U.S. cable ad venture hires ex-Aegis chief - WSJ

NEW YORK, June 9 (Reuters) - U.S. cable television companies have hired the former head of advertising agency Aegis group to run their platform for targeted advertising, and will reveal details about the project on Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Monday.

David Verklin, who will run the plan -- code-named Project Canoe -- is one of the most outspoken figures in the advertising industry, the Journal said.

Canoe Ventures is expected to allow advertisers to insert ads into video-on-demand shows, allowing them to target people with tailored pitches in a similar way to advertisers on the Internet, which is attracting people away from newspapers and television.

Verklin told the Journal that Canoe Ventures plans to sell its new technology not to marketers directly but to programmers like Walt Disney's (DIS.N) ESPN or Viacom's (VIAb.N) MTV.

That allows the cable companies to avoid building their sales operations or alienating programmers by trying to go around them, he told the paper.

Ownership stakes in Canoe Ventures will be based on the number of subscribers that each company brings, the Journal said. The six founding companies -- Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O), Time Warner Cable (TWC.N), Cox Communications, Cablevision Systems Corp (CVC.N), Charter Communications CHTR.O and Brighthouse Networks -- will get representatives on the board, the paper said.

The venture has $150 million in funding so far, the Journal reported.

Attempts to reach cable company officials were unsuccessful. (Reporting by Robert MacMillan; Editing by Michael Urquhart)