Shifting Focus, Canoe Pulls Back on Interactive TV
Canoe Ventures will focus on developing VOD and TV Everywhere ad technology, dropping its interactive TV goals, the company said. As a result, Canoe will reduce its staff from about 150 to 30 employees, close its New York City offices, and consolidate its engineering-focused operations at its Denver facilities. There, Canoe CEO Joel Hassell, former chief technology officer, will run operations, a spokeswoman said.
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The cable industry joint venture behind Canoe will remain intact and retain ownership of its intellectual property and assets, the spokeswoman said. “We're not shutting down the venture. The venture is continuing. It’s just shifting its focus."
The new aim will be to capitalize on growing demand for dynamic VOD advertising both in the home on traditional cable operator VOD systems and outside of the home through TV Everywhere services, the spokeswoman said. “Our new focus will be on giving programmers the ability to dynamically insert advertising into on-demand TV in a common way nationwide, by expanding our current technical platform and operations to facilitate advertising between many programmers and distributors,” Hassell said.
The Canoe joint venture members, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House, Cox, Charter and Cablevision will continue Canoe’s interactive TV efforts individually, Hassell said. “Each of the founding MSOs continue their support for Canoe, and are committed to our new mission,” he said.
Canoe’s board voted to change the company’s focus after studying its product roadmap and market trends in recent weeks, the company spokeswoman said. The company expects to wind down its interactive TV businesses in the next two or three months but hasn’t set a hard timeline, she said.