• by kyle , Daisy Whitney , July 20, 2006

Imagine this: Cat lovers see commercials for cat food and dog owners see commercials for dog food, and never the twain shall meet. After all, if you don’t cohabit with a canine, you don’t need to know which kibble gives him better breath.

Armed with that kind of thinking, cable technology company Big Band Networks is deploying software to help cable operators better manage their bandwidth, and that same technology can send hyper-targeted ads to specific customers.

Big Band is deploying what’s known as “switched broadcast technology.” In non-jargon, that means Big Band is the technical vertebrae that helps cable companies send a broadcast or cable network only when a customer tunes into that channel. Today, cable operators send all the networks down the pipe at once to a neighborhood. But in a “switched” world, cablers deliver a channel only when requested. That technology can be used to super-slice ads, delivering personalized spots to particular viewers.

Seth Kenvin, vice president of strategic marketing at Big Band, says the company has just begun deploying the technology. It reaches more than 400,000 cable customers so far.

“If the cat owners aren’t watching anyway, you could offer cat-flavored dog food,” he jokes. And vice versa, we might add.