Do major advertisers still see cable TV channels as some sort of “fringe” area that doesn’t warrant big marketing pushes?
I don’t watch much TV, and don’t even have cable at home. But I spent a couple weeks housesitting for my sister while she was on vacation and ended up watching quite a bit of cable. Mostly SciFi, USA Network, and Comedy Central. Outside of a handful of companies — mostly a few car manufacturers and fast food chains — I really didn’t see many commercials from the big companies. Instead I saw a steady barrage of ads for hair restoration, “male enhancement” pills, get-rich-quick schemes, and Web sites, regardless of the time of day. The majority of these were of the variety of “Call 1-800…!” ads you used to only see late at night or otherwise outside of “primetime”. Basically, a completely different mix of commercials from what I’ve seen on network TV.
Is this just because cable is so divided up into niche audiences compared to the old broadcast networks? i.e. why spend advertising dollars promoting fabric softeners on a channel whose audience is mostly young male sci-fi geeks, or advertising beer on Lifetime?
What I see here in West L.A., watching Time Warner Cable, is that local businesses are advertised frequently. It’s almost like watching a local station in the old days.
From what I recall, having once worked for a pay-TV company, although not in this specific area, the cable or satellite providers have quite sophisticated routing and traffic software that sends certain commercials only to people in the area of the the city where it would be useful to them. So in that case, it’s more a question of specific targeting by geography.
That’s part of it; another part is that, because of all the niches, it’s rare for a cable network to have that many viewers at a given time. CNN, MSNBC and Fox News combined might average 4 million viewers during prime time. The nightly newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC average about 20 million viewers even though they’re aired during the early evening.
I remember reading an interview with the head of the Pax Network, where he said the business model was structured so they could survive with a ONE PERCENT share of the total audience. They couldn’t get it.
It means the cable networks have the time available. They’ll be paid on the basis of the personal inquiries (p.i.) made.
You won’t see P. I. advertisments on top rated programs.
