• by Phil Leggiere , November 28, 2006

Keeping track of ad placements in a three-channel or even 57-channel universe was one thing. But manag-ing assets in a globally fragmented, several hundred channel world is altogether different. Traditional TV and broadcast measurement services have yet to fully encompass the new media landscape, but one new service aims to: New York-based Teletrax offers ad-monitoring reports that tell advertisers not only that a TV commercial was broadcast, but where and exactly when and for how long, within the specificity of one second.

Teletrax digitally embeds data, such as a time and date stamp, into a video. This watermarking system doesn’t alter the footage or the signal format, but can’t be removed without destroying the content.

Once the video has this watermark, Teletrax’s worldwide monitoring stations can track broadcasts, gathering details such as what station used the footage, where it was broadcast, and how much of the video was aired, the company says.

Clients can access broadcast monitoring data via e-mail or on a secure Web site. The system can track a single ad, a group of ads for a single campaign, or multiple ad campaigns for one client. Clients include NBC News Channel and Reuters Television.