NBC Universal is taking the unusual step of giving advertisers cash back for primetime ratings shortfalls from last season. The move is a departure for NBC, which like other broadcast networks typically gives advertisers additional TV spots, called make goods, when ratings fall short of expectations. The fourth-place network is in a steeper ratings depression […]

BT Vision Download Store is trailing the launch of a new service that offers customers free film rental in return for watching targeted advertisements. BT Vision, Hiro Media, Intel Corporation and FremantleMedia Enterprises will collaborate on a three-month trial offering Download Store customers three films, Mischief Night, Played and The Punk Rock Movie, at no […]

The four main US television networks are in line to generate $120 million (E81.2m) of revenues in 2007 from free web streaming of their content, according to a media buyer Starcom. The networks have been reluctant to acknowledge the size of their streaming businesses, partly because online video advertising has become a sticking point in […]

NBC Universal is set to use TiVo to tell it how television viewers are using their digital video recorders and to introduce interactive commercials to the masses. The companies said they will use TiVo’s existing interactive advertising platforms as well as create new ones, and they will split some of the revenue the platforms could […]

News Corp’s Internet division plans to launch an online network to sell advertising across Rupert Murdoch’s media group and to other media companies as early as the first half of next year. Fox Interactive Media (FIM) President Peter Levinsohn told Reuters that the network, internally dubbed “FIM Serve,” is the subject of discussion across the […]

The European Union expects to regulate online behavioral targeting next year, as protests over privacy concerns are stirring a potential backlash against recent marketing enhancements by social networks like Facebook. Reuters reported that the EU's data protection commission, known as the Article 29 Working Party, is preparing to devote time to the kinds of information […]

Google has launched an advertising service for its network in the UK and Ireland that will allow targeted ads to run around YouTube videos. The new offering, called Video Units, is the latest effort by Google in its bid to monetise YouTube video content. The new service is available to the thousands of websites that […]

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said the company sees growth opportunities in emerging countries and the shift to digital advertising. Ballmer said Microsoft’s sales in 'BRIC' countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — will grow to almost $3 billion in fiscal 2008 ending in June from about $1 billion three years ago. It is […]

Channel 4 has selected Chello Interactive's Mistral Software to deliver interactive advertising solutions. The deal allows Channel 4 to create and publish interactive advertising on its channel(s) on the Sky Satellite platform. Chello Interactive's Mistral software has been recently enhanced to offer a new range of advertising solutions for UK satellite, DTT and European Cable […]

The advertising industry is facing more upheaval in the next five years than in the previous half century, according to a new report. "The End of Advertising as We Know It” from IBM Global Business Services shows more-empowered consumers, more self-reliant advertisers and evolving technologies are redefining how advertising is sold, created, consumed and tracked. […]