Nielsen, Rovi Canvassing Connected TV Customer On Interactive Ads

The first phase of a field trial began last week with a phone survey that involved asking 25 questions of 2.5 percent of Samsung and Sony smart TV owners, Siegel said. The survey wants to know how often consumers connect to the Internet through their TVs and their thoughts on the Rovi advertising platform that’s embedded in the program guide, Siegel said. The second leg of the survey will start in September when consumers are asked to evaluate the ads and what they remember from them, he said. Overall, Samsung and Sony are expected to ship 5 million connected TVs and other devices this year, Siegel said.

Ten advertisers are participating in the U.S. field trials, Siegel said. They include Carnival Cruise Lines, whose three-minute video ads start this week. The commercials, which frequently appear as banner ads, vary in length, Siegel said. Some automakers are running spots up to seven minutes long that compare various vehicles, he said. Unilever also is participating by running Hellman’s Mayonnaise spots. The field trials are key as Rovi seeks to produce $35 million to $40 million in ad revenue this year, up from $15 million to $20 million a year ago. Among the ad agencies Rovi is working with is MPG, which represents Carnival.

The field trials are based on the Rovi Advertising Network, available in 30 million U.S. cable and satellite homes and expected to reach 50 million by year-end, Rovi has said. The ad campaigns vary in length from three weeks to two months, Siegel said. Rovi isn’t releasing the amount of revenue being generated by the individual campaigns, but in 2010, each one produced $300,000 to $500,000, the company has said. Internet-connected TVs are “really a new medium” and advertisers “are trying to learn,” Siegel said.

As the U.S. trials get under way, similar surveys will be conducted in Canada, where the Bank of Montreal signed on. The survey in Canada, being handled by Vision Critical, consists of a similar number of questions as the U.S., but with four to five aimed at Bank of Montreal customers, such as where they do their banking. Ten advertisers are expected to be part of the trial in Canada, Siegel said. Vision will initially query Samsung smart TV owners and add Sony when its product becomes available, he said. Toshiba will deploy Rovi’s ad platform for TVs in the U.K., where two advertisers have been landed, Siegel said. He wouldn’t identify them. Toshiba will start with the ad platform in the U.K. before expanding west to the U.S. in 2012, Siegel said. Decipher U.K. is responsible for polling Toshiba customers in the U.K., Siegel said. “We're also talking to other CE manufacturers about other devices” outside of TVs and Blu-ray players for the ad platform, he said.

With Rovi’s ad network also entrenched in cable, the company is moving to extend it to its streaming video service RoxioNow, which Rovi acquired when it bought Sonic Solutions. RoxioNow is the platform for a number of streaming video businesses including Best Buy’s CinemaNow, Blockbuster on Demand and those operated by Sears and Kmart. Rovi’s advertising network isn’t likely to appear on RoxioNow until 2012, Siegel said. Rovi has also secured ads on DivX.com, which was purchased along the video compression technology when the company bought Sonic Solutions. “We are trying to figure out what the model is and how do we potentially start doing ads within RoxioNow products,” Siegel said: But “that’s a bigger relationship in that you have to make sure your partners are on board and that you negotiate the rights. There are a lot of moving parts to it. We know there is a lot of advertiser demand on that side of the business, so that is something that is very important for us.”