Comcast Seeks to Buy Firm Inserting, Tracking Web Ads

[Philadelphia Inquirer]

Comcast Corp., seeking to broaden its Internet services and make money on streamed TV content, is negotiating to purchase a San Mateo, Calif., company that inserts and tracks advertising in Internet and mobile video.
Comcast is reportedly looking to pay $320 million for seven-year-old FreeWheel Media Inc.
Comcast, the nation’s largest cable-TV company and residential Internet provider, already owns the Seattle-based thePlatform, which manages and hosts on-demand video for Comcast and other companies.
Analyst Dan Rayburn of the Frost & Sullivan research firm in San Antonio, Texas, said Monday that Comcast appears to be assembling an “online video ecosystem” to manage, monetize, protect, and deliver online video, which is booming.