To print: Click here or Select File and then Print from your browser's menu

This story was printed from silicon.com, located at http://www.silicon.com/

Story URL: http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39117861,00.htm

TV commercials to be broadcast on the internet
Because pop-ups aren't annoying enough...

By

Published: Tuesday 20 January 2004

As seen on TV, 30-second video commercials are coming to an Internet site near you.

Privately held online advertising company Unicast will on Tuesday debut a new format for advertisers to display their television commercials on the internet using online video technology from Microsoft.

Richard Hopple, CEO of Unicast said: "This allows advertisers to take assets they already know are effective. There's no learning curve involved. They can run a commercial on ESPN... and run the same commercial with interactivity on ESPN.com."

US companies are hunting for more effective ways to reach consumers as their core model of broadcast television advertising loses ground to other media outlets.

Internet ad spending is expected to grow at least 12 per cent in 2004, fuelled by an improved economy, a rise in internet use and the development of technology that makes it easier to post and track web ads, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMR, a market research firm.

The "video commercial" format uses Microsoft's Windows Media Player to deliver television-like video online, and Unicast's technology that downloads the full-screen commercial into an internet browser and waits until a user is moving between pages to play the ad.

Telecommunications company AT&T, fast food chain McDonald's and beverage giant PepsiCo are among the advertisers running commercials online in a trial.