How Comcast & Cox & Spectrum Reach Unify Linear And Streaming with Ampersand VP of Integrated Sales, Seth Mittman

Why Shared Cable Ad Sales Matters

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 0:00

Did you know that for the last 30 years, Comcast, Cox, and Spectrum have all worked together on the ad sales side? Well, whether you did or didn't, today's conversation is going to explain and teach you about exactly what that means for you as an advertiser, what that means for you as an ad seller, because today's conversation is with Seth Mitman. Seth is the VP of Integrated Sales at Ampersand. So Seth takes us through not only what his day-to-day looks like and the brands, the activation paths, the workflows, what those look like, but describes the coverage. What does the footprint look like? What does it actually mean in the broader context of advertising and streaming and my linear investment? That's what today's conversation is about. So if you're trying to figure those things out for yourself, this is the podcast for you. Enjoy.

Redefining Cable As Cross-Platform TV

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 1:00

But especially over the last four to five years has been redefining cable and really is now at the intersection of linear streaming, perfectly positioned to help advertisers reach audiences. Can you take us back maybe four or five years? You said redefining cable. What did you mean by that?

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 1:19

Yeah, I think you know it's it's really more like you know, eight, nine years at this point, more than four or five. I think over the past four or five years, we've sort of, I don't want to say perfected it, but we've certainly gotten a lot better at delivering audiences at scale. But I think, you know, you and I were talking, and I think one of the things that, you know, people might not understand is that we have been around for, you know, a very long time. And we did what we've done in the cable space many, many years ago was you know, sort of aggregating and solidifying a fragmented cable space from a market level perspective, just for linear, right? We've done the same thing now on a multi-platform level across linear and streaming with you know supercharged, right? With a lot more data, with a lot more, you know, precision targeting capabilities. But really for us, it's all TV. And it doesn't really matter what device or distribution method users are accessing that content. We have the ability to reach users across the entirety of the TV ecosystem at scale with precision targeting.

How Ampersand Aggregates National Inventory

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 2:25

And I want to kind of call out the unique distinction that is Ampersand, the co-opetition piece. It's Comcast, Cox, Spectrum. You're essentially like the advertising sales arm for those three companies. Is that a fair way to capture Ampersand?

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 2:42

Yeah, you know, so we, you know, with our ownership group, Comcast, Charter, and Cox, you know, we bring to the marketplace, you know, a large-scaled inventory source that allows us to bring, you know, from a local market perspective. Now there's also local regional, which we don't handle, but from a national sort of spots and dots perspective, you know, the local, regional, local, real local perspective, and then also nationally, right? We have the ability to, you know, run across not only live sports, but addressable advertising from a full footprint basis as well.

Why Live Sports Still Wins

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 3:16

Cool. And I've got a couple stats here. 90% of sports. I think your your footprint covers 90%. We it's something that we've talked about here on the podcast. We actually have some workout this week talking about how much of sports viewership is still on linear broadcast, cable transmissions, albeit in a streaming wrapper sometimes. Can you can you break that apart? Like one, what does the ampersand sports footprint look like? And then two, how do you have that conversation with advertisers? How are you how are you helping educate?

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 3:50

Yeah, I think um sports is an interesting one, right? It's sort of the the last appointment TV, if you will, right? Live TV, whether that's streaming or on linear. You know, look, there's a lot more people that are streaming live sports now, and that's becoming a much bigger part of what we do. But again, everything that we do is is or what we try to do is cross-platform, right? You know, for us to be able to reach users across linear and streaming with that amount of sports content is something that really sets us apart in the marketplace. And so, you know, yes, there's broadcast inventory that's available, you know, Amazon, you've got Netflix, you've got, you know, a multitude of different competitors who are now vying for sports inventory because it is so exclusive, you know, for ampersand to have that much across all of our markets really sets us apart. And as we really, as the as the viewership fragments into streaming as well, you know, we have the ability to reach users across both platforms too, from a live sports perspective.

Activating Across 210 DMAs Made Easier

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 4:49

Are there any activation restrictions? Thinking about this, I've all right, great. You've you've convinced me we've got all the coverage, we've got, I think, 75% of the addressable United States within the footprint. Big piece of that being sports. If I want to activate that, is it simple? Is it hard? Am I activating across all of the different partners? What does that actually look like if I want to place a buy? Maybe give us the the local regional use case and then that national example, if you could. Yeah.

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 5:23

So I think it it could be hard, right? It could be difficult to do that if you were going to individual MVPDs in a marketplace, or if you were going to individual publishing partners, or you know, working with you know 30 or 40 or even 10, 12 different partners to aggregate the marketplace. And that is exactly why Ampersand exists, right? We make it easy and seamless to be able to reach all of those users in every market, all 210 DMAs across the country for any inventory or or any targeting capability or criteria, you know, whatever you're trying, whoever you're trying to reach and whatever you're trying to accomplish, we have the ability to do that. And that's really why we exist to make that easier for buyers. So they, you know, I don't really like to use the word one-stop shop. I'm not really a fan of that term. I because it rarely is. I I it always turns into three or four stops for me. Totally. I like to think of us more as an end-to-end solution, right? Okay, and so you can really utilize us for reach vehicle. We have branding capabilities, we have lower funnel opportunities that exist, but really the reason that we exist is to make that process easier on the buying community so they don't have to work with multiple different platforms and partners to be able to get a lot of the you know inventory and reach that they need.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 6:48

I think that that is a worthy distinction of a tool in the toolbox versus the one-stop shop. Because actually, now that you call it out, the one-stop shop is oftentimes limiting. There's something I'm giving up versus I want to have a few key partners, a few key integrations that give me the broadest scope of coverage with the most efficiency and impact. Okay.

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 7:11

That yeah, and look, I'm not necessarily suggesting that any advertisers say, well, I'm not gonna work with the large branded publishers that I really want to work with that they have, you know, individual partnerships with, right? I think where ampersand comes in is a great complement to that, right? And we can be utilized uh not to fill in the blanks, but to really complement as part of a you know a tactic in the overall strategy, you know, not a sole entity, but certainly not, you know, somebody that that shouldn't be considered.

Political Advertising And Programmatic Plans

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 7:42

I think that that is a good framing, good framing for us to to take away from that. Let's talk about political. Ampersand's leaning all the way into political, local being kind of like your sweet spot and all politics being local. Talk to me about the political initiatives that you've got going on. It looks like there's some specific products and we're coming into midterms. How how big of a how big of a focus is political for your team right now?

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 8:07

Yeah, so my team doesn't handle political, right? Uh I'm all core business. However, Ampersand has always done a pretty big political business in the local markets, as you suggested, right? But we are now entering into, you know, uh more of a programmatic activation and execution with our political business. And, you know, with the midterms coming up, you know, certainly there's always local opportunities that make more sense for us than than really anyone else because of the scale that we do have across individual markets. So our political business has always been when it was just linear, and now even more so with linear and streaming, a very big part of what we do.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 8:49

Cool. I don't want to push too hard then on the political stuff. I think we can all kind of get that for ourselves.

Core Business Workflows And Client Questions

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 8:55

Talk to me about the core business. What is the core business? What does your day-to-day look like, Seth? Yeah, core business is basically everything but political, right?

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 9:02

Okay. So you've got, you know, all of our core advertisers holding companies, independent, et cetera, et cetera. You know, my my day is, you know, pretty different every day, right? I think, you know, there's there's opportunities for us to sort of educate people that don't know who Ampersand is, either on the independent side or either from a client perspective. You know, look, everybody knows who Comcast is, they know who Charter is, they know who Spectrum uh for Cox is, right? But when it comes to Ampersand being sort of the unifier of all those MVPDs, we're not necessarily a household name, right? We don't have an app that you can go to from a streaming perspective, but we are sort of the backbone of the inventory and you know, the uh the aggregation of viewership insights across all of our MVPDs to bring to the market. And so it's, you know, education, it's also, you know, trying to figure out solution-based opportunities for clients, you know, as I mentioned before, who are they trying to reach and what are they trying to accomplish are the two best questions that I could get answered in any meeting, you know, because we can go back and figure out what it is that they need and what solutions we have across our entire portfolio, whether that is an addressable execution, whether it's streaming only, whether it's linear, whether it's a complement of all three, you know, various different opportunities that exist within the lines of business of Ampersand. But, you know, it's it's pretty different every

MVPD Explained In Plain English

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 10:24

day for sure.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 10:24

I'm sure it is. The MVPD, it's it's an acronym that we've discussed here before. How do you simply define it? You're at a you're at a barbecue with friends and family. How do you make it make sense to someone that's not in the industry?

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 10:39

Yeah, well, I'm certainly not going to use multi-video program distributor, right? You're not getting a second burger. Yeah, it's the it's the cable company, right? And that's how people understand it. You know, I mean, look, I've been in this business for 30 plus years now, right? And you know, and and my mom still has no idea what it is that I do or how to define it, especially once I moved into streaming. But yeah, it's the cable provider, you know, and that just opens up understanding, you know, outside of our industry, right? It opens up an understanding of who you're trying to uh talk about or you know what company or organization you're referring to. Cool.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 11:16

Are there any interesting trends that you're seeing within the core business? Any any categories that have really leaned into this or creative strategies, maybe maybe things that have surprised you that you're seeing?

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 11:29

I I don't think that I'm surprised by much anymore. If I'm being 30 years, yeah, that's true. That's fair. Uh you know, look, I think the the fact that sports and streaming is becoming such a bigger part of what everyone is doing and looking for. Again, I think it's because of that live content, right? You know, you've got a lot of data-driven attributes, you've got a lot of measurement capabilities and attribution opportunities that exist, right? Everybody's trying to get smarter about their buys. However, you know, within the live sports area, it's just content, right? And people want to align with that content. So sort of throwing it back to, you know, the way it used to be. Of course, everybody wants to deliver and they want to, you know, learn more and be smarter from their buys. But at the end of the day, you know, it's really about aligning with that content. And there's so much viewership out there when it comes to live in-game sports. We're fortunate that we have not only the linear capabilities, but the streaming as well.

Buying Sports: Targeting, Pricing, Flexibility

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 12:29

Let's spend a few minutes to talk, talk about sports. Do I have to buy it on a big guaranteed basis? Is there flexibility? Can I activate programmatically? What are what are some of the common questions that that you get around sports advertising? Maybe we could answer a few of those today.

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 12:47

Yeah, programmatically, right now we we don't offer that. I mean, you can access, you know, inventory on a programmatic basis from you know any any DSP. You know, you can go get inventory here and there. But again, it's it's at aggregate, right? It's at scale, what really makes it impactful. You know, for us, we're not at the point yet where we're activating on a programmatic basis. You know, we've got pockets of that, but it's really not, you know, the meat of it is really still on a direct I.O. basis. But when we talk about the live in-game sports, you know, we we do have the capability to do a little bit of targeting, right? You know, but you know, run into scale issues at some point, right? And then, you know, price can always be a factor. But, you know, I think advertisers are understand that for a premium product, you know, CPMs are a little bit higher, and not necessarily because, you know, ampersand just charges that, right? I mean, I think it's compared with compensate with the marketplace, but you know, there there are limited opportunities when it comes to live sports, right? We don't require you to buy upfront guarantees on live sports. Would I like to get to that point? Sure. But I think really for me, what's what's most impactful is being able to run cross-platform opportunities, linear and streaming for an advertiser that can buy individual game opportunities, real run their spots on linear, run the same on the streaming platform, and really, you know, hit both audiences that they may be missing one or the other place. So it's really more about trying to get advertisers to understand, you know, that cross-platform is really what we're looking for at the moment. But no, no upfront guarantees for us in the live sports arena. You know, we do and always have done a lot of, you know, cable linear sports. And, you know, over the past year or so, we've ventured into the live streaming, being able to pair those up is something that really makes sense for

The Future Is Linear Plus Streaming

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 14:34

the advertiser.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 14:34

You've been at this for for the better part of three decades, and you've seen you've seen it all. What are you most excited about?

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 14:42

I think I'm I'm most excited about the convergence of linear and streaming as that cross-platform opportunity, right? You can read the trades, the you know, everybody can say that you know cable is dying, right? It's not. And and for us, the fact of the matter is eyeballs are shifting from one screen to another. And really what excites me most about being an ampersand is the fact that we have those subscribers. And again, it doesn't matter what device or distribution method they're you know trying to consume content. We can reach them both on the linear screen, we can reach them on the CTV device, mobile, tablet, what have you. It doesn't matter. And for me, that convergence is really what, you know, the convergence of screens, right? Viewership, and then the, you know, the massive amounts of insights that exist to be able to pinpoint specific target audiences, you know, and do all sorts of different A B testing and really help the client figure out what it is that they either may be missing or what they can be doing better as part of their overall

How To Reach Seth And What’s Next

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 15:51

strategy.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 15:51

Beautiful. And it's a perfect segue because next week we will have a conversation just like this with Amon Sony, who is our dedicated telco contributor, and he's got some insights about what's going on in that side of the world, specifically about user data, about how telcos are using what they know about consumers to create more leverage for themselves. So, Seth, thank you so much for being here. If folks want to get in touch with you, where should they go?

Seth Mittman, VP Integrated Sales at Ampersand 16:19

Seth.mitman at ampersand.tv. You know, feel free. I'm I'm always available, but certainly I appreciate the time. Great to be here and you know, let me know if you need anything else.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 16:28

Absolutely. We will certainly have more conversations like this. I think there's gonna be a lot to talk about later in the year. So, Seth, thanks for getting us started here in part one. Thanks, Tim. Appreciate it. Absolutely.

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Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 16:38

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