On the Call: Cablevision COO Tom Rutledge

Cablevision's Rutledge sees economic recovery in ad rebound, as traditional advertisers return

• By The Associated Press
• On 1:20 pm EST, Tuesday November 3, 2009

Cablevision Systems Corp. is seeing traditional advertisers return to the market, including companies from the battered automotive and financial-services industries.

The company said Tuesday that ad revenue rose by 18 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, with strength seen in its cable networks AMC, IFC and WE tv.

Its new interactive ads, where viewers use their remote to order free product samples, coupons and others from advertisers, are doing well. Cablevision said a two-week Gillette ad campaign offering a free sample ran out of freebies after the first week.

Interactive ads let advertisers measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaign.

Cablevision's Chief Operating Officer Tom Rutledge said in a conference call with analysts Tuesday that the third-quarter rebound in advertising is an indication that the economy is on the mend.

QUESTION: The third quarter's ad revenue was up sequentially and that's unusual. Is that all from interactive advertising? And can you talk about pricing?

ANSWER: "Our total advertising revenue in the third quarter is up sequentially 6 percent over the second quarter. ... Interactive advertising is a factor, but the bigger factor is that there seems to be some economic rebound occurring that is manifesting itself in advertising.

"With regard to the pricing of (interactive) advertising ... we are still experimenting with the best way to do it, but the interesting thing about what we have from a technological perspective is that we can actually determine the effectiveness of advertising and price it accordingly."

Buzz up!