ESPN Offers an HD Assist

By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 4/24/2006

Five other cable operators will join Time Warner Cable in running a series of commercials ESPN has created to help push high-definition programming.

Adelphia Communications Corp., Cablevision Systems Corp., Comcast Corp., Charter Communications Inc. and Mediacom Communications Corp., according to ESPN officials, are also expected to begin running the promos that are designed to help operators deal with the estimated 8 million high-definition set owners who have not ordered HD programming to go with it.

“We’re not in the education business, but we need to be here,” said ESPN senior director of field sales Jane Rice. She explained that in meetings, she’s determined that fellow executives even believe they are viewing true high-definition fare, because they have purchased hardware labeled HDTV-ready.

Consumer studies indicate that only about half of 16 million HD set owners subscribe to high-definition programming.

Rice noted that, like cable-modem service, the best HD sales tactic is to show programming side-by-side. But since you can’t do that in a commercial due to lack of HD in the home, the commercials are animated. The message: you spent all this money for the set but you still need to get the HD feed to receive true ESPN HD and ESPNHD2. The taggable 30-second spots have been crafted with nine seconds left at the end for local contact and pricing information.

ESPN wants operators to run the spots for at least one month, then conduct lift studies to see if the spots are working, she said. That data will be for internal use, she added.

Time Warner Cable began running the HD educational spot earlier this month during ESPN’s coverage of the Frozen Four, the semifinals and finals of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I men’s hockey championships on April 6 and 8.

“Promotion of high-def content is important, and we’ve found that using ESPN’s awareness campaign has been very useful to educate consumers about our HD programming options,” said David Gray, vice president of sales and marketing for Time Warner Cable’s Wisconsin Division, noting that the campaign reinforces its “own marketing.”