Note:  This post origninally appeared on the old Balihoo blog on 11/10/09 by Sam Martin

More often than not when I am briefing a client for a media plan, I am asked a question surrounding the idea of local advertising on satellite television. This is obviously an important and key element of any integrated marketing plan.  My only response to this is that currently it is not possible to advertise locally on Direct or Dish TV. To be honest, I just wasn’t personally satisfied with this answer so I decided to do a little digging and what I unearthed was quite interesting.

There is an obvious demand out there from advertisers to get on satellite television. Satellite TV penetration seems to be growing, I see plenty of advertisements for it but to get actual penetration numbers has proven to be quite difficult. I spoke with a representative that buys satellite TV nationally and he alluded to the fact that Dish and Direct are neither required nor apt to give out their penetration numbers in fear that their competitors (standard cable) will use those numbers against them. This makes sense, as he continued to say that it is safe to assume that 20% of a market subscribe to one form of satellite TV. If this was not just an assumption, standard cable companies would love to use this to their benefit to form an argument on why not to go with satellite TV.

Enough of that, why can I still not execute local advertising on Dish or Direct TV? An article published in June of 2009 states that “DirecTV has banded together with Invidi Technologies to begin offering advertisers the ability to serve geo-targeted ads across its satellite network.” (http://tiny.cc/h2OJ5) That’s good news! Well sort of. If you are one of the fortunate ones that live on either the East or West coast you can take advantage of this service but for us, who are (in this case) “unfortunately” more centrally located, you will have to wait until 2011. A mere year, which I can use to my advantage perhaps to hone my TV buying skills and follow the triumphs and pitfalls of the beta group. A new, pretty cool twist on things, “beginning in 2011, advertisers will be able to target ads based on zip code, political district and at the household level, by picking up info from set-top boxes.” (http://tiny.cc/h2OJ5)

So now I have a more concrete answer to provide when clients ask me about local advertising on Direct or Dish TV, which makes me feel better. Just over a year we must wait my fellow non-East/West coast media buyers until we can get our eager clients on satellite television. I am actually looking forward to it though; the article mentions the juggernaut that is Google getting its fingers in the game, so who knows what that will bring…