Simulmedia hopes to bring Internet-like targeting to the TV ad market by using set-top box data to identify shows that advertisers should run their spots against. The goal is to more effectively target ad spend in a market that is increasingly fragmented. Instead of just buying large audiences of viewers, the startup promises to reach more viewers for less money than through traditional TV ad buying. Early results have borne that out: Simulmedia claims that it can deliver more of a target audience for an average of 75 percent less than other networks.

The new round brings total financing raised to more than $27 million, and is notable for a few reasons: When Simulmedia raised its last round, it was still working with initial trial customers to show that the technology actually worked. Since then, the company has actually made its technology generally available, and has worked on more than 200 different media campaigns for 11 different media agencies and 24 different TV advertisers.

Simulmedia founder and CEO Dave Morgan — who previously founded Tacoda and Real Media — told me in a phone call that the funding would mostly be used to add more sales and support people, and to push out its data infrastructure. Morgan said the company was very close to being profitable, but was looking to stay ahead of customer demand as it ramps up.

On Tuesday, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos took the stage at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas to give a preview of the streaming service’s upcoming slate of original programming. It was an interesting moment. After all, here’s the guy who has spent the last several years making nice with cable and broadcast networks, writing big checks for their content. Now, he’s showing that Netflix is seeking to become a bit of a competitor with the very same networks and studios that it currently sources content from.

But if Netflix ends up competing for a greater share of viewers’ attention with its streaming offering, it’s only fair, Sarandos posited. After all, the increasing number of TV Everywhere apps and services are starting to encroach on its turf, he reminded the audience.

The early look at its foray into original content shows that Netflix’s future appears pretty promising Beyond Lilyhammer‘s quirky fish-out-of-water story of a New York City gangster who goes to Norway to enter the Witness Protection Program, Netflix has a slate of content that is star-packed. There’s House of Cards, the David Fincher-Kevin Spacey project that is based on a British novel and miniseries of the same name, appearing in early 2013. There’s Orange is the New Black, the story of one woman’s time in minimum-security prison, being spearheaded by Weeds creator Jenji Kohan. There’s the Eli Roth-led murder mystery Hemlock Grove, starring Famke Janssen. And, of course, there’s the long-awaited return of Arrested Development, five years after the series was cancelled by Fox.

Kohan, Roth, Janssen and a number of the members of the Arrested Development cast were there to tell the audience why they were excited about creating content for Netflix. For Kohan, the opportunity to work with Netflix was a way to show off a great new business model. And Roth talked about how Netflix gives him the freedom to create what will essentially be a long-form, 13-hour feature that will allow him to do what he does best — frighten people — and give his fans what they want and expect from him, something that might not be possible at a normal TV network.

The freedom to make interesting shows — without a network controlling the process or the output — seemed to be an underlying theme, though I don’t think anyone actually came out and said it. In that respect, Netflix could use its newcomer status as a way to recruit more talented content creators who are frustrated by the usual network system. That’s something HBO has long been applauded for — giving artists the creative freedom to build shows that wouldn’t necessarily play anywhere else.

Of course, it’s one thing to announce a bunch of star-studded shows. It’s a whole other thing to have them be good. Lilyhammer was an interesting starting point, but many who saw it seemed a little underwhelmed. And if House of Cards doesn’t hit it out of the park, serious questions could begin to emerge about Netflix’s ability to not just license shows that have already proven to be popular, but to create some of its own. And as the networks begin to increase the cost of the content that they license to Netflix, its future could very well depend on its ability to do that.

Viewers stick around through mid-roll ads about 87 percent of the time, Adobe tells us in its 2012 Digital Video Advertising Report. That compares to a 67 percent completion rate for pre-rolls, and a 50 percent completion rate for post-rolls.

It all seems like a “no duh” statistic once you think about it: Instead of inserting a long-ass and disruptive ad before a piece of content, you get the viewer hooked, get him really into what he’s watching and then — BAM! — serve up a mid-roll ad. Scratch that. Serve up a bunch of mid-roll ads.

What’s he gonna do? Give up and stop watching?

No! He’s gonna grit his teeth and watch your crappy ad (or, more likely, switch tabs and check his email really fast) and then continue on with whatever show or movie he was into once it’s over. Win! Viewer stays engaged, (maybe) watches an ad so your advertisers are happy, you get paid. Lather, rinse, repeat.

And it gets even better when you put that stuff on a mobile device, with mid-rolls jumping to a 94 percent completion rate. Because Jesus, if you’re so into a piece of content that you just have to watch it on a tiny screen, chances are you’re not going anywhere when that ad shows up. And live viewing beats the hell out of on-demand viewing in terms of completion rates, because, well, it’s live: Ads in live video get watched a whopping 85 percent of the time, compared to 69 percent for VOD content.

Anyways, so where did Adobe get all this research anyhow, and what’s the purpose behind telling us all about it? Well, the software company behind Flash got the data from recently acquired Auditude, and is using these findings to help promote that deal. Auditude is now part of Adobe’s “Project Primetime” — basically what it’s calling its multiplatform monetization solution. The idea is that with Project Primetime you have a single product for distributing and monetizing all your video views on any number of devices.

Now isn’t that swell? Just don’t screw it up by running too many pre-roll ads.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Keirsten Balukas.