Microsoft Grabs Navic, Stalks Google TV (MSFT, GOOG)

Michael Learmonth | June 18, 2008 10:15 AM

mercedesad.jpgAt some point, someone is going to figure out targeted, Google-style TV advertising. Startups and ad agency holding companies are trying their hands at it. So are the cable operators and Google (GOOG) itself. Now Microsoft (MSFT) is, too.

It has bought Waltham, Mass.-based Navic Networks, a 7-year-old firm that targets interactive advertising via cable set-top boxes, for an undisclosed sum. The firm's technology is in use on 35 million cable customers of Charter Communications (CHTR), Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable (TWC).

Microsoft is getting into TV advertising two years after Google started, but it doesn't look as if Google has opened up anything like a lead here. Google brought Google TV out of beta in April, but so far it's limited to DirecTV's 16 million subscribers, and business has been slow enough that Google has been reduced to offering free spots. So with one acquisition, Microsoft can leap ahead.

Navic's technology allows advertisers to target individuals as they move from channel to channel, a solution for advertisers trying to achieve mass among fracturing TV audiences. The company has raised $43 million, has 82 employees, and will be integrated into Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group.

See Also:
Google: Let Us Buy You A TV Ad
Cable Exec: 'Shame On Us' If We Don't Figure Out Ad Targeting
Cable Guys Try To Head Off Google
Cable To Share Booty From Ad Targeting With TV Nets

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13 Comments

insider said:
Uh, can we get a little more journalism here please?

Navic is a nine year old company. Not seven.

Microsoft is NOT "getting into TV advertising two years after Google started." Microsoft has been investing many BILLIONS in this space for ten years.

Come on.
Winstone said:
And Google is running on Dish Network, not DirecTV
Mugs Buckley said:
Hi. Two things. It's not DirecTV, it's Dish and secondly, I didn't think the Google TV ad buying was available for the entire Dish footprint of 13M+ subs. I thought it was only available to a 2nd tier programming offering that is a subset of the total subcount that reaches something like 5M, as stated by a media buyer in the know (can't remember who) @ AdTech San Francisco 2008. Can you please verify this?
Mugs Buckley said:
Hi. Two things. It's not DirecTV, it's Dish and secondly, I didn't think the Google TV ad buying was available for the entire Dish footprint of 13M+ subs. I thought it was only available to a 2nd tier programming offering that is a subset of the total subcount that reaches something like 5M, as stated by a media buyer in the know (can't remember who) @ AdTech San Francisco 2008. Can you please verify this?
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