Competitors for video subscribers, cable operators and DirecTV will team on the pursuit of ad sales on select regional sports networks, via cable rep firm NCC.
The nation's largest spot cable sales organization, NCC will integrate regional sports network feeds, currently offered to DirecTV customers, into cable advertising interconnects in nine U.S. markets.
NCC, which is owned by Comcast Cable, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable and reps cable operators throughout the nation, will also assume national spot sales representation of the satellite leader’s regional sports networks in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
For the most part, NCC will work with regional sports networks in markets where Comcast is the predominant cable operator: FSN South and SportsSouth in Atlanta; CSN New England and NESN in Boston; CSN Chicago in the Windy City environs; Altitude and FSN Rocky Mountain in Denver; FSN Detroit in the Motor City DMA; FSN Southwest in Houston; and FSN Bay Area in San Francisco.
Time Warner Cable in Dallas with FSN Southwest and Adlink, the Los Angeles interconnect, with FSN Prime Ticket and FSN West, are also involved with the NCC gambit.
“This is terrific news for both local and national advertisers. Combining DirecTV’s audience with our cable interconnects expands our reach and strengthens our targeted offering,” said NCC president Greg Schaefer in a statement. “And ad agencies benefit from the single point of contact we will provide both locally and nationally. Combining wired cable with satellite is a major breakthrough for the advertising industry.”
Added DirecTV senior vice president of ad sales Bob Riordan: “The ability to leverage DirecTV's leadership position in sports programming with NCC's regional and local sales expertise creates an exciting partnership and one-stop shop for advertisers. Working with NCC will give us an opportunity to expand our product offering beyond a national platform and give our advertising partners even more choices to reach their target market in a simple and seamless manner.”
Given the breadth of its market coverage, Comcast played a major role in establishing NCC’s role with DirecTV.
“Cable operators have made many advancements in working with NCC to offer truly effective planning and buying for advertisers who want to reach cable's ever-growing audience,” said Charlie Thurston, president of Comcast Spotlight, in a statement. “And this ground-breaking announcement with DirecTV signifies another major step forward in media sales.”
