Di3 enables cross-platform iTV ads

For the first time, advertisers will be able to target viewers of digital satellite and cable television with a single interactive ad rather than creating one for each platform, as a result of a service being launched by digital TV technology company Di3.

Di3 also claims that its service will enable advertisers to capture information direct from Sky Digital viewers, rather than having to rely on the broadcaster to process it and sell it back to them.

Advertisers have raised concerns about the cost of having to produce ads for each platform because of technological constraints. They have also had to pay for details of Sky Digital viewers’ response to interactive ads, which are registered by pressing the red button on the remote control.

Neil MacDonald, sales and marketing director for Di3, says: “We’re offering a UK interactive TV first. We want to work with the advertising industry to use the medium creatively and effectively.”

Di3 spoke to a cross-section of the advertising industry to identify perceived shortcomings of interactive television before developing the service with Caiman Technologies, a provider of interactive and enhanced TV services across Europe.