DoubleClick Inc. took its first steps into interactive television marketing last week, partnering with I-TV software provider Liberate Technologies.
The two companies said they would work together to deliver I-TV advertising. The effort would combine the Liberate TV Platform technology with DoubleClick's AdServer software.
The goal of the collaboration is to allow advertisers to deliver highly targeted marketing messages to consumers using I-TV, DoubleClick said. Initial stages of the integration of the two technologies are complete.
Future phases of the partnership will seek to combine AdServer with other Liberate technology to give clients more advanced ad targeting capabilities. Further details were not disclosed.
The partnership allows current and future AdServer customers to take advantage of the I-TV market, said Richard Frankel, vice president and general manager of DoubleClick's AdServer division. AdServer is part of DoubleClick's TechSolutions division, which serves about 2,000 marketers worldwide.
In addition, DoubleClick said it would expand its role in Liberate's PopTV vendor partnership program to provide end-to-end I-TV products and services. Liberate claims that the PopTV program, which promotes I-TV development through the use of open broadcast and Internet standards, is the largest of its kind in the I-TV industry with about 2,500 members.
