Video search firm Blinkx has launched the first contextually relevant video advertising platform. 

The Blinkx AdHoc video advertising platform matches customised TV-style ads with related video content in much the same way as Google's AdSense. 

AdHoc uses Blinkx's patented speech-to-text transcription and visual analysis technology to match video content with the most pertinent advertising.

"Online video advertising used to be a kind of Frankenstein's monster, an attempt to cobble together technology built for text web banner advertising and apply it to an entirely new medium, the video web," said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and chief executive at Blinkx.

The AdHoc platform also allows media companies and advertisers to customise the timing and appearance of video ads.

This includes pre-roll, post-roll and mid-roll placement, as well as dynamically-selected banners, in-video mini-banners and a post-roll catalogue view.

Partners can also choose their own databases, the Blinkx AdHoc platform or even external ad systems such as Google AdWords.

"As video choice continues to explode, consumers desperately need tools that help them easily find what they are interested in," said Tim Hanlon, senior vice president at Denuo, the media futures unit of ad agency Publicis Groupe. 

"At the same time, marketers clamour to reach interested, though ever-fragmenting, audiences with judicious and relevant ad messaging."

Blinkx has also announced new partnerships with Real Networks and Infospace. The first will see Blinkx video search embedded in the new RealPlayer 11. 

The second will offer video search capabilities for InfoSpace's family of meta-search brands including the newly redesigned Dogpile.com.