British company tests advertising according to viewer wishes

 British Sky Broadcasting, the largest provider of satellite television in the UK and Ireland, wants to let viewers decide which advertisements they see. Similar to television "on demand", the company wants to let viewers decide when they see which commercial, as Medianet.at writes. Sky recently introduced interactive smart advertising: The idea behind it is that advertising should be a service and not an interruption. At the beginning of a program, a short commercial of around 30 seconds runs with an invitation to see more about the product shown or the creation of the commercial at the end of the program. Viewers can press a button to request the longer commercial or visit the manufacturer's homepage, view dealer lists or order product samples. The long-form advertisement lasts three to four minutes on average.
For advertisers, however, this results in additional creative work: instead of one commercial, they have to develop several in order to meet the requirements of interstitial advertising as well as short and long commercials. According to Medianet.at, advertising customers such as Carlsberg, Sony and Honda are already using this form of advertising. Sky plans to test how viewers respond to the "on demand" long form of advertising over the next few weeks.