No-one likes advertising breaks during their favourite television programme, and these days there seem to be more than ever. But technology such as TiVo, and Sky+, as well as the emergence of the Web as a serious threat to mainstream TV, means that broadcasters and advertisers are having to look at alternative means of getting their adverts noticed.

The problem is that the alternative is unlikely to be any more favoured by television viewers than the obtrusive, over-used, and over-long breaks we currently have to endure.

The Times reports on a new technology currently being trialled by British broadcaster, ITV, which inserts adverts in to clear space in a television programme. This means that a shot of a blank wall or a blue sky during your favourite sitcom could suddenly become a billboard advertising tampons. No, seriously.

The technology is known as ‘automatically placed overlay advertising’, and has been designed by Keystream, a Californian company. It uses computer algorithms to locate clear spaces in video footage and then inserts logos, brand names, or messages which can’t be fast-forwarded or ignored by viewers.

The scheme is currently being trialled online on the ITV Local website, with companies such as USwitch.com and Freesat taking part. If the trial is successful then the technology could be expanded to be used on mainstream television broadcasts.

Simon Fell, head of future technology at ITV, said:

There’s a lot of potential. If there’s a scene in a programme where there’s time, then it could give us a chance to get an ad away.

We’re trialling it online, where it’s a manageable area and allows us to get feedback from both advertisers and viewers. It gives us another tool in the arsenal, and it’s subtle.

I can see why this technology is being looked at, because I know from personal experience how seldom I actually see adverts during a TV programme. I’ll either fast-forward through them or ignore them completely and spend five minutes making a cup of tea or checking my email. While people will have been doing the latter for decades, the prevalence of set-top boxes with the ability to pause and fast-forward shows is only relatively recent.

But while the reasoning may be sound, I really can’t see this being accepted by viewers at all. We’ve already seen advertising breaks get longer or more often, and now they are going to start actually impinging on the television programmes we sit down to watch on an evening.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 3:13 pm under Advertising, Opinion, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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