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Ascent Of Digital Cable TV

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By: NMK Created on: April 8th, 2005
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Recent advances in the functionality and interactivity of digital cable TV provide a compelling alternative to satellite for channel owners and advertisers wanting to increase audience share and reach, says David Ratcliffe...

Recent advances in the functionality and interactivity of digital cable TV provide a compelling alternative to satellite for channel owners and advertisers wanting to increase audience share and reach...

By David Ratcliffe

[Register and post your own comments on this article below...]

When most people think of interactive TV advertising they think of the Sky platform broadcasting adverts with red button functionality. Recently however digital cable TV has begun to fight back and to promote its own solutions for interactive advertisers.

As the number of channels available across satellite and cable platforms continues to rise, the battle to attract and retain audience share becomes more intense. In order to make channels commercially viable, owners are stepping up efforts to entice new viewers and hold on to their existing audience. This is where cable TV is now leading the way, by using its interactive portal facility to offer channel owners the ability to advertise their programmes and push people back to their channels.

Advertisers facing a similar challenge of reaching their consumers through multi-channel TV are also beginning to experience the unique benefits of interactive digital cable TV. The use of personal video recorders (PVRs) is becoming more widespread, allowing viewers to time-shift their viewing should they wish to avoid watching the ads.

Having pursued the strategy of developing a single interactive portal - now accessed monthly by 90 per cent of their subscribers - NTL & Telewest are enabling channel owners and advertisers within a multi-channel environment to reach the majority audience.

The development of digital TV advertising

In the early stages of interactive TV development, advertisers prioritised satellite over cable as it offered more engaging interactive formats and access to a larger audience. With a substantial increase in the number of interactive digital cable TV homes, and the development of standardised creative guidelines, digital cable has at last become a serious and viable proposition for multi-channel interactive campaigns.

2.4 million homes are signed up for digital cable TV, with innovative new services rolling out in 2005 including advertiser-led Electronic Programme Guides (EPG) and Video on Demand (VOD) services. Uniquely, digital cable TV has only one portal and entry point for its interactive services. Accessed monthly by over 90 per cent of viewers, interactive digital cable services are generating over 120 million page views per month. The EPG on digital cable TV contains ad formats, enabling channel owners to promote programme content and build channel share.

Portal and locative power

This has opened up a key opportunity for channel owners to increase their audience share through the cable interactive services portal. The multi-channel environment on the satellite and cable platforms is great for the audience because of the massive choice of channels, but it can have a negative impact for channel owners because their audience share is fragmented and diminished to a very low percentage. The only area where the majority audience congregates is on the interactive services portal which allows the channel owner to draw the audience back to its channel.

Advertisers are now able to target campaigns by geographical region, a capability which the satellite platform does not currently offer. Unique ad serving and data capture technology using Cable’s two way return path enables advertisers to accurately measure and analyse viewer interaction. This data is then used to optimise campaign performance and calculate ROI.

Making it work

There is now a set of standardised ad formats through which advertisers can reach this interactive audience:

• Banner ads provide an initial call to action.

• Interstitial ads are served as the user navigates to a channel from the menu page, giving the user the option to choose more information related to the ad or continue to the selected channel.

• Micro-sites are where the user is directed to after selecting to see more information about an ad. At this point the ‘click through’ is counted allowing advertisers to measure the success of a campaign and the conversion rate.

• Advertising splash pages are one-page micro-sites and another way of supporting advertisers to extend its brand message.

• Channel sponsorship opportunities allow advertisers to use a combination of banners, micro-sites, competitions and games to capture audience data and strengthen campaigns.

These standardised ad formats now ensure minimal set up and entry costs, making it a viable and competitive alternative to the satellite platform.

Previously advertisers had to make-up two versions of an advert with two types of criteria, one for satellite and the other for cable. Tools have now been developed that are allowing advertisers to make adverts available on both platforms.

I want my EPG

With the vast majority of the digital TV audience using the EPG and interactive services portal, this is an area where people are looking to be entertained and as such are likely to interact and take notice of adverts. This is good news for channel owners as it creates the opportunity to better target audiences by using the EPG to offer additional interactive services such as games, competitions and free merchandise, enabling them to strengthen brand loyalty and drive viewers to their programmes.

The introduction of PVRs and iTV will not have the damaging effect that many advertising industry experts predicted but will force the industry to be more innovative and take a more targeted approach to advertising.


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About the Author:

David Ratcliffe joined 24/7 Real Media in November 2004 as Sales Development Director to boost sales of digital cable TV advertising. Prior to joining 24/7 Real Media, David was a commercial manager for NTL where he successfully launched interactive services and delivered content deals. David has also worked as an e-commerce and marketing manager for the AA, with responsibility for product development and delivery of online visual digital TV. As director of digital TV at 24/7 Real Media, David has been responsible for launching the first channel owner campaigns for Disney and Nickelodeon, as well as creating new formats for enhanced TV advertising. David is also a member of the Institute of Directors. www.247realmedia.co.uk

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