Forget Local TV - Advertise on Cable
by BIG Mike McDaniel
Published on this site: October 21st, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
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.
For more about advertising visit our website
http://BigIdeasGroup.com
BIG Mike is a Business Consultant and Professional
Speaker. His BIG Ideas Group helps business grow with promotions,
special reports, mastermind groups, seminars and consulting. http://BIGIdeasGroup.com
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