The distinction between national broadcasters and cable programmers has become more hazy. AMC’s The Walking Dead is a popular show, and ESPN broadcasts Monday Night Football. Advertisers looking to reach local consumers through these programs are quick to view Spot Cable as a potential option. Agencies keen to include the medium into their local media plans and buys are looking at watching shares and trends in the local Nielsen books. Spot Cable has come a long way from being a transaction based solely on commercial counts to now having measured viewers. National Cable Communications (NCC) has been in the forefront of developing an index and techniques to make this media accessible to advertisers that are concerned about accountability. As a result, their success is reliant on the support of major advertisers and their agencies, which is linked to their capacity to quantify impressions and ratings. This functionality is not provided by Nielsen Media Research alone.
However, we’ve noticed a significant lack of consistency in how separate agencies utilize Spot Cable, as well as a general lack of knowledge among clients (and even their agency personnel) about some of the peculiarities of this rapidly increasing media channel. So, keep reading for five critical elements to remember when putting together any media plans or purchases that contain Spot Cable.
Some Key Concepts
It’s vital to be familiar with a few key entities and concepts in order to grasp some of the complexities of the Spot Cable ecosystem:
- Various System Operator (MSO) An MSO is a company that owns and operates multiple cable or satellite television systems, such as Comcast, Time Warner, Charter, and DirectTV. National cable networks (ESPN, TNT, etc.) give their distributors (MSOs) several minutes of local advertising time per hour. Some of this time will be sold directly by the MSO in local markets, while the rest will be sold by third parties such as programmatic exchanges or resellers like NCC.
- NCC Media promotes advertising sales for those corporations, local cable systems, and alternate TV service providers nationally, and provides one-stop shopping for multi-market spot cable advertisers and their agencies.
- Zones (or Soft Zones) Unlike local broadcast, where an entire Nielsen Designated Market Area (DMA) receives the same commercials, cable customers are serviced in smaller geographic zones, each of which can have local ad insertion capability, making local cable an attractive channel for shops.
- Interconnects An interconnect is a network of multiple zones that is usually operated by the largest MSO or MSOs within a market (or DMA). It’s a method to buy a substantial chunk of local cable homes in a DMA, but as we’ll see, an interconnect purchase isn’t the same as buying all of the cable and satellite households in a DMA in fact, it’s not even close in some circumstances.
- Syscodes A syscode (system code) is a four-digit code provided by the National Cable Television (NCC) to designate a specific area available for ad insertion in local cable. A syscode can represent a single zone, a collection of zones, an interconnect as a whole, or even an interconnect and its neighboring zones. A single home can be assigned to multiple syscodes.
Five Things You Might Not Know About Spot Cable
- Interconnects do not provide DMA-wide advertising coverage, despite being marketed as a one-stop shop for regional or national advertisers. For the purpose of advertising sales, these conglomerates of major local cable systems and/or satellite providers represent anywhere from 16 percent to 80 percent of Nielsen DMA TV Households. The Interconnect reaches 40-60% of households in most larger markets. Aside from houses without cable or satellite subscriptions, there are invariably geographical pockets that are not served by the main Interconnect. Advertisers and their agencies must have a thorough awareness of the population coverage in relation to the total number of TV households in the market. In spot cable, a DMA-equivalent TRP is a mathematical term; it does not represent the DMA’s “complete” coverage or even all of the cable households inside the DMA.
- The only industry standard key (or legend) to local cable populations or universes as it relates to the different ways in which ad buys can be configured is the NCC Sys Codes. These populations are updated on a regular basis, however they are based on self-reporting from participating cable and satellite companies. Furthermore, they are released with little technical documentation on the time period recorded or the appropriate use of the data. For the sake of Spot Cable audience estimations, this data is stored and sold on a subscription basis to advertisers, agencies, industry buying software platforms, and other end users. It is up to these end users to apply the data in a timely, consistent, and suitable manner a task that they do inconsistently. Clients have no idea whether or to what extent this data is being properly maintained.
- Only last year, several of the biggest industry buying software platforms began to include Ad Insertable Universe Estimates (AIUEs) (as if the number of houses in which your ad may air was immaterial to an audience calculation!). Furthermore, due to the aforementioned absence of consistent usage guidelines accompanying the NCC data, different industry buying systems (Media Ocean, Strata, etc.) will produce different calculation results. Some software will supposedly time-stamp the update and attach it to any ratings calculations for that time period regardless of when the numbers are performed, while others will purportedly time-stamp the update and tie it to any ratings calculations for that time period regardless of when the numbers are run. There is minimal documentation or clarity surrounding how this is done, which means your front-line agency employees are likely unaware of how your local cable post-performance data is calculated.
- The transactional ratings are not reported by Nielsen. Though the local Nielsen product (NSI) tracks cable programming viewing, the audiences and shares reported cannot be purchased in any practical way by a local advertiser (you might be able to get close in Local People Meter (LPM) DMAs, but it needs purchase of every single zone). Additional non-Nielsen data overlays are required to calculate audiences for local buys in non-LPM DMAs. In small and mid-sized markets, Nielsen’s local sample numbers do not allow for reliable network level reporting of local cable. (On a related topic, this is why Nielsen’s syndicated competitor reporting tools, such as Ad Intel (previously Monitor Plus), miss Spot Cable.) Because of its set-top-box methodology, Nielsen competitor Rentrak has larger samples in many of these areas, but it does not report cable ratings at the sub-market (i.e. interconnect, zone) level. Its method for allocating demographics to ratings differs from Nielsen’s, which is nevertheless widely accepted as the industry standard.
- To compensate for small Nielsen sample sizes giving no findings for demographic slices or fragmented cable viewing, NCC created additional audience estimation approaches, Fusion and National Data Modeling (NDM). Fusion and NDM either partially (Metered markets) or completely abandon NSI (Diary-measured markets). Fusion skews local household viewing statistics with a Nielsen national demographic skew, whereas NDM projects national viewing patterns onto a local population. The selling and buying (agency) communities have embraced these approaches in large numbers. So, whether you realize it or not, your agency is likely posting your local cable in this manner.
What is the significance of all of this? As this channel expands, it’s critical to improve uniformity and documentation in terms of data handling so that clients can see the entire process and results. It’s critical that clients (and their agencies) understand what they’re purchasing and how their buys performed in an appropriate context, especially as more and more spot cable inventory is traded programmatically (a buying paradigm that, in many circumstances, has its own transparency difficulties).
What should a marketer or ad agency do? Be informed. Consider the costs of local broadcast stations as well as national purchases (if an option). Consider how much geography can be inserted and/or assured, as well as how narrowly the desired programming can be purchased and/or guaranteed. Discuss any concessions that may be necessary based on the information given, as well as the implications for audience guarantees. Most importantly, as with any other area of media investment, continue to press for improvements in measurement and accountability for this medium.
If you liked this article, you might enjoy Spot TV Advertisers: Understanding Nielsen’s Measurement Updates.
What is the function of a cable headend?
A cable television headend is a central location that receives and processes television signals for distribution through a cable television system. A headend facility can be staffed or unstaffed, and it is usually encircled by protective fence. The structure is usually solid and purpose-built to provide security, cooling, and simple access to the electronic equipment that receives and re-transmits television over the local cable infrastructure. Power-line communication (PLC) substations and Internet communications networks both include head ends.
What is the definition of cable television transmission?
Any system that distributes television signals via coaxial or fiber-optic cables is referred to as cable television. The phrase also include satellite-only signal distribution systems. In the late 1940s, cable television networks were developed in the United States to increase reception of commercial network broadcasts in rural and hilly locations. They were first used in the 1960s in several large urban areas where local television reception is hampered by signal reflection from tall buildings. Often referred to as
Is it possible to watch cable TV without a modem?
There are a few devices you need be aware of in order to obtain cable Internet in your home:
The difference is whether you want two devices or just one to connect to the Internet. Each choice has advantages and disadvantages.
You’ll need a cable modem if you want to use cable Internet. You’ll have a stable, connected Internet connection as a result of this. You’ll also need a router if you want wireless Internet (WiFi). If you don’t want to deal with multiple devices, a gateway, also known as a cable modem router, is a device that serves as both a cable modem and a router.
Is a modem required for cable TV?
Because the cable modem technology puts downstream data data delivered from the Internet to a single computer into a 6-MHz channel, Internet information can use the same lines when a cable company offers Internet access via the cable. On cable, the data seems to be a TV channel. As a result, Internet downstream data consumes the same amount of cable bandwidth as a single programming channel. Because most people download significantly more information than they upload, upstream data (information transmitted from an individual back to the Internet) requires even less bandwidth from the cable, only 2 MHz.
A cable modem on the customer end and a cable modem termination system (CMTS) on the cable provider end are required to put both upstream and downstream data on the cable television system. All computer networking, security, and control of Internet access over cable television is done with these two types of equipment.
What is the frequency of cable television?
Many channels of TV signals are carried through the in-house coaxial cable wiring. Channels 2 through 13 of the traditional TV VHF channels
FM broadcast stations use frequencies ranging from 54 to 216 MHz, with frequency gaps in between. Off-the-air UHF channels 14 to 69 operate on frequencies ranging from 470 to 806 MHz. The frequency layout for off-the-air TV channels is shown in Table 3.4.
Part 73 (Radio Broadcast Services) of the FCC rules and regulations, often known as CFR title 47, governs this TV channel frequency arrangement. The radio astronomy service has exclusive use of Channel 37, which runs from 608 to 614 MHz. There are a lot of digital channels that aren’t broadcast on the air.
For the analog-to-digital transition period, TV channels have been assigned to the UHF frequency band. Location and channel numbers are included in the detailed information.
The most recent Part 73 document also contains this information.
Table 3.4. Numerical Designation of Off-the-Air Television Channels.
Only channels 2 through 13 of cable TV share the same frequency configuration as off-the-air TV. Immediately preceding
Channel 13 has a frequency range of 210 to 552 MHz, and cable TV channels have a frequency range of 210 to 552 MHz.
between the ages of 23 and 78. Cable TV channels 14 to 22 use a frequency range of 120 to 174 MHz, which overlaps with the frequency range of traditional television.
Because cable TV signals are contained within coaxial wires, there is no conflict with FM broadcast services.
The EIA’s “Cable Television Channel Identification Plan, EIA IS132, May 1994” lays out this channel allocation strategy.
(EIA IS132) (EIA IS132) (EIA IS132) (EIA IS132 This channel frequency configuration is shown in Table 3.5. Part 76 (Cable Television) provides further regulation for the cable television business.
CFR title 47 is a set of FCC rules and regulations that must be followed.
Above channel 78, starting at 552 MHz, 33 digital cable channels with a frequency range of up to 750 MHz might be assigned. Digital
Cable modem and digital TV services can both use cable channels. It is believed that a cable’s video carrier
At an impedance of 75 ohms, the TV channel should have a signal strength of roughly 0 dBV.
Table 3.5. Numerical Designation of Cable Television Channels
A reverse channel is necessary to relay user commands or information back to the head end while providing cable modem services.
Reverse channels have been assigned to the frequency spectrum below regular TV channel 2. There is a convention known as
The reverse channel of a sub-split has a frequency band of 5 to 30 MHz. There’s also a convention known as enlarged sub-split.
The frequency band for the reverse channel is 5 to 42 MHz. Reverse channels with a frequency range of 25 to 37 MHz are available.
A cable modem standard has been proposed by the IEEE 802.14 study group. Signal intensities for the reverse channel that are recommended
For sub-split and extended sub-split, the ranges are 5 to 55 dBV and 58 dBV, respectively.
Cable TV channel allocations have taken up the majority of the frequency band on existing in-house wiring. To transmit local television signals as well as data traffic, CEBus has recommended a dual coaxial cable wiring scheme. In the event that a second occurs
The frequency region between the top edge of the reverse channel at 42 MHz and the lower edge of the reverse channel at 42 MHz is not available through coaxial cable.
A coaxial cable-based home network can be established using TV channel 2 at 54 MHz. This home network is powered by coaxial cable.
By limiting out-of-band energy at 60 dB below these TV channels, it should not interfere with either TV channels or reverse channels.
or signals from the opposite channel
What exactly is a TV headend?
The apparatus at a local cable TV office that originates and communicates cable TV and cable modem services to customers is known as a cable head-end (or headend). The head-end incorporates a satellite dish antenna for receiving incoming programs when distributing cable television services. The subscriber is then given this programming. (Cable TV companies can also broadcast live programming and play videotapes.) In most cases, all signals are relayed downstream to the subscriber, but some signals are received upstream, such as when a consumer requests a pay-per-view program.
When a cable operator provides subscribers with Internet connection, the head-end contains the computer system and databases required to do it. The cable modem termination system (CMTS), which delivers and receives digital cable modem signals on a cable network and is required for providing Internet services to cable users, is the most significant component located at the head-end.
What are the parts of a cable television system?
Cable television is a pretty simple technology in terms of principle. It’s a network of wires and amplifiers that collects and distributes television and radio signals from a range of sources to households in a certain geographic area. It’s sometimes compared to a city’s water system, which collects water from one or two primary sources and distributes it to clients all across the city. Similarly, cable television distributes a channel lineup to all inhabitants of a certain area who connect to its wire. Cable companies are diversifying their offerings to include high-speed Internet access as well as traditional telephone service. The “headend,” where the various signals are gathered, combined, and fed out into the system; fiber-optic lines and coaxial cables, the wires that carry the information; amplifiers that boost the signal at regular intervals and maintain signal strength; and, in many cases, set-top boxes, which translate the cable signals into electronic information that the home television set can use.