By Aldo G. Cugnini, SpotOn, an ACTV Company
Applications are now being deployed that give multichannel video programming distributors the ability to deliver interactive and/or addressable (targeted) advertisements to homes equipped with digital set-top boxes. These applications, in concert with appropriately encoded bitstreams, provide the viewer of an enhanced program with an interactive experience. The initial use of this technology will be to bring the user enhanced advertisements, and to provide the advertiser with feedback on how viewers interacted with their advertisement. In order to enable this functionality, the enhanced advertisements must be inserted or "spliced" into the network programming in a seamless fashion at the headend. This can be accomplished by implementing the system described here.