Bresnan Communications Deploys OpenTV's EclipsePlus Ad Campaign Management System

Interactive TV and advanced advertising technology provider, OpenTV, announced Monday that Bresnan Communications, the US's 13th-largest MSO (it has approximately 300,000 subscribers), has deployed its OpenTV EclipsePlus campaign management system to manage its advertising sales operations. The existence of an EclipsePlus deal with Bresnan was first revealed by OpenTV CEO, Ben Bennett, during the company's Q3 earnings conference call earlier this month (see the article published on itvt.com, November 4th). OpenTV says that EclipsePlus will manage Bresnan's ad sales operations across the operator's footprint, which encompasses areas of Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and Utah.

OpenTV bills EclipsePlus as an end-to-end solution that helps cable, satellite and telco ad sales teams to grow their revenues and meet "the challenges of the ever-changing television advertising marketplace" by maximizing yield on their advertising inventories while minimizing their operating costs. "This new deployment shows how EclipsePlus is scalable enough to work with smaller DMA's," Paul Woidke, OpenTV's SVP and general manager of advanced advertising, said in a prepared statement. "Not only does the solution serve larger scale operations but it can also be right-sized for operators seeking to develop and grow their advertising operations. We're delighted to work with Bresnan on this solution and look forward to building a strong relationship for the future." Added Kelly Enright, Bresnan's regional VP of advertising services: "We are pleased to have added EclipsePlus live in our operating centers and ready to streamline our ad sales teams' processes for improved efficiency across the board."

According to OpenTV, EclipsePlus--whose other customers include Comcast and Time Warner Cable--is capable of handling thousands of local and interconnect networks, scheduling complicated channel environments, and running multiple DMA's within a single database, thereby reducing manual workload and time spent running verification and billing reports on spot buys. The platform also incorporates a dynamic scheduler, which OpenTV says continuously analyzes current and upcoming schedules in order to optimize yields.

In other OpenTV news: The Kudelski Group on Monday announced what it says will be the final extension of the previously announced subsequent offering period of its tender offer to acquire all outstanding Class A shares of the company for $1.55 per share in cash. The extension will last through 12:00AM Eastern, Wednesday November 25th. The company says that 76,298,095 million shares had been tendered as of 5:00PM Eastern last Friday, representing approximately 82% of the OpenTV Class A shares that it did not already own prior to the commencement of the tender offer, and providing it with 96% of voting rights in OpenTV.