Cable interactive ad venture taps new head (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Canoe Ventures, an interactiveadvertising joint venture formed by U.S. cable companies, namedformer Aegis Media Americas chief executive David Verklin asthe head of new venture.

The venture is charged with developing a standard forinteractive ads that the industry can use to enable featureslike sophisticated ads that are displayed aroundvideo-on-demand services and the ability to target cable TVviewers with relevant advertising.

Verklin, who will be based in New York City, joins onAugust 4.

Advertisers and programmers are looking for interactivefeatures like voting and polling, interactive layers and theability to target consumers said Landell Hobbs, Time WarnerCable's chief operating officer speaking at an investorconference on Monday.

The venture is jointly owned Comcast Corp., Time WarnerCable Inc; Cox Communications; Bright House Networks, CharterCommunications and Cablevision Systems Corp.

The cable industry is hoping to mimic some of the strengthsof Internet advertising. But they believe TV is a more robustand familiar medium for advertisers.

Hobbs said the cable operators have been working on ways tomeasure how effective the ads are, as well as technologystandards.

"I don't want to come to Time Warner Cable and have to doit differently than I have to do at . I don't want to doit differently than I have to do with Cox," Hobbs said speakingof cable companies' advertising partners.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Derek Caney)