Comcast - New Balance VOD Sponsorship Deal

Comcast has announced a million dollar advertising partnership with New Balance to embed advertising within video-on-demand playbacks on a new channel called Exercise TV. Considering Comcast’s VOD model has been to give to their customers on-demand as part of their digital lineup and set-top box packages, Exercise TV’s ability to provide additional revenue from advertising is being noticed by Cable Ad Executives at all MSO’s. Currently (Comcast) subscribers who watch replays of television shows on-demand typically see the advertisements that ran with the original program. With that programming they have the ability to fast-forward through the ads. On Exercise TV, the ads will be integrated into the programs. Matt Strauss, vice president for programming and content development at Comcast, said, "Everyone's trying to find the economics of on-demand when 95 percent of it is given away for free. What we're seeing is this new technology to open the door to develop new forms of content and brands." Until now, Comcast has generated little new advertising revenue from the thousands of hours of on-demand programming it gives away, even though viewership has exploded. Last year, its subscribers watched 1.4 billion programs on demand, twice as many as the year before. I expect that we will see variations to the business model as MSO’s think through the process and grow this new revenue stream. Link: News.com/NYTimes.com Jan 18, 2006 – Ads coming to on-demand TV