Video on demand and advertising on demand for Sky

It appears that Sky are rolling out targeted advertising on its online video platform, Sky Player.

According to New Media age,

Sky AdSmart will target subscribers with pre- and mid-roll ads around on-demand content based on their postcode, TV package and information from third parties

,adding that

In an email to subscribers sent today, Sky read, “In future, the advertising you see on Sky Player may be better tailored to your interests. The new system, which is called Sky AdSmart, uses customer information to replace some general adverts with ones which we believe to be more relevant to viewers’ potential preferences and interests.”

Before we herald the death of TV advertising..........

The much trumpeted statistic that online advertising has now surpassed that of television comes as no real surprise.

The report by Price Waterhouse Coopers for the Internet Advertising Bureau shows that online advertising rose to 23.5 per cent of the total market in the first half of this year, while TV was on 21.9 per cent.

But before we all start ringing the death knell of the tradition forms,it may be a good idea to step back.

As the FT points out in this comment piece

Online marketing is still at the utilitarian end of the ad spectrum. It is better at helping consumers satisfy needs they have already identified than persuading them to buy products that they had not previously thought – perhaps rightly – that they needed. If internet advertising is to capture the 30 per cent market share that its most fervent supporters believe could be in its grasp, then it needs to capture more high-profile campaigns and attract a greater share of consumer brand marketing.

There are also two rather looming issues as the piece continues

1. continuing pressure on UK TV advertising sharpens questions about how to pay for public service broadcasting beyond the BBC.

2.Privacy-Being able to tailor web adverts to users’ preferences, based on individual browsing patterns, is part of the internet’s appeal for advertisers. Some online users will readily trade privacy for the convenience of avoiding irrelevant advertising. But others may feel uncomfortable that this information is collected and sold.

Raymond Snoddy also has some issues.(via Michael Taylor).

In this piece at MediaTel he argues that although it is

a symbolic moment. Television has been beaten into second place after nearly fifty years by a medium that could scarcely be glimpsed on the horizon a decade ago

he points out that

online search and comparison sites scramble over each other to advertise on network television. Presumably they must all believe in the effectiveness of television advertising.

The inverse advertising scenario

Fascinating survey by Tivo which finds that the most popular television programs had the least-watched commercials.

The New York Times reports that

The company said that nearly all of the television shows that won 2009 Emmys showed higher levels of ad-skipping than the averages for their respective genres

Todd Juenger, TiVo’s vice president for audience research and measurement, suggested that people watching hit shows were likelier to skip ads because they were more wrapped up in the show than other viewer

Presumably then the worst programmes have th most watched?