AD AGE presents its annual Special Report on Cable TV,
which features a three-part examination of the value of
advertising on cable, and reports that '98 was a year of
"double-digit growth" in ad sales. ESPN led the way for
"upfront selling," as the network saw sales totaling $756.9M
for the period of January '98-November '98, a 21.1% increase
over '97 sales during the same period (AD AGE, 4/12 issue).
MORE VALUE ON THE DOLLAR: AD AGE's Joe Mandese writes
that ESPN "derives more pure value per advertising
impression delivered than any other programmer on TV."
Basing the observations on the "simplest" notion that ad
value is measured by how much advertising revenue a network
generates for each rating point it delivers, Mandese writes
that ESPN "exceeds all other TV networks, generating the
equivalent of more than $1 billion for a rating point" in
'98. ESPN's total day U.S. HH rating averaged "only" a 0.6
in '98, but the network took in "about" $650M in ad revenue,
"or the equivalent of $1.083 billion for a whole rating
point." Carat North America Dir of National Broadcast Andy
Donchin: "It really shows the value of targeted networks.
If you need to reach men, ESPN is that place to reach them."
MTV came in second for ad revenue per rating point, followed
by NBC, ABC and CBS (AD AGE, 4/12 issue).
WAR OF WORDS: AD AGE's Chuck Ross profiles BET Exec
VP/Broadcast Media Sales Louis Carr, who is "on a mission"
to get more ad dollars for BET at higher CPMs. Carr is
"especially aggravated by some marketers, such as Reebok
International, which he says are supported by BET's target
audience but which do not, in turn, support BET." Carr:
"Reebok only offered us $200,000 in the upfront last year.
I'd guess that 20% of their sales are to African-Americans."
Carr says that the "problem" is that Reebok "just doesn't
see the value of the African-American audience." Carr,
comparing his network's CPM to ESPN: "When you look at who
buys three-plus, or four-plus, pairs of shoes a year, our
[audience] indices and numbers are much better than ESPN's
ever will be." Reebok VP/WorldWide Marketing Communications
Brenda Goodell "bristles" at Carr's remarks, which she says
are "far, far from true." Goodell says that "because of
volatility in the athletic shoe-category," Reebok decided to
"make a number of buys in the scatter market rather than the
upfront last year" (AD AGE, 4/12 issue).
