Irv Kalick, who left the TVWorks interactive-television joint venture between Comcast and Cox Communications in March, is now consulting for Google’s TV-advertising unit.
Kalick became president of TVWorks’ applications division when the JV acquired MetaTV, where he had been president and CEO, in the spring of 2005. In an interview, he said he left after the former MetaTV team was “situated happily” and integrated with Comcast’s product-development and engineering operations.
With Google, Kalick is helping to market the search giant’s AdSense for TV (AFTV) service, which provides a platform to sell advertising inventory on cable networks in an auction format. Google lined up EchoStar Communications to pilot the system.
“We’re trying to explain to people what we’re doing, what it is … and trying to get other distributors on board,” he added.
Kalick said he sees the Google TV-ad initiative as an extension of what he was doing at MetaTV and TVWorks, adding, “It’s the marriage of online and cable.”
In addition to working with Google, Kalick said he is continuing to provide consulting for Comcast surrounding business issues with TVWorks, as well as other media and technology companies. “There’s so much going on in the interactive-advertising, application, video-on-demand space right now,” he said, adding, “I’m enjoying noncorporate life.”
