Bid4Spots Opens Auction For Cable Ad Buys

bid4spots homepageBid4Spots, which has held auctions for advertisers to buy radio time since 2005, will kick off its new similar service for local cable TV June 11.

Testing has been ongoing in the past few weeks, convincing the company it is ready to launch. The inventory up for bid are the two minutes an hour that cable operators have to sell on networks they carry.

Bid4Spots, on its eponymous Web sites, will run weekly reverse auctions -- where an advertiser can set parameters for a prospective buy, then cable operators bid for the business. The one offering the lowest price inks the deal.

Dave Newmark, Bid4Spots founder and CEO, says advertisers that need to reach people nationwide are finding that his service "makes it easy to buy time on certain cable networks, in particular markets, at great rates. We offer both sides a level of control and flexibility not often found in cable TV advertising."

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As with its radio system, Bid4Spots says the system allows the cable systems to sell unsold inventory at the 11th hour.

Advertisers can narrow their inventory request by target audience. Cable operators in a slew of markets are participating, so an advertiser can make a multimarket buy via the system.

The reverse online auction will take place weekly on Thursday mornings Pacific time for buys to be executed over the following week.

Advertisers make their spots available for review to the cable operators beforehand; they can be rejected on content or other grounds.

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