaster and a cable operator together in a way that has never been done before," said BCM VP of marketing Eric Martin.
Knology had already deployed a "Clickable TV" app from BCM, which allows subscribers to create bookmarks from TV programming and ads that can be forwarded to a personal Web portal or to their email accounts.
As Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, and other major MSOs expand the number of homes capable of receiving EBIF-based interactive programming and advertising, look for BCM to use data gleaned from the Montgomery rollout to pitch deals with larger broadcasters and cable operators.
