Dish, GroupM, Invidi Prep Ad System

NEW YORK Dish Network, working with WPP's GroupM and advanced TV technology firm Invidi, will launch an addressable advertising system over the satellite network later this year or in early 2010, according to sources familiar with the plans.
 
Word of the new service follows by one week the decision of Canoe Ventures to put on hold plans it had to launch an addressable ad system in the second quarter of this year.
 
While the GroupM-Invidi service will start with Dish, it is expected that competing satellite carrier DirecTV, which recently signed an agreement to utilize Invidi addressable technology, would also join as a distributor after it deploys the equipment it needs to participate, sources said. The timing of DirecTV's participation is unclear, although it probably wouldn't be before mid-2010, per sources.
 
Unlike the now-scuttled Canoe plan, the Dish-Invidi-GroupM service would offer household-specific addressability through a system storing hundreds of targeted ads in individual digital set-top boxes with DVR capability. More than 6 million Dish households currently have digital DVR-enabled set-top boxes, per sources, although a Dish rep would only confirm that the network's total subscriber count stands at 13.6 million.
 
GroupM, Invidi and Dish declined comment on specifics of the new addressable service or else didn't return calls. But other agency executives applauded the move. "If they do it correctly and send individual ads to individual homes we're starting to make some major momentum," said Tracey Scheppach, svp, video innovations director at Publicis' Starcom MediaVest Group.
 
One source indicated that GroupM clients would likely receive a window of exclusivity for buying addressable ads on the Dish service but that after a certain period, all advertisers would have access.
 
Scheppach, however, said that it was her understanding based on conversations with Dish that the service would be open to other agencies and their clients. She did note, however, that SMG receives exclusive access in addressability trials it is conducting with Comcast, including the ongoing Baltimore test that also uses Invidi technology and an upcoming trial in an undisclosed Comcast market that will use addressable technology from competing supplier Visible World. "Maybe it's payback time," she quipped. SMG is also involved in an ongoing test in Brooklyn, N.Y., with Visible World technology. 
 
How quickly the Dish service grows could depend on how rapidly DVR households expand. Currently, DVRs are in about 33 percent of U.S. households, according to the Nielsen Co.
 
The service has been in the works for over a year and the partners hope to make it nationwide within two or three years. GroupM, the media management arm of WPP that oversees Mindshare, Mediaedge:cia, MediaCom and Maxus, has an investment in Invidi and its global CEO, Irwin Gotlieb, sits on Invidi's board of directors.

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