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January 06, 2011, 12:39 AM EST
By Douglas MacMillan and Cliff Edwards
(For Consumer Electronics Show stories, go to {EXT5 }.)
Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Yahoo! Inc. is staking a claim in interactive advertising, a market projected to boom as televisions and set-top boxes offer Web connections.
Yahoo is working with CBS Corp., owner of the most-watched U.S. broadcast network, and home-shopping retailer HSN Inc. to add interactive features to live broadcasts aired on sets with Yahoo’s Connected TV software, said Russ Schafer, director of product marketing for the Connected TV group.
The company, which began promoting TVs with its Web software in 2009, is vying with an increasing number of rivals, including Google Inc. and Apple Inc., for customers in their living rooms. The new features, called Broadcast Interactivity, let viewers click buttons to learn more about an actor or a program, or buy items they see while watching live shows, Yahoo said yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
“The key feature is to sense what you’re watching and provide interactive content through a very subtle prompt,” Schafer said. “It’s the truly interactive TV we’ve been talking about for years.”
Sales of targeted display advertising -- ads delivered through the Web -- will grow almost 60 percent this year to $10.9 billion, according to research firm Borrell Associates.
Targeted advertising sales for broadcast, cable and satellite TV reached about $750 million in 2010, the first year it was tracked, said Larry Shaw, vice president of research at Williamsburg, Virginia-based Borrell.
“We expect it to grow significantly,” Shaw said. “By 2015, we’re predicting that targeted advertising is going to dwarf standard display advertising.”
Shopping With Remote
Viewers of CBS’s Showtime Boxing will be able to retrieve information about athletes during live matches and participate in surveys about which fighter they think will win. People watching HSN can purchase discounted items featured on the channel by clicking their remotes.
TiVo Inc. and other makers of digital-video recorders, which can fast-forward through commercials, have forced advertisers to explore new ways to reach their target audience.
By tying advertising more closely to what a user is watching, personalized recommendations and ads become more relevant, Yahoo’s Schafer said. That makes consumers more likely to opt in for more information and provide marketers with their personal information, or to watch longer-form video spots, he said.
Rovi Library
Along with Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo, Rovi Corp., which makes interactive-programming guides for cable and satellite providers, stands to benefit as a middleman offering software for millions of Web-connected TVs and set-top boxes.
Rovi, in nearby Santa Clara, plans to use its library of more than 6 million catalogued pieces of music, movies and other media to let advertisers recommend products based on what a consumer is watching, the company said today at CES.
“Partners can query our website to get just the one piece of information they need,” said Richard Bullwinkle, Rovi’s chief evangelist. “You can say, ‘just give us information about this artist someone is listening to today so we can recommend they buy something similar.’”
Rovi would take a percentage of revenue from such services, Bullwinkle said.
Last year, Google began working with TV manufacturers to include Web services on some sets, while Apple released a new version of its Apple TV product that connects to televisions.
The new Yahoo features will be offered on TV sets made by Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. and set-top box devices made by D- Link Corp. and Haier Electronics Group Co., Yahoo said.
Yahoo rose 32 cents to $16.91 yesterday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock was little changed last year. Rovi, which almost doubled last year, gained $1.63 to $65.66 yesterday.
--Editors: Lisa Wolfson, Jillian Ward
To contact the reporters on this story: Douglas MacMillan in San Francisco at dmacmillan3@bloomberg.net; Cliff Edwards in San Francisco at cedwards28@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
Online Business Consulting | Internet Business Consulting
(For Consumer Electronics Show stories, go to {EXT5 }.)
Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Yahoo! Inc. is staking a claim in interactive advertising, a market projected to boom as televisions and set-top boxes offer Web connections.
Yahoo is working with CBS Corp., owner of the most-watched U.S. broadcast network, and home-shopping retailer HSN Inc. to add interactive features to live broadcasts aired on sets with Yahoo’s Connected TV software, said Russ Schafer, director of product marketing for the Connected TV group.
The company, which began promoting TVs with its Web software in 2009, is vying with an increasing number of rivals, including Google Inc. and Apple Inc., for customers in their living rooms. The new features, called Broadcast Interactivity, let viewers click buttons to learn more about an actor or a program, or buy items they see while watching live shows, Yahoo said yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
“The key feature is to sense what you’re watching and provide interactive content through a very subtle prompt,” Schafer said. “It’s the truly interactive TV we’ve been talking about for years.”
Sales of targeted display advertising -- ads delivered through the Web -- will grow almost 60 percent this year to $10.9 billion, according to research firm Borrell Associates.
Targeted advertising sales for broadcast, cable and satellite TV reached about $750 million in 2010, the first year it was tracked, said Larry Shaw, vice president of research at Williamsburg, Virginia-based Borrell.
“We expect it to grow significantly,” Shaw said. “By 2015, we’re predicting that targeted advertising is going to dwarf standard display advertising.”
Shopping With Remote
Viewers of CBS’s Showtime Boxing will be able to retrieve information about athletes during live matches and participate in surveys about which fighter they think will win. People watching HSN can purchase discounted items featured on the channel by clicking their remotes.
TiVo Inc. and other makers of digital-video recorders, which can fast-forward through commercials, have forced advertisers to explore new ways to reach their target audience.
By tying advertising more closely to what a user is watching, personalized recommendations and ads become more relevant, Yahoo’s Schafer said. That makes consumers more likely to opt in for more information and provide marketers with their personal information, or to watch longer-form video spots, he said.
Rovi Library
Along with Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo, Rovi Corp., which makes interactive-programming guides for cable and satellite providers, stands to benefit as a middleman offering software for millions of Web-connected TVs and set-top boxes.
Rovi, in nearby Santa Clara, plans to use its library of more than 6 million catalogued pieces of music, movies and other media to let advertisers recommend products based on what a consumer is watching, the company said today at CES.
“Partners can query our website to get just the one piece of information they need,” said Richard Bullwinkle, Rovi’s chief evangelist. “You can say, ‘just give us information about this artist someone is listening to today so we can recommend they buy something similar.’”
Rovi would take a percentage of revenue from such services, Bullwinkle said.
Last year, Google began working with TV manufacturers to include Web services on some sets, while Apple released a new version of its Apple TV product that connects to televisions.
The new Yahoo features will be offered on TV sets made by Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. and set-top box devices made by D- Link Corp. and Haier Electronics Group Co., Yahoo said.
Yahoo rose 32 cents to $16.91 yesterday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock was little changed last year. Rovi, which almost doubled last year, gained $1.63 to $65.66 yesterday.
--Editors: Lisa Wolfson, Jillian Ward
To contact the reporters on this story: Douglas MacMillan in San Francisco at dmacmillan3@bloomberg.net; Cliff Edwards in San Francisco at cedwards28@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
Online Business Consulting | Internet Business Consulting