Content provided in partnership with

Philadelphians Get a Taste of Trio On Fox Affiliate in Marketing Blitz

Comcast may be getting a few unsolicited calls from viewers whose curiosity is piqued by digital network Trio's 90-minute programming sampler on the Fox affiliate in Philadelphia, the MSO's home market.

Trio, which lacks a distribution deal with Comcast, bought time for Dec. 14 on the Fox affiliate to show documentaries from its Brilliant But Cancelled Television month. The network also plans a significant marketing blitz in the market, including billboards, bus side ads, cross-channel spots and local commercials on Late Show With David Letterman. (Trio recently acquired the rights to reruns of the Letterman show from the NBC years.) In all, Trio is spending just under $500,000.

Most Popular Articles in Technology: An overview of continuous data protection; Why all those current ratings?; Many countries now have a mobile penetration rate above 100%, report says; The Tata Group's big telecom gamble: VSNL's recent acquisition of Tyco ...; MEASURING BANK BRANCH EFFICIENCY USING DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS: MANAGERIAL ...; More »

"We want to generate awareness and interest in the channel. The best way to do that is to let people see the programming," said Jason Klarman, VP of marketing at Trio. The Fox station was chosen because of its reach and because it had an available weekend time slot.

Trio will use the commercial time for branding spots and for spots that tell viewers to call their cable operator.

A Comcast spokesperson would not comment directly on the tactic and said only that the MSO is "committed to bringing its customers a wide range of programming options."

Klarman expects a friendly reaction. "It's a very positive campaign," he said. "We want to make sure that they know there's some sort of demand for the channel and that they're aware of the program offering that we have."

One distribution consultant thinks Trio is being too aggressive. "Comcast takes a lot of pride in Philadelphia, and to be in their face in Philadelphia, I believe that would set me back," said former Turner executive Nory LeBrun, now a principal in Two Blue Rhinos in Atlanta. LeBrun added that Comcast executives are concentrating on the merger with AT&T Broadband now, so it's "hard to get them to focus on new programming, unless it's their own stuff."

Trio has done some national print advertising and may preview some of its channels on Universal Television's more mature networks, USA and Sci Fi.

THE NEXT QUESTION:

*Does this tactic put Trio's existing agreement to be carried on some AT&T systems at risk?

Technology Industry

Philadelphians Get a Taste of Trio On Fox Affiliate in Marketing Blitz

Cable World, Nov 18, 2002

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Health

Most Popular Articles in Technology

Most Popular Publications in Technology