StarNet, a West Chester, Pa.-based provider of ad insertion, commercial
distribution and traffic-management equipment and services, announced Thursday
that it is working with Comcast Corp. on the first so-called marketing
interconnect.
In operation since the third quarter of 2002, this service centralizes the
traffic, scheduling and verification of cross-channel promotion spots for select
Comcast systems in the Midwest, Atlantic and Southern divisions, the companies
said.
"The ability to manage our advertising and marketing on an enterprisewide
level provides Comcast with a distinct competitive advantage," Comcast Cable
Communications Inc. national senior director of media services Kavita Vazirani
said in a prepared statement.
The StarNet service allows the MSO to "better leverage our inventory on a
national level, to better focus our internal time and resources on strategic
decisions to grow our business and build the Comcast brand," Vazirani added.
StarNet CEO David Stengle said this marketing interconnect "allows Comcast to
increase its national marketing efficiency and more effectively leverage its
subscriber base to drive revenues."
StarNet can verify exactly when local systems ran a specific promo and
provide that information the next day, rather than one month later, when using
the prior time-consuming manual-affidavit process, a StarNet spokesman
explained.
StarNet is part of The Lenfest Group, owned by cable pioneer H.F. (Gerry)
Lenfest.
