Multiplatform TV: Comcast/TWC ‘Tipping Point’ For Advanced Ads

The pending combination of Comcast and Time Warner Cable could be the final piece of the interactive ad puzzle, spurring other distributors to embrace what has been a market on the verge of a breakout for about a decade, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research senior media and entertainment analyst Jessica Reif Cohen said. Reif Cohen added that so far, interactive advertising has taken “baby steps.” But with the creation of a 30-million subscriber cable company, the industry will finally have an addressable ad champion with the necessary scale and scope.

“The tipping point of addressable advertising will be Comcast/Time Warner Cable,” Reif Cohen said, adding that other components like measurement also will need to fall into place. “There are steps that need to happen, but clearly it will be an area of growth.”

Reif Cohen pointed to the impact that Comcast already has had on the video side of the business with its current scale -- 22 million subscribers -- focusing on video on demand, TV Everywhere and its robust user interface platform, the X1. She noted that because of those efforts, Comcast customers watch more TV (more than 7 hours per day vs. 4-5 hours on average for the rest of the country) and more channels (about 40% more than average viewers.)