• by Wayne Friedman , June 6, 2014

Video-on-demand TV platforms may not only be held in high regard by general TV advertisers, but with TV program marketers as well. 

In a recent blog by Bruce Goerlich, chief research officer of Rentrak, the TV/movie measurement company, he says the “conversion” rate of viewers watching TV promos in VOD programming to become actual TV viewers of a program is nearly double that of TV promos that run on traditional linear TV.

Goerlich says the average conversion rate of a TV promo/teaser running in a VOD program is 12% -- this versus a 6.5% number for linear TV.

Overall, TV advertisers believe VOD is full of promise -- in part because TV viewers can’t fast forward through non-program content.

Goerlich writes: “These results give an indication that those people who chose to watch VOD are more involved. It requires positive action to select and view the VOD teaser. If the teaser is good enough, it does have the power to get people to take subsequent action and watch the full program.”

For this upfront, a number of TV networks are looking to sell VOD services for advertisers, which include dynamic ad insertion -- the ability to insert new TV commercials after a three-day period. Much national TV business currently is guaranteed, with average commercial ratings plus three days of time-shifted data metric.

In March, CBS announced it was beginning to sell VOD dynamic ad insertion. CBS is working with Canoe Ventures and its partners, which include Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks. But the downside, according to many media executives, is that VOD ad-selling platforms are not widespread and there are many differences among services.

"Watching TV" photo by Shutterstock.

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