After decades of being denied local access, political and issue campaigns can now run audience targeted ads on cable networks in DirecTV or Dish satellite cable homes.

What’s so great about it?

Of the 34 million DirecTV and Dish homes in the United States, about 60% (or 20 million homes) have a DVR and are therefore capable of being targeted with ads in this manner. And, they can target beyond just a quantitative demographic of Adults 35+, or other age group. Dish and DirecTV can now do an exact issue campaign or voter list match against their DVR data to allow targeting of specific homes within their subscription base. Although this “exact” match option can be pricey (approx. $10,000 +/-, depending upon size of match list), for larger budget campaigns it may be worth it. If you are not inclined to spend money on the match, they offer for free their own broader list match data for use in targeting. This data is coming from a respected 3^rd party that has already matched most of the U.S. voters with satellite DVR HH’s so that Dish and DirecTV can offer targeting criteria such as Republican Voters, Swing Voters, GOP Primary Voters, Oppose Obamacare Voters, among other “segments”.

Buys typically mimic digital targeting campaigns and are bought on impressions and frequency caps, and not by network, program or daypart, so you can set your frequency level per target HH. You are reaching the audience identified by the custom or semi-custom target match, regardless of what program or what channel they are watching.

The downside?

Full custom list match is expensive, and the cost of the schedule is at premium, anywhere from 50-60% higher than “like” targeted broadcast TV buys. And, at least for now, you can only run these extra-targeted ads on a statewide level. The timing of getting a schedule up and running is akin to smaller cable systems, so it may take a few days to get started.

The upside? 

Finally we can run campaign ads in highly targeted satellite cable homes. It is a big deal – satellite accounts for about 30% of all cable homes in the United States.

Want to know more? Contact bmentzer@mentzermedia.com at Mentzer Media.

• Candidate Advertising
• Issue Advertising
• Media Buying
• Political Media Buying
• Satellite TV
• Targeted