US cable companies put on united front to showcase their digital credentials
Panel at the Time Warner event. L:R Michael Kassan, CEO MediaLink, Billy Farina, President, Cox Media, Gilman, Ben Tatta, President, Cablevision
American’s cable TV giants have pledged to work together with their data and promised more programmatic buying in a combined pitch to major media buyers as they look to stave off the threat of digital advertisers.
Speaking at the Time Warner hosted event, which had the theme Epic Connections and saw Time Warner joined by rivals Cablevision, Cox Media and NCC Media, Joan Gillman, chief operating officer of Time Warner Cable made the pitch that: “We are extraordinarily pleased to have a program to walk you through the innovation of this industry in digital.
“And it is epic because it is not about one company it is about an entire industry and the innovation in this industry.”
Gilman noted that despite all the focus on mobile, digital and broadband, cable/subscriptions connections to television were still important saying: “Consumers connect with the highest quality TV programming, broadband and WiFi through cable.
“What is amazing about this industry is that it’s innovating to use digital technologies to bring data and marry it with quality content.”
Others on the panel noted that embracing automation, better access to data and scalability would be key to the industry’s future.
“I think automation (of buying) and data are really important,” said Billy Farina, president of Cox Media, which operates in 20 US markets and has 14 TV stations.
“Another part of it is scalability and what we are doing in New York is a partnership between ourselves and Time Warner where we basically marry our two data sets and have have a much better coverage to provide deep insights.”
All the TV networks said “omni-screen” services that allow subscribers to watch TV on multiple devices were essential to their strategies as is premium content. “Nothing engages digital viewers like cable content,” said Kevin Smith from Comcast Media, which owns NBCUniversal.
“Each company has led in innovation but at the end of the day we try and make it easy to do business and the data that is flowing combined with more time spent with out platform is a perfect marriage to think about marketing solutions,” added Gilman.
Nic Christensen in New York
