DISH and NCC Media have struck a partnership that expands upon the cable industry’s collaborative I+ initiative which links cable, satellite and telco companies’ ad inventory. The agreement will combine ad impressions in over 3 million additional DISH subscriber homes with those of NCC owners Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable in 25 of the largest markets, delivering greater local reach and penetration against targeted consumers in the best programming on television.
DISH’s newly developed targeted ad system will be integrated with existing local market cable interconnects, greatly increasing an ad campaign’s coverage.
The platform is available to advertisers via NCC’s sales force in 16 offices across the country, and to local marketers via the local interconnect sales teams of Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable.
DISH’s addressable technology enables zone-targeted ads to be stored within DVR enabled set top boxes, allowing for the insertion of ads in local breaks across multiple cable networks. The DISH component of the existing I+ platform will be operational in late 2013.
“Our mission has always been to make our medium easier to buy, while reducing complexity for our ad agency partners, “ added NCC Media President & CEO Greg Schaefer “This collaboration with DISH was done because it’s what the advertising market demanded; to deliver more quality consumer GRP’s in cable programming in local markets. And it does, in a big way.”
Media’s portfolio of offerings to advertisers now reaches virtually every ad-insertable TV household and multichannel video programming distributor in all 210 US markets.
The operation is serviced by NCC’s vaunted E-business applications, which will integrate the new DISH subscribers into the buying and stewardship systems used by virtually every US ad agency. This integration means there will be no additional effort needed for media planners and buyers to place local ads in DISH homes via NCC or their local cable interconnect partners.
“This partnership with NCC Media is an exciting new chapter, leveraging DISH’s market-leading technology for delivering targeted television advertising,” says Warren Schlichting, Senior Vice President, Ad Sales at DISH. “By gaining access to the country’s third largest pay-TV provider’s customers, local and national spot TV advertisers can now speak with millions of consumers who were simply not accessible before.”
RBR-TVBR observation: The deal caps off a decade-long effort by NCC to consolidate the ad reach of all US MVPDs. Adding DISH to the local ad market inventory repped by NCC not only increases reach for national campaigns, but also allows for microtargeting so there is no waste in the targeted markets. While joining MSOs and satcasters’ inventory availability might have sounded unheard of years ago, the technology is there to do so and benefits them both. With this kind of reach, NCC keeps the money on the table for MVPDs.
