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What Color is Your Canoe? David Verklin Hopes His is Gold: Long-Awaited Interactive Cable TV Platform Finally Being Pitched to Advertisers

Sep 29, 2010  •  Post A Comment

Canoe Ventures’ first interactive TV product has finally arrived, MediaDailyNews reports.

According to the article, "Marketers can place overlays in spots that prompt viewers to click-through and request a coupon or sample. [Canoe CEO David] Verklin said Cablevision’s AMC and Comcast’s E! and Style are teed up to run the spots now, while the Discovery Channel and two NBC Universal cable channels are anticipated to be ready by year’s-end."

The story, by our friend, reporter David Goetzl, continues, "So far, the ‘request-for-information’ spots can only be delivered into some homes served by Time Warner Cable and Comcast. Verklin would not release the number, but it is likely no more than 15 million. Next year, Canoe aims to be able to stream spots into households served by TWC, Comcast, Cox, Cablevision, Charter and Bright House — all part owners of Canoe.  Networks license the technology and then sell it to advertisers. Canoe then shares in the proceeds of a deal."

Verklin started with Canoe in 2008.

Goetzl also spoke to Verklin: "If I had to do it all over again, I would’ve spent more time explaining the complications of the infrastructure challenges we faced," [Verklin told him, adding that] Canoe has data showing that the simple appearance of an overlay on screen during an ad raises brand recall — even if a viewer takes no action. "There’s value to an unclicked banner," he said.

2 Comments

  1. Oh great, yet another intrusive idea to help ruin the TV watching experience. I’m so glad I cut the cable.

  2. Found your site today through Google. Great blog you’ve got, bookmarked.

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