Comcast is touting its centralized VOD distribution architecture — which it calls the Comcast Content Delivery Network (CCDN) — as enabling a quick rollout of dynamic on-demand ads to 17 markets (see Comcast on Dynamic VOD Ads: ‘This Is Not a Test’).
Caroline Brown, Comcast’s executive director of video business operations, notes in a video posted today that the operator only began to commercially deploy dynamic VOD ad insertion using the BlackArrow system the first week of June. “We’ve actually taken it from zero subs to 7.4 million since that time frame,” Brown says.
The advantage is that — instead of ads needing to be hard-coded into the VOD assets before they’re shipped to Comcast — TV shows and ads can travel separately, and providing a way to intelligently place a variety of ads against the same content.
That sounds fast, until you realize Comcast has been kicking the tires on BlackArrow since 2009 (see Comcast Splices VOD Ads in Fla.).
And, of course, Comcast currently is placing ads within its own programming, on VOD from five NBCUniversal cable networks: USA, E!, Syfy, Bravo and Oxygen (see Comcast, NBCU Bring Dynamic Ads to VOD). It will be more impressive once this gets going with non-Comcast programmers.
Here’s the video with Brown explaining the project:
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