NO RATINGS, NO BUY?
By Simon Applebaum, CABLE WORLD

Ad agencies say they are willing to be convinced to buy spot cable on Spanish-language networks. They're just waiting for cable to step up with aggressive pitches--and plenty of research.

Selling local advertising on Spanish-language cable channels has never been the first, or easiest, task on cable operators' agendas. But it should be moved up a few notches, because there's real money at stake.

Although some Time Warner Cable and Cox systems, among others, are making a play for those ad dollars, millions of dollars will remain lost to operators unless they make their case to ad agencies with qualitative data in hand, in the absence of ratings information. Most Spanish-language channels aren't in enough homes to be rated by Nielsen.

The Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, which distributed a Latino sales guide among 3,000 advertisers, ad agencies and operator reps two years ago, does not track local Spanish ad revenues, and MSOs are reluctant to make their numbers public in any forum, a CAB official notes.

But Andrew Capone, SVP of new business development for spot cable TV advertising rep firm National Cable Communications, is happy to offer his outlook on local Spanish ad revenue--and it's a provocative one. "We're aiming at tens of millions of dollars for next year and 2006," Capone says.

Automotive, pharmaceutical, financial services and quick service (i.e. fast-food) restaurants are the product categories most likely to be big contributors to that market, Capone says. "They have specific multicultural efforts under way to capture their share of the Hispanic audience."

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