NBC Invests in Targeted TV Ads Business

NBC Universal will invest in Invidi Technologies. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. A NBC Universal spokeswoman called the investment "small."

Google, Motorola and WPP's GroupM are already investors in Invidi, which targets ads to set-top boxes based on the geographic location of the box and other data. Ed Swindler, executive vice president and chief operating officer for ad sales at NBC Universal, said the company made the investment to be able to test future advertising models. "We would anticipate doing some testing as soon as it becomes possible," he says, adding NBC hadn't worked out any details. The promise of the technology is big: allowing advertisers to show multiple ads during the same commercial slot. It is the kind of targeting that Internet companies continue to brag they can pull off online but hasn't been possible in the TV world. Invidi, along with other technologies companies like Visible World, are trying to change that. But progress has been slow. Invidi was founded ten years ago and has raised around $90 million in financing to date.