BlackArrow Advanced Advertising System to Power New Advertising Marketplace for Rogers On-Demand in Canada

NEW YORK, March 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- BlackArrow, a worldwide provider of advanced advertising solutions for New Television platforms, today announced that Rogers Communications is deploying the BlackArrow Advanced Advertising System to create a next-generation advertising marketplace for video-on-demand TV services in Canada.

BlackArrow's Advanced Advertising System provides cable system operators and programmers with the real-time, multiplatform advertising management and decision solutions that are needed to offer timely and relevant ads in On Demand sessions. Rogers is using the BlackArrow Advanced Advertising System to dynamically insert pre-, post-, and mid-roll ads into Rogers On Demand programming. Rogers' Dynamic Ad Insertion roll out began earlier this year and is scheduled to be implemented across additional Rogers' cable markets later this year, marking the first wide scale roll out of dynamically inserted mid-roll advertising in North America

"The introduction of dynamically-inserted advertising solutions within on-demand TV can significantly change the scope of on-demand television in Canada," said Nick Troiano, president of BlackArrow.  "We look forward to working together with Rogers and their programming partners to create a vibrant, industry-leading on-demand environment that can increase content choice, create new advertiser opportunities for engagement with viewers and give Rogers an edge in the competitive video market."

For Rogers, the BlackArrow system controls the real-time advanced advertising decisions needed to convey playout instructions to downstream video back office and video server systems.  As part of that real-time decisioning process, a number of SCTE 130-compliant BlackArrow components are used: 

• The BlackArrow Placement Opportunity Information Service (POIS) determines the correct ad payload and inventory owners based on business rules between Rogers and their content provider partners;
• The BlackArrow Ad Decision Server (ADS) determines which ad campaigns to play; and
• The BlackArrow Playlist Engine assembles the ads and mid-roll information into a playlist that the downstream video playback equipment can understand and execute. 

In addition, the BlackArrow Content Information Service (CIS) is used to capture and store break information for mid-roll triggers and metadata information that can be used in campaign targeting.

The BlackArrow system also supports key features that are essential to optimizing the value of on-demand advertising:  mid-roll ad insertion and replacement, as well as real-time, impression-level measurement capabilities that provide greater and more timely understanding of campaign performance and delivery.

About The BlackArrow Advanced Advertising System

The BlackArrow Advanced Advertising System is designed to manage the technological complexities and business issues within on-demand television advertising environments. The BlackArrow Sales Suite enables ad sales organizations to define, manage and monetize multiplatform, multioperator advertising campaigns to reach viewers that increasingly consume time-shifted programming on their televisions, computers, tablets and smartphone devices. For service providers, the BlackArrow Decision Suite offers open, standards-based ad decisioning and proven system interoperability to streamline deployment in complex cable and distribution environments.

About BlackArrow, Inc.

BlackArrow is a leading worldwide provider of advanced advertising technology for New TV platforms. The company's multiplatform advertising system is designed specifically for video content distributed over any on-demand platform, enabling networks and content distributors to maximize advertising revenues. BlackArrow is privately held, and backed by Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Comcast Ventures, Intel Capital (NASDAQ: INTC), Mayfield Fund, Motorola Ventures (NYSE: MMI), NDS Group, LTD., Polaris Venture Partners and Time Warner Cable. The company has offices in New York City and San Jose, Calif. http://www.blackarrow.tv

BlackArrow is a trademark of BlackArrow, Inc. CableLabs®,is a mark of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

SOURCE BlackArrow, Inc.