Six of the largest U.S. cable operators on Tuesday launched Canoe Ventures, a startup that will attempt to revolutionize cable TV advertising, audience measurement, and interactivity.

New York City-based Canoe will start operations with $150 million from  investors Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Bright House, Charter, and Cox Communications.

In the last few years cable TV has had to fight much harder for ad dollars in the increasingly fragmented media market. The Internet is taking a larger share of  advertising. So far it is revolutionizing ad targeting, audience measurement, and ad interactivity.

Canoe is the cable operators’ effort to use customer data along with the stockpile of software available from independent developers to at least match the ad metrics attainable online.

“The vision is to put dog food ads only in front of customers who have dogs and to give people the ability to push a button on their remotes and order a coupon or a brochure, or buy a product,” said David Verklin, the CEO of Canoe.

Cable operators are privy to some of the most detailed consumer behavioral data available anywhere. The industry knows what programs their customers view, what web sites they visit, whom they call, what movies they order, and when they watch them.

The cable operators, through Canoe and other efforts, will make use of that data to fine-tune their audience targeting so that different ads will be delivered to different demographic groupings during the same commercial break.

Comcast is testing targeted or addressable TV advertising in some of its markets, while Cablevision is testing an application that allows customers to purchase products right from the TV screen.

“Imagine seeing a direct response commercial and pushing a button and being able to have that product charged to your cable TV bill,” Mr. Verklin said.

By investing in a joint venture, cable operators will be able to glean nationwide analytics that the industry hopes will boost the effectiveness of cable TV advertising.