• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, June 18, 2009

Canoe Ventures, the initiative looking to transform advertising for national cable networks, has suspended plans to launch its first product. Known as Community Addressable Messaging, the system promised to allow an advertiser to target consumers based on household income.

But operational and infrastructure hurdles -- which previously were thought to only be delaying the CAM launch -- have led to a halt, at least for the foreseeable future. Canoe CEO David Verklin had promised a May launch for CAM. Multichannel News first reported that the CAM launch would be put on hold.

Multiple sources had said Canoe was facing hurdles with the system, including recruiting networks to use it. Sources said networks remained uncertain about how much they would have to pay Canoe to obtain access to the product -- and whether they could sell the addressable-advertising option to marketers at a premium in the current economy.

A Canoe representative said the company remains interested in whether a product can be developed "to best work for everyone."

CAM was to allow national cable networks to offer a marketer the chance to run "split copy," based on household affluence. Meaning: one ad could be streamed into homes with incomes of $100,000+, while simultaneously, a separate spot with different creative would go into less affluent homes.

Canoe had said it would be able to use access to the 60 million set-top boxes operated by the six leading cable operators to facilitate the system. The six, which include Comcast and Time Warner Cable, are funding Canoe.

Canoe is now turning its focus toward launching an interactive advertising feature, where consumers could make a "request for information" with a remote control. That could lead to a landing page to view a long-form piece with more details about a product -- or provide the opportunity to gather a code or phone number to obtain a special offer.

Executives at the six cable operators and Verklin had indicated that CAM offered a significant new revenue stream to cable channels.