The cable industry’s cooperative effort to streamline local and interconnect ad opportunities for national cable nets is official with the hiring of former Aegis Media Americas CEO David Verklin. Canoe Ventures will be based in NYC. Verklin joins on August 4 and will drive the creation of shared processes and standards for more robust audience targeting, interactivity and measurement in multi-platform advertising across cable operators’ systems throughout the country. The six founding Canoe companies are Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Cablevison Systems, Charter Communications and Bright House Networks. They will each appoint one member to Canoe’s board.
"We look forward to working with someone of David’s experience, intelligence, and stature. His appointment as CEO of Canoe Ventures demonstrates our commitment to working more closely with the advertising community and to delivering products and services needed for advertisers and programmers to compete in today’s media landscape," said Steve Burke, COO, Comcast Corp, and President, Comcast Cable Communications. "David’s insight will help make cable a more valuable advertising medium."
"Cable is in a unique position to take advertising to another level – for marketers, programmers and consumers," said Verklin. "As technology has evolved and consumers have been given greater control over their viewing experience, we are all looking for innovative solutions and greater accountability. Canoe Ventures and its goals were informed by input from advertisers, networks and vendors to respond to these needs, and I am excited to lead this effort and continue this dialogue with our key stakeholders."
