• by Joe Mandese , October 17, 2004

If you're a top TV advertiser looking for a fair rotation of premium ad positions on the major cable networks, you might want to avoid A&E, Comedy Central, MTV, Sci Fi Channel and VH1. Those networks allocate only a miniscule portion of their most premium ad units - the so-called "A" positions that come first during a commercial break - to top ad categories, reserving a disproportionate share for themselves. Each of those networks gave their own own-air promotion units A positions around half the time, whereas relatively few of the valuable ad units went to regular advertisers, according to an analysis of each network's commercial pod positions during the 2003-04 broadcast year by media auditor Media IQ.

But if there's a cable network advertisers looking for a good position should really avoid, it's E! Entertainment, which gave its own promo units A positions 71 percent of the time, according to the data from Media IQ's Commercial Positioning Monitor.

Like similar data released recently for the major broadcast networks (MDN Sept. 17), the new research shows that the major cable networks also do not provide equitable rotations of their most valuable inventory to major advertisers, even though their ad deals are premised on that.

In fact, some cable networks - mainly cable news networks like CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, and The Weather Channel - reserve only a tiny portion of their A positions for their own promos and give them to top ad categories, especially auto marketers.

But unlike the major broadcast networks, where the Entertainment/Media category, which includes the major Hollywood studios, generally got the best mix of A positions, the entertainment industry fared poorly on most cable networks with the exception of MSNBC, Nickelodeon and The Weather Channel.

Media IQ, which utilizes the pod position data as part of a sophisticated network report card it provides marketers, will make the data available to MDN on a monthly basis.

Percentage Of 'A' Positions Received By Top Ad Categories

         Auto  Computer  Drug  Media* Finance  Food  Telecom
Promo 
A&E       11%        3%    5%     2%       5%    3%       7%    48% 
CNBC      21%       20%   16%    19%      11%   15%      18%     7% 
CNN       34%       29%   29%     9%      19%
17%      27%     2% 
Comedy     4%        2%    1%     3%       2%    2%       5%    58% 
Disc      21%       16%   10%    17%      19%   14%      14%    21% 
E!         1%        2%    0%
2%       2%    1%       1%    71% 
Food      11%        8%    3%     5%      13%   13%      11%    41% 
Fox News  41%       10%    9%    14%      22%    6%      13%     7% 
HGTV      10%
10%   14%     9%       4%    4%      35%    28% 
History   14%        6%    5%     2%       6%    4%      13%    47% 
Lifetime  27%        3%    4%     7%       7%    6%       6%    29%

MSNBC     23%       15%   11%    27%      15%   10%      26%    10% 
MTV        6%        1%    4%     8%       6%    3%       6%    50% 
Nick       6%        2%    3%    27%       7%   10%
4%    33% 
Sci Fi     9%        2%    3%     4%       4%    5%       7%    47% 
Spike     21%       13%    5%    14%      16%   18%      18%    29% 
TLC       13%       10%    8%    12%
14%   19%      10%    37% 
VH1        4%        3%    3%     5%       3%    2%       3%    49% 
TWC       36%       48%   19%    40%      15%   26%      25%     3% 

Source: Media IQ Commercial Positioning Monitor, October 2003-September 2004. Analysis reflects all network units of 30-seconds or more. *Entertainment and media, including movies.