SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 5, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rovi Corporation (Nasdaq:ROVI) today announced the Rovi Smart TV Field Trial, an initiative created to explore new and emerging advertising opportunities on television and other devices connected to the Internet. The program enables companies to test campaigns across a wide variety of platforms including TVs, Blu-Ray Players and other devices. By participating, the companies will not only obtain access to campaign metrics and learn about consumer behavior in the living room, but Rovi estimates it may potentially receive tens of millions of ad impressions during the course of the trials through the Rovi Advertising Network. Carnival, Brightline and Brightline's clients have all agreed to participate in the North America trial, and Rovi plans to launch additional Field Trials in the United Kingdom and Canada in the second half of this year.
Today's Internet-connected entertainment market is on the precipice of exponential growth. With millions of connected TVs to be shipped in 2011, In-Stat () predicts that by 2015, there will be 1 billion web-enabled, stationary CE devices in operation worldwide, and that Smart TVs and Blu-ray players will constitute more than 50 percent of all web-enabled CE device shipments worldwide. Among other developments, this shift in the connected entertainment environment will result in the emergence of new options, measurement and targeting capabilities for TV advertising. With ads by Rovi running on Samsung Smart TVs and other connected devices, the Rovi Smart TV Field Trial expands the advertising audience for participating brands.
"TV advertising is changing fast. In order to reach an increasingly fragmented entertainment audience, it is critical for brands to be at the leading edge of new methods for reaching consumers. We've created the Smart TV Field Trial program to find new ways to engage and target consumers in the living room, test the effectiveness of campaigns and deliver value to brands – regardless of connected TV platform or device," said Jeff Siegel, senior vice president of advertising at Rovi Corporation. "We welcome creative and forward-thinking brands to join Rovi, Carnival, Brightline and others as we help lead the evolution of next-generation advertising."
The Smart TV Field Trial program is based on the production, delivery and measurement of campaigns within the Rovi Advertising Network, which has a large worldwide Smart TV advertising footprint. The Rovi Advertising Network offers advertising on Rovi guides – a 'home page' of the television where consumers go to find out what's on TV, and across several interactive platforms, including set-top boxes, TVs, and Blu-ray players. Rovi Ad Network reaches up to 30+ million homes in major markets in the United States, and extend online the experience of discovering content that is achieved by Rovi guides through its Allrovi.com and SideReel.com web presence.
"The definition of television is clearly evolving as the TV has now become the home theater, video store, games arcade and much, much more. As a result, Smart TVs now offer a more interactive, targeted, quantifiable medium for our clients," said Sasha Savic, chief commercial officer at MPG. "In our quest for new advertising possibilities, the Rovi Smart TV Field Trial offers us a scalable way to explore this burgeoning market and understand how to exploit its potential in the future. We are pleased to have our client, Carnival, participate as a charter member of the Field Trial."
Rovi guides provide advertisers with a unique platform for reaching and engaging viewers via consumer destinations, or portals, while they are actively looking for new programming and in 'decision-mode.' Based on its internal estimates, Rovi guides represent a highly-trafficked area on TV: 87% of monitored households access the guide weekly; guide users on average visit the guide nine times daily; and users spend 13 minutes in the guide daily.
"This test serves as another key opportunity to help our clients fully capitalize on the rapidly evolving consumer behavior of their target audience," said Joanna Hall, SVP of Experience and Design at Brightline. "Rovi's been excellent to work with; our clients continually push the bounds of advanced TV to engage their audiences, and this team consistently rolls-up their sleeves to achieve what's needed."
Through the Smart TV Field Trial, Rovi will work with advertisers to measure overall campaign success as well as look at specific metrics to determine audience engagement through usage, acquisition, retention, recall, purchase intent and other criteria. The research is designed to help participating brands discern:
- The segments of the connected audience have the strongest affiliations with the advertisers' category and brand.
- The value of the expanded user experience (i.e., "beyond the banner") to the advertisers' brand.
- How consumers value the additional face time with the brand information.
- The optimal content to include in the experience that will maximize the consumer experience.
- The kinds of experiences consumers want from advertisers.
- Opportunities to engage with the consumer in a more meaningful way.
- Types of creative executions that are the most effective for campaigns.
About Rovi Corporation
Rovi Corporation is focused on revolutionizing the digital entertainment landscape by delivering solutions that enable consumers to intuitively connect to new entertainment from many sources and locations. The company also provides extensive entertainment discovery solutions for television, movies, music and photos to its customers in the consumer electronics, cable and satellite, entertainment and online distribution markets. These solutions, complemented by industry leading entertainment data, create the connections between people and technology, and enable them to discover and manage entertainment in an enjoyable form.
Rovi holds nearly 5,000 issued or pending patents worldwide and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with numerous offices across the United States and around the world including Japan, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom. More information about Rovi can be found at http://www.rovicorp.com/.
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Forward Looking Statements
All statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact, including statements that use the words "will" or "is expected to," or similar words that describe the Company's or its management's future plans, objectives, or goals, are "forward-looking statements" and are made pursuant to the Safe-Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results and/or from any future results or outcomes expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors are further addressed in the Company's most recent report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2010 and such other documents as are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time (available at www.sec.gov ). The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release, except as required by law.
CONTACT: Linda Quach Rovi Corporation 408 562 8504 linda.quach@rovicorp.com
