IP Democracy: Hyper-Local Video Ads and TV Shows

Richard Siklos has this interesting piece in today’s New York Times that follows on Google’s deal to buy dMarc Advertising. Siklos looks at two companies that, like Google and dMarc, are looking to make advertising and sales more efficient and targeted…only these companies are focused on video.

The first is Decisionmark, the software and logisitics company that helps DBS providers route local broadcast TV signals to the right local satellite viewers, narrowing the geographic reach of any station’s satellite audience. Decisionmark has a system that can do the same thing online.

But Decisionmark is dangling the prospect of having local TV affiliates do the per-program sales of hit shows such as “CSI” instead of letting Google and Apple reap all the benefits.

“The next thing that we’re all buzzing about is this concept of selling programming to people over the Internet,” said Mr. Goodmon [Capitol Broadcasting’s Jim Goodmon], whose flagship station, WRAL, is the CBS affiliate in Raleigh. “If CBS wants to sell ‘CSI,’ we would like to be able to sell it for them - in partnership with them - on our Web site. I think we’re in the best position to sell and promote that material on behalf of the network.”

The other company Siklos spotlights is only two weeks old — SpotRunner, founded by Nick Grouf and David Waxman, who were the co-founders of PeoplePC and Firefly Network. Firefly has developed a system that allows advertisers to buy cable TV ad spots for as little as $500, opening up the TV advertising world to small businesses, in much the same way Google opened up the web ad world.

It may not be Madison Avenue quality, but it puts you on the tube. And once a business signs up to use a particular ad in a market, it has exclusive use of it for the duration of the campaign. Spot Runner charges $350 to create and place the ad, and Mr. Grouf says the cost of time in some markets is less than small-business owners may think - as little as a few dollars a spot.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on January 22, 2006 1:02 AM to IP Democracy