NCC Media Adds Dish into Its Advertising Fold

NCC Media’s goal of consolidating the ad inventories of cable operators and satellite and telco TV operators got a boost Tuesday with the addition of Dish Network.

NCC said the partnership, which ties into the firm's collaborative “I+” initiative, will combine ad impressions in more than 3 million additional Dish subscriber homes with those of NCC owners Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable and other multichannel distributors under NCC's I+ umbrella in 25 top U.S. markets. NCC Media also represents DirecTV, AT&T U-verse TV and Verizon FiOS TV, among others.

To expand the coverage of ad campaigns, Dish will integrate its new targeted ad system with existing local market cable ad platforms, called “interconnects” in NCC Media parlance. Dish’s addressable ad system enables zone-targeted ads to be stored on DVRs, allowing the insertion of ads in local breaks across multiple cable networks. NCC expects the Dish component to be added the I+ platform in “late 2013.”

NCC Media said the addition of Dish, typically one of cable’s key competitors, “creates a golden opportunity” for MVPDs to grow ad revenues together.

"This partnership with NCC Media is an exciting new chapter, leveraging Dish’s market-leading technology for delivering targeted television advertising," said Warren Schlichting, SVP of ad sales at Dish, in a statement. "By gaining access to the country's third largest pay-TV provider's customers, local and national spot TV advertisers can now speak with millions of consumers who were simply not accessible before."

"Our mission has always been to make our medium easier to buy, while reducing complexity for our ad agency partners, " added NCC Media president and CEO Greg Schaefer. "This collaboration with Dish was done because it's what the advertising market demanded; to deliver more quality consumer GRP's in cable programming in local markets. And it does, in a big way."