Pay-television companies are three to five years away from rolling out technology that allows advertisers to target viewers according to their viewing habits, one of the industry’s leading technologists predicted on Monday.

Abe Peled, chairman and chief executive of NDS, the News Corp-controlled supplier of pay-TV smart cards and conditional access software, said hybrid settop boxes that combine broadcast and broadband technology could allow TV to offer advertisers the targeted audiences that online platforms already have available.