• by Wayne Friedman , August 25, 2016

Video-on-demand advertising impressions continue to sharply grow -- with advertising glut still at a minimum versus traditional TV program viewing.

Canoe Ventures, the cable operator-owned ad-tech service for VOD national TV network ad inventory, says VOD ad impressions are on pace to soar to $18 billion by the end of 2016 -- up from 11.5 billion a year ago and 6.3 billion in 2014.

To date, 9 billion VOD ad impressions have run -- some 4.8 billion in the second quarter. Canoe's footprint comes from 35 million plus VOD homes including Comcast, Charter Spectrum, and Cox, covering 130 DMAs. It is in 49 of the top 50 markets.

Some 2,166 campaigns have run VOD advertising via pay TV providers -- 78% of those campaigns from paid-advertising and 22% from networks' tune-in promo ads. Most VOD advertising impressions run on Saturday and Sundays -- some 810 million each day.

Compared to multiple commercials per commercial break on traditional TV networks, advertising clutter is at a minimum on VOD, when looking at the average commercial break.

Canoe says the average opportunities per commercial break are just one commercial for pre-roll, four for mid-roll and one for post roll. (There are typically multiple mid-roll breaks, it says).

When marketers use “frequency capping,” the average campaign comes to an average of two commercial airings.