National Cable Communications has inked a deal to become the national spot-sales rep firm for Rainbow Advertising Sales Corp.'s New York Interconnect, News 12 Networks and MetroChannels.
Under an agreement announced last Tuesday (Dec. 3), the transition of RASCO from New York Cablevision Sales to NCC will take effect during January.
NCC also represents Time Warner CityCable, which means that 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.
"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 execuation," NCC CEO Tom Olson said in a statement,
With NCC sales offices in 14 key markets, the deal gives RASCO "a larger national footprint" in terms of reaching prospective spot-cable accounts.
In addition, NCC spokesman Dean Diltz said the spot rep firm is continuing to expand its ad-sales force. NCC plans to have 33 account executives reporting to eight team sales managers by the end of January. Diltz noted that a third of those staffers have already been hired.
It was unclear at press time, though, how many of NYCS's 20 or so
sales staffers might relocate to NCC as the in-house RASCO unit is dissolved.
In other news, NCC last Wednesday (Dec. 4) announced that its CableLink Interconnects division is joining forces with Visible World and SeaChange International Inc. to test addressable advertising at its interconnected markets.
That test began last week in Albany, N.Y. It will then expand to the six other CableLink markets in January. The other markets consolidated by NCC are Buffalo, N.Y.; Cleveland; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Hartford, Conn.; Providence, R.I.; and Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
The IntelliSpot system, developed by Visible World and SeaChange, will enable NCC to simultaneously deliver spots to various geographic zones across television markets, the companies announced.
By the week of Jan. 27, clients will be able to target 4 million cable homes, they added.
