NBCU Targets Funding In Invidi

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*NBCU Targets Funding In Invidi Programmer Takes Stake in Addressable-Ad Technology Firm By Todd Spangler -- 10/5/2010 11:37:14 AM NBC Universal has invested an undisclosed amount into Invidi Technologies, which sells addressable-advertising solutions for TV, the vendor's first funding from a programming provider. Invidi has raised $90 million to date. Other investors in the New York-based firm include Motorola, Google, Experian, WPP's GroupM, and venture-capital firms Menlo Ventures, InterWest Partners, EnerTech Capital, Westbury Equity Partners and BDC Capital. Founded in 2000, Invidi has announced deployment agreements with Dish Network, DirecTV and Verizon's FiOS TV, but the two satellite operators haven't launched their DVR-based ad-insertion systems yet. Comcast, meanwhile, has tested the company's addressable-ad technology in its Baltimore system. NBCU president of sales and marketing Mike Pilot said Invidi's addressable-ad technology has a "high potential" to enhance marketer's return on investment in TV. "This investment is one more step in NBCU's ongoing commitment to provide new advertising solutions for clients, and demonstrates our support for Invidi's impressive technology and promise," Pilot said in a statement. "We commend NBC Universal for recognizing that Invidi's technology will soon fundamentally change the nature of national television advertising by combining mass reach with individual addressability," Invidi CEO David Downey said in a statement. "Addressability has the power to revolutionize television by reaching and monetizing every viewer, making the medium much stronger for advertisers and making television a much better experience for viewers." Invidi's system allows ads to be targeted nationally, regionally, by DMA, zone, household or individual viewer, based on specific demographics. The ads can be dynamically inserted into programming streams at a headend or in a subscriber's set-top box.*