Comcast Corp.'s ad-sales division has now consolidated 27 of the MSO's markets, with the start of interconnects in a dozen markets during the first quarter alone.
That brings its interconnect strategy to the halfway mark, as Comcast Ad Sales last week said it is "striving to quickly secure interconnects in 54 Comcast-owned markets."
Through last month, Comcast Ad Sales had formed interconnects in Seattle; Salt Lake City; Flint and Lansing, Mich.; Fort Wayne and South Bend, Ind.; Richmond, Va.; Salisbury, Md.; and Miami and Jacksonville, Fla., said president Charlie Thurston.
In addition, the MSO said it worked with Adelphia Communications Corp. to consolidate West Palm Beach, Fla., and with Charter Communications Inc., Mediacom Communications Corp., Time Warner Cable and US Cable to interconnect the Minneapolis market.
All that activity will mean that agencies and clients will find it easier to buy ad avails in those DMAs, which will offer "a single point of contact, standardized affidavits and easier invoicing," the MSO said.
"These 12 newly connected markets denote an important stride in Comcast's goal of ? providing advertisers with an easy, one-stop-shopping experience on a scale never before seen in case," Thurston said in a statement.
Fifteen of Comcast's markets were interconnected last spring, the Philadelphia-based MSO said.
With its acquisition of AT&T Broadband late last year, Comcast's national footprint now reaches nearly 30 million cable subscribers in 72 of the top 210 DMAs, including 22 of the top 25.
The MSO's interconnects are now carrying just the Comcast brand, a spokeswoman said. Through last year, its interconnects were rebranded as Comcast MarketLink.
