National Cable Communications announced an agreement Tuesday to become the national spot-sales rep firm for Rainbow Advertising Sales Corp.'s New York Interconnect, News 12 Networks and MetroChannels.
The transition from New York Cablevision Sales to NCC will take effect in January.
NCC also represents Time Warner CityCable, which means the rep will now bring the Big Apple interconnect closer to one-stop shopping than it has been since that system quit the interconnect several years ago in a dispute with RASCO.
The interconnect is owned by Cablevision Systems Corp. and, since mid-2000, Comcast Corp.
NCC CEO Tom Olson said in a prepared statement, "By combining NCC's existing representation of Time Warner CityCable with the New York Interconnect, NCC will now be able to offer agencies access to cable television's vast audience across the entire New York TV market through a singular sales execution."
Because NCC has sales offices in 14 key markets, the RASCO operations will have "a larger national footprint" in terms of reaching prospective spot-cable accounts, the companies' announcement added.
In addition, NCC spokesman Dean Diltz said the spot rep firm is continuing to expand its ad-sales force. NCC is aiming to have 33 account executives reporting to eight team sales managers by the end of January, with Diltz noting that one-third of those staffers have already been hired.
It was unclear at press time how many of NYCS' 20 or so sales staffers might relocate to NCC as that in-house RASCO unit is dissolved.
