| Cable has grown from 13 houses connected
together in 1948 to coverage of nearly 70% of all households in the U.S. With dozens, even
hundreds of channels, Cable is now a major player for local advertising dollars, some for
less than 5 bucks.
Cable became a major player in 1972, when Charles Dolan and
Gerald Levin of Sterling Manhattan Cable launched the nation's first payTV network, Home
Box Office (HBO). Cable was more than an antenna for local stations.
Today, most Cable companies have the ability to INSERT your
commercial into many of the Cable networks. The networks don't stop the show with a black
screen for local commercials, instead they fill the space with ads that sell something
(exercise machines, fancy knives, or something from Ron Popeil). "..order now and
we'll make the 4th payment for you!"
Local Cable commercial insertions are available 15 (or
more) major networks and the list grows every month. Local advertisers can no longer
afford to ignore the marketing potential, and lost cost, available through the use of
Cable advertising.
Most offer a package that will put your commercial into a
mix of Cable network programs at all hours of the day for as little as $5 per commercial.
Yup, $5 for a commercial on ESPN, CNN Headline News or the Discovery Channel. The premium
channels (those that cost extra above the standard cable package, HBO, Showtime etc.) do
not allow commercials to be inserted
You can see why this is so by working the math. Ask the
Cable TV salesman how many channels he has on his system, and how many homes are
connected. Then ask how many channels will have your commercials.
If there are 10,000 homes connected and the system has 25
channels and your ads will be inserted into 5 channels you will need a lot of ads to reach
even a small percentage of the people. Ads are inserted into news and sports channels and
entertainment and super station channels. Computers do it automatically, so the Cable
company doesn't have to have people on the job 24 hours a day to run your commercial.
Cable companies can insert one or one thousand commercials with a few keystrokes and with
thousands of slots every day, they have no problem selling you a bunch for little money.
Cable can be an effective part of your local advertising
mix at a very reasonable price.
©2005 BIG Mike McDaniel, All Rights Reserved |
