The cable industry has quietly released its first response to targeted content on the internet. From the looks of audience numbers, it appears nobody noticed. That's probably a good thing, because it's not nearly ready for prime time.
Taking a cue from online advertising, a group of cable providers banned together in 2007 to form Project Canoe (now Canoe Ventures), a consortium that will release targeted television content and advertising on a national level.
In January, Canoe launched Election ’08, a political content channel that provides new advertising opportunities and keeps track of viewers watching. Video on the site is presented on demand, letting viewers choose which programming to watch and when.
The cable companies view the nascent network as proof that they can work well together, but as the New York Times points out, the channel isn’t very popular right now.
Election ‘08 has about eight hours of programming and is available in 32 million households. It has been available for eight months, but only 500,000 segments have been viewed. And that is after all the participating cable companies ran at least 100 spots a week promoting it in their local markets.
The networks are using Election ’08 as an example of their ability to work cohesively, but they are still working out the details on implementation.
Much of the content on Election ’08 — political ads, nostalgic political moments, and informative videos — can be found online. In addition, the implementation is severely lacking: Video footage, images, and other content from the Democratic National Convention can be found all over the Internet this week -- but not on Election ’08:
So, what's a week in internet time?
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