Comcast is a bit of a sleeping giant in local:
- The company has a significant local sales force
- It’s a top 50 Web property and has a 1% search market share (Nielsen, 11/06)
- It has video, online and TV distribution assets
- It has lots of cash on hand
- It has a “triple play” play (TV, Internet, phone) and will soon have a wireless MVNO (via Sprint)
The question is: how much does the company want to commit to local (time, build, buy)?
In my presentations I often say that online no single company has the kind of quasi-monopoly control over advertiser acquisition, content creation and distribution that traditional newspapers and yellow pages had in local. However, Comcast may be the potential exception to that statement.
January 5, 2007 at 11:40 pm |
I agree with you here. Comcast is better positioned than anyone for local ads. UNLESS you see the broadcast networks that Comcast competes against for local spot advertising come together in a network consortium (ala the newspapers classified ventures) in order to make THEIR local sales forces the touch point to local online. They have the sales force structure and networked together across all therir TV and online properties offer Comcast competition.
May 14, 2007 at 5:07 pm |
[...] Local Cable Franchises are building out their cross platform products. Even the local Comcast and Time Warner sales forces are stepping up their cross platform digital efforts. http://gesterling.wordpress.com/2007/01/03/what-will-comcast-do/ [...]