• by Wayne Friedman , June 17, 2009

Satellite television distributor DirecTV Group has struck a deal with Invidi Technologies to deliver addressable advertising starting in 2011.

DirecTV has been selling national advertising for some time. The company says this is an effort that initially will sell advertising locally.

Like many addressable advertising providers, Invidi looks to store advertising that is appropriate to specific households or geographic locations on TV viewers' set-top boxes, then send out those commercial messages when needed. Invidi struck a similar deal with Dish Network back in November. Invidi investors include media agency Group M and electronics manufacturer Motorola.

Many addressable initiatives are underway -- including one that Invidi has been testing with Comcast's Baltimore cable system.

One major effort that is beyond the testing phase is with Cablevision Systems and addressable advertising technology company Visible World, which has Group M's parent company, WPP Group, as an investor. After a year of testing, the system is now deployed in some half-million Cablevision households. The target is to be in 1 million homes by the end of the year.

Overall, Cablevision has some 2.8 million digital TV subscribers that it intends to connect with addressable ad technology. Tara Walpert Levy, president of Visible World, says a number of advertisers have bought in so far, including entertainment and consumer electronics marketers.