Comcast Spotlight's Woidke to Join OpenTV
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 4/25/2008 10:14:00 PM
Comcast Spotlight senior vice president of technology Paul Woidke next month will join OpenTV to run its advanced advertising business.
OpenTV is expected to announce Monday that Woidke will join the interactive TV software company in mid-May as senior vice president and general manager of advanced advertising.
Woidke could not immediately be reached for comment. Earlier this month, Comcast Spotlight announced his promotion to senior VP of technology, from VP of technology.
Before joining Comcast Spotlight in 2002, Woidke was senior VP and chief technology officer for Adlink, the cable interconnect system that provides centralized ad sales across 44 cable networks in the Los Angeles area.
At Comcast Spotlight, Woidke worked with the company's technology teams and industry partners to develop advanced advertising capabilities and technology standards. Comcast credits Woidke with designing the Adtag and Adcopy infrastructure, targeted TV advertising products first used by Adlink and licensed by Comcast Spotlight.
San Francisco-based OpenTV OpenTV claims more than 100 million digital set-top boxes and televisions with its interactive technology have been deployed worldwide since 1997.
The OpenTV platform has been licensed to 56 network operators and 44 set-top box manufacturers, including News Corp., EchoStar, Liberty Global, Pace Micro Technology and STMicroelectronics. The firm is controlled by Swiss software company Kudelski Group.
Comcast Spotlight is using OpenTV's SpotOn targeted-advertising system, which switches video ads to aggregated groups of set-top boxes based on demographic data, in a technical trial in Huntsville, Ala.
The trial began in December 2006 in partnership with media agency network Starcom MediaVest Group. The OpenTV system has delivered "thousands" of ads across eight cable networks from marketers including General Motors, Discover Card, Miller Brewing Company and Procter & Gamble.
