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New CableLabs Standard Enables Targeting

CableLabs has issued Version 2.0 of its VOD Metadata Content Specification. According to CableLabs, the new version improves upon the widely used Version 1.1 by assisting cable operators as they add more content offerings to their VOD services and as customer usage of those services increases.

The specification is designed to lessen the load on cable operator backoffice functions by creating a video distribution spec for content providers and aggregators that reduces backend content transport and storage demands, increases the amount of standardized metadata available for use in searching, and simplifies the user interface -- thus providing operators with additional flexibility in how they offer content to their customers.

Through these specifications and applications developed around this standardized metadata, CableLabs says, cable operators can provide VOD customers with simple ways to 1) find the content they want, 2) easily search for their favorite scenes within that content, and 3) discover new content and promotions that target their interests.

CableLabs developed the new specification in collaboration with a group of cable operators, content providers and hardware component developers, which operated under a royalty-free intellectual property rights (IPR) pool.

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