TV-style adverts arrive on web
By Tracey Logan
BBC Go Digital presenter
Content edited.
Net users may have to get used to watching TV ads between web pages, if trials currently under way on high profile websites are successful.
The new video ads are being tested on 15 sites over the next five weeks. They are the result of a collaboration between online ad developers, Unicast, and software giant, Microsoft.
Most people have got used to filtering out the sales pitches in the search for useful information. But 30 second-long TV ads that appear at random whenever you click on certain websites, will be harder to ignore than pop-up ads.
Unicast's Video Commercial is a full screen online ad format that plays a 2MB, 30 second, broadcast quality video, regardless of connection speed. The format is based on Microsoft's Windows Media 9 Series and uses Unicast proprietary pre-cached technology.
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