• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, September 24, 2008

Back around 1999, the oft-cited paradigm for what interactive TV would one day offer was the opportunity to watch "Friends" and almost instantaneously purchase the sweater Jennifer Aniston was wearing. It was frequently laughed off. But Tuesday, the head of the cable industry's would-be advertising revolution promised something similar within the next three years.

David Verklin, the CEO of Canoe Ventures, said that some time in the next 24 to 36 months, a consumer will be able to watch an infomercial and buy a product either by charging it to a cable bill or an electronic wallet.

It's heady stuff, but speaking at an Advertising Week event Tuesday, Verklin said: "We're going to try to get there in the next 24 months."

The prospect of a cable operator taking a cut of the sale is yet another possible revenue stream from what Canoe Ventures is attempting to do--help MSOs bring in billions more from advertising.

"The new medium of TV is coming," Verklin said.

Canoe is funded by the six largest cable operators. Executives have spoken before about opportunities centering on interactive TV, as well as addressability and measurability.

By having access to set-top boxes in perhaps one-third of the country's homes, Canoe promises to offer advertisers a chance to simultaneously stream relevant ads to different homes. The boxes also offer second-by-second data on all viewing in a home--which can help advertisers improve targeting.

On a more basic level, Canoe could become a quasi-Nielsen and simply sell the data--another revenue option.

Through Canoe, the cable industry is looking, in part, to funnel ad dollars away from the Internet--which offers targeting opportunities and results-based metrics that TV doesn't. Verklin said, in short, that digital capabilities are coming to TV.

"I do think television can give the Internet a run for its money," he said.

"The fact of the matter is, if you want to target a specific television spot to a specific television set, the only real way to do that is through the cable broadband structure," said Comcast COO Steve Burke at an investor event earlier this month. "You can't do it through the Internet. You can't do it through the broadcast infrastructure. You can't do it through satellite."

On Tuesday, Verklin suggested that addressable advertising will have to involve some sort of opt-in function in which consumers know they are being targeted. He did not provide details.

Any thoughts he may have had in his previous role at agency Carat about TV losing relevance were gone. He said media flowing through laptops, mobile devices and TVs "each has a role."

Verklin doesn't believe that consumers want to use Facebook on their TVs, and he's "not convinced people want to see video on their laptops when they can watch it on HDTV."

And the traditional 30-second spot isn't going anywhere. He said that over time, those 30-second spots make up half of TV ads. The other 50% will be interactive and addressable spots.