Most cable systems have a channel or two that show frames detailing various community activities, PSAs and single frame or text spots for local businesses. Some alternate between time and current temperature for a few seconds at a time.
Thinking from the 'sales' side in media, I was curious about the effectiveness of advertising on these channels.
When you don't know, call 'em. In short, nobody knows how frequently anyone watches or for how long but most say if you make a typo in the text, you gear about it and not just once but from quite a few. The best guess was about 5 minutes spent viewing per cable subscriber per day. That was a small market (3,000 subscribers) that also had local funeral announcements, birthdays and anniversaries amid the announcements and ads. They also said the background was the local radio station that was known for doing a good job in severe weather and carried local school sports.
Even so, if a cable system has 6,000 subscribers and a national average of 189 channels offered, the numbers, even when you think time spent viewing, is pretty miserable. Certainly some channels have the bulk of viewing making me think some channels might have possible single digit viewership on a 6,000 subscriber system.
Granted, most cable systems just run through their rotation of frames on the channel at that moment and repeat. On a cable system that is really aggressive at selling this channel, the ads might repeat every 45 minutes to an hour. On systems that are not aggressive, that might be every 2 or 3 minutes to every 5 or 6 minutes. Naturally these are the smallest cable systems. It seems the average is a repeat 4 or 5 times an hour.
Rates do not vary by households reached with cable systems under 10,000 subscribers that I checked. In all instances, rates ranged from $30 to $60 a month. A cable system with 175 to 180 subscribers charged $40 a month. A cable system reaching 1,800 subscribers charged $30 a month. A cable system with 8,000 subscribers charged $60 a month. A 6,000 subscribers system charged $400 a year. It seems the $30 to $60 a month rate is ideal to get businesses to buy. Per impression rates range from: half a penny to about 4.5 cents each.
The common length of screen time per play is 15 seconds. For example, if a cable system is rotating 48 frames and repeats, you'd get 5 plays an hour.
So, I'm looking to learn. What do you know of these channels? How much view time do they really get? Does advertising work on these channels? Have you watched one go through a full cycle? Would you think such a channel works best in a small town, perhaps without a local newspaper or radio station? Certainly a small town cannot support broadcast TV...when I say small town I'm talking maybe 1,500 on the high side; 300 on the low side.
Thinking from the 'sales' side in media, I was curious about the effectiveness of advertising on these channels.
When you don't know, call 'em. In short, nobody knows how frequently anyone watches or for how long but most say if you make a typo in the text, you gear about it and not just once but from quite a few. The best guess was about 5 minutes spent viewing per cable subscriber per day. That was a small market (3,000 subscribers) that also had local funeral announcements, birthdays and anniversaries amid the announcements and ads. They also said the background was the local radio station that was known for doing a good job in severe weather and carried local school sports.
Even so, if a cable system has 6,000 subscribers and a national average of 189 channels offered, the numbers, even when you think time spent viewing, is pretty miserable. Certainly some channels have the bulk of viewing making me think some channels might have possible single digit viewership on a 6,000 subscriber system.
Granted, most cable systems just run through their rotation of frames on the channel at that moment and repeat. On a cable system that is really aggressive at selling this channel, the ads might repeat every 45 minutes to an hour. On systems that are not aggressive, that might be every 2 or 3 minutes to every 5 or 6 minutes. Naturally these are the smallest cable systems. It seems the average is a repeat 4 or 5 times an hour.
Rates do not vary by households reached with cable systems under 10,000 subscribers that I checked. In all instances, rates ranged from $30 to $60 a month. A cable system with 175 to 180 subscribers charged $40 a month. A cable system reaching 1,800 subscribers charged $30 a month. A cable system with 8,000 subscribers charged $60 a month. A 6,000 subscribers system charged $400 a year. It seems the $30 to $60 a month rate is ideal to get businesses to buy. Per impression rates range from: half a penny to about 4.5 cents each.
The common length of screen time per play is 15 seconds. For example, if a cable system is rotating 48 frames and repeats, you'd get 5 plays an hour.
So, I'm looking to learn. What do you know of these channels? How much view time do they really get? Does advertising work on these channels? Have you watched one go through a full cycle? Would you think such a channel works best in a small town, perhaps without a local newspaper or radio station? Certainly a small town cannot support broadcast TV...when I say small town I'm talking maybe 1,500 on the high side; 300 on the low side.
). I last watched one of these (I think) on vacation in Roanoke, VA (I went to a RR museum there) in 2009.