HIRO Media is a privately-held company founded in 2005, which provides a cross platform ad server and ad decisioning system for professional online videos.
HIRO claim to allow TV advertising practices in the online advertising environment.
HIRO uses a survey system for determining demographic information about the users. This information enables TV like demo targeting in the online environment.
HIRO's advertising platform supports multiple distribution method (download, streaming

Streaming media

Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...

, P2P

Peer-to-peer

Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...

) and is cross platform (broadband

Broadband

The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...

, mobile

Mobile computing

Mobile computing is a form of human–computer interaction by which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage. Mobile computing has three aspects: mobile communication, mobile hardware, and mobile software...

, IPTV

IPTV

Internet Protocol television is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.IPTV services...

 etc.). The advertising platform was cited in a piece in Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

, the entertainment trade publication, that discussed digital-rights management technologies in the platform that support legal peer-to-peer distribution of content.

History

In November 2005 the company launched the world’s first free ad supported video download service with Jetix

Jetix

Jetix was a worldwide children's television programming brand owned by The Walt Disney Company. The Jetix brand was used for blocks and channels featuring action-related and adventure-related live-action and animated programming. It was also what Disney eventually turned Fox Kids into...

 Israel. In, 2006, HIRO – Media created the download feature for NBCU's dotcomedy.com
In 2007 Reshet TV launched with HIRO media a download service which became the first free ad supported download service by a broadcaster.
On March 2008, HIRO launched a catch up tv service with ninemsn

NineMSN

ninemsn is an Australian 50/50 joint venture between Microsoft and Nine Entertainment Co.. It effectively acts as the website for both the Nine Network and MSN, and is one of Australia's most popular websites...

 in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

Upon the launch of the Australian drama "underbelly " series, ninemsn claimed the series was the highest rated of legal downloads in Australian History
In 2009 HIRO expanded to support monetization of streaming video and launched services globally with publisher as MGA in the US, Ynet, Reshet and HOT in Israel, and ad networks in Europe.

Technology and Data

HIRO's online video ad server measures and aggregates targeting data and integrates it with campaign parameters and video syndication demands.

Criticism

HIRO system includes demographic survey. Several articles were published in Israel and Australia which raised concerns over the usage of this information. The company claims that the survey high acceptance rate (above 60%) proves the users themselves are not concerned.