PermissionTV Raises Player IQ

If the first step was creating an audience for online video, then the second is to figure out what to do with that audience once it's arrived. Intelligent video players offer one such option.

White label publisher PermissionTV's SmartPlayer maps advertising to viewers based on their viewing habits, location, and preferences. It also combines multiple-ad formats so the media owner can bundle as many different ad formats (overlays, pre-rolls, mind rays) into the video as they like. The SmartPlayer is delivered via streaming HTTP with no software downloads.

Viewers can click on the videos to receive more information on what they're watching (if it's a music video they can find out what the name of the song is, the performer, etc., via popup windows inside the video stream) or they can take interactive polls, which then determine what course the chain of videos will follow.

The SmartPlayer can also direct viewers to online stores where they can purchase items in the video.

"What we're looking at is that people can benefit from the option of more interactivity," says Corey Halverson, PermissionTV's vice president of product management. "There isn't one right viewing experience for everybody, and it is not our opinion that everyone should be this engaged. Some viewers would rather sit back."

So for that option, viewers can simply choose not to receive popups during the video. It comes down to what the media owner wants to offer in its videos and what the viewer is likely to want. This means that if a viewer is clicking around a site checking out different videos to watch they shouldn't be hit with the same pre-roll ad for each video they click on. The SmartPlayer remembers when they last watched an ad and serves another up based on that.

Hulu, the Fox Broadcasting Co. and NBC Universal online video joint-venture, snatched up Mojiti, a Beijing-based startup that annotates videos at specific time points, back in September. Viddler also offers a variety of ad overlay options that appear, based on a viewer's behavior. Another entry to this market is San Jose, Calif.-based Asterpix whose technology allows for a more interactive video experience with many of the same features offered by PermissionTV's SmartPlayer.

With the player making more decisions, the video is free to become more of a conversation piece between the viewer and publisher. That is, if they feeling like joining the conversation.