• by Wayne Friedman , January 24, 2011

Looking to capitalize on the big potential advertising marketplace of new Internet-connected TVs, digital video insertion/management platform Adap.tv has struck a deal with TV applications company Flingo.

The companies say the new partnership will enable publishers to reach and monetize from advertisers millions of Internet-connected devices including TVs, set-top boxes and Blu-ray players.

Toby Gabriner, president of Adap.tv, says: "We are the first to be working together on this -- bringing some Internet-connected TV opportunities at scale. Flingo has got a lot of traction in the market. We are not talking about a couple of million video streams; we are talking about tens of millions."

Flingo, which says it is the largest publisher of TV apps for Internet-connected TVs, provides the application tools on many major TV platforms, such as Samsung, Sony, Vizio and Google TV.

Among many applications Flingo has developed, for example, is one with Warner Bros. -- where consumers with Internet-connected TVs can access many TV series, each with a pre-roll ad attached. Flingo owns and sells that advertising inventory and then shares it with the publisher.

Another application for TV Guide has videos, which are primarily supported by direct-response advertisers. Instead of having viewers memorize 1-800 numbers, with one click of a remote, Flingo can capture an email address -- a valuable sales-lead tool for marketers.

In the deal with Adap.tv, Flingo is looking to develop newer TV advertising formats/opportunities.

"These are very early days," says Ashwin Navin, CEO and co-founder of Flingo.tv. "The reason we exist as a company is that we think about programming in a nontraditional way and want to take advantage of the two-way nature of the connected TV platform. We wanted to have partners like Toby and Adapt.tv to push the envelope on the ad experience as well."

Interactive advertising will grow -- but Adap.tv's Gabriner says: "It remains to be seen how interactive the consumers are with advertising."

In the existing digital video area, Adap.tv provides a number of video management products -- one called Adap.tv for Publishers, which provides ad-serving, yield optimization and post media-buying analysis. Adap.tv also has video management/buying tools such as Adap.tv Marketplace, an advertising exchange for publishers and advertisers, consisting of 2,700 sites, 60 million monthly unique visitors, and "hundreds of campaigns running daily."