Dish, DirecTV Working Together on Advertising Platform

Dish Network and DirecTV said they'll work together on a new advertising platform meant to increase sales to national advertisers. The platform, called the Advanced Satellite Advertising Platform (ASAP), will give advertisers access to almost 30 million households, a major selling point. The platform will be interactive and it allows regional locators, product information and requests for additional information, the companies said Monday.

The platform is a joint effort by Dish and DirecTV “aimed at delivering the scale needed to bring some of the big blue-chip advertisers into the interactive advertising world,” a Dish spokeswoman said. But the companies’ ad sales will remain separate, she said. “We both approach advertisers together to sell them on the product and help create a coordinated advertising effort but from a financial perspective, each advertiser negotiates their ad schedule separately with each of us. It’s really about making it simpler and easier for a national advertiser to utilize the interactive advertising services we both offer.” An advertiser will supply one set of advertising information for a campaign through both companies, she said.

The arrangement could be fruitful for the operators because advertisers are interested in simplified interactive opportunities, said Brad Adgate, senior vice president of Horizon Media. “Typically, advertising is used to build awareness and hopefully get you into a showroom,” he said. “But interactive TV can get you to buy a product. There’s value in that.” Advertisers are willing to pay a premium for that kind of value, but how much will be a subject of negotiation, he said. “This is what advertisers want, and like everything else,” the pay-TV business “is just hypercompetitive, and the more services you can offer to subscribers and advertisers, the better off you're going to be."

The satellite providers have engaged in several high-profile battles. Most recently, they accused each other of false advertising (CD March 24 p15) and “for them to be doing anything together is remarkable irony,” said analyst Jimmy Schaeffler of the Carmel Group “This is unique” for two companies that have a “history of enmity.” Still, the partnership gets them in front of more advertisers and ad agencies in a more effective way and will allow each company promote a much wider reach, he said. Schaeffler said he doesn’t believe there are antitrust concerns since the nature of their partnership is so limited.