BigBand Networks is showcasing new capabilities that would enable cable operators to precisely target advertising and other content to groups of subscribers or even specific subscribers using switch digital video.
BigBand noted that over the last several years, local insertion into digital programming has become increasingly geographically precise through zoning. With targeting, different subscribers within the same zone watching the same program could receive different advertisements based on their demographics or other relevant factors. This would be achieved by individually directed streams with switched broadcast, or techniques in which subscribers’ set-top boxes dynamically tune to different digital streams or frequency channels at moments of ad insertion. Switched broadcast may also play an important role in the latter case by freeing sufficient capacity to accommodate the inserted advertisements.
In a practical example of how targeted advertising could work, a viewer changing to a cooking program after a significant amount of time watching sports might receive an ad about an upcoming local sporting event. This is based on the subscriber likely being a sports fan, even when watching something different.
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