In yet another sign of how online video and TV advertising are continuing to blur, this morning ActiveVideo and BrightLine have announced a partnership to enable set-top boxes and connected TV devices to deliver interactive video ads from the cloud without any additional technical or creative work. Using ActiveVideo's new "CloudTV AdCast," advertisers and agencies can seamlessly deliver HTML5 ads to set-top boxes and connected TV devices, vastly expanding the reach of their ads and increasing their ROI.

In a call with ActiveVideo and BrightLine executives last week, they explained how BrightLine has had to custom develop immersive ad experiences for particular pay-TV operators' set-top boxes, thereby increasing development costs and limiting reach. Now BrightLine would be able to develop just once, in HTML5. The ads are rendered in the cloud and streamed to any set-top box or connected TV device, with full interactivity. A great example is OnBeauty, a micro-site ad experience that BrightLine developed for L'Oreal. On the call, I saw OnBeauty delivered separately, via a set-top box, Roku and SmartTV.

The big idea here is that pay-TV operators, who are increasingly looking to provide rich experiences to their subscribers, but are hamstrung by older, low-powered set-top boxes, can now use ActiveVideo not only to deliver improved online content from the cloud, but also ads that are comparable to those seen online. CloudTV AdCast can be hosted by either by pay-TV operators or by ActiveVideo.

For ActiveVideo, CloudTV AdCast and the partnership with BrightLine means its value proposition now includes monetization, in addition to content. ActiveVideo currently has deals with pay-TV operators Charter, Cablevision, Liberty Global and others. For BrightLine, which has run over 500 interactive TV ad campaigns, the partnership means not only simplified development, but also a stronger message to advertisers and agencies that their ads will be viewable across more set-top boxes and connected TV devices as ActiveVideo gains broader acceptance.