Guide
Cable TV advertising
Benefits, rates, and solutions
Cable TV advertising enables brands to run commercials across subscription-based television networks that reach viewers through dedicated cable infrastructure. Cable television's specialized programming allows advertisers to connect with audiences based on interests and channel preferences.
Start using HAQM Ads to display your products and create campaigns.
If you have limited experience, contact us to request services managed by HAQM Ads. Budget minimums apply.
Scale your reach with video ads that appear in premium content environments like Prime Video.
Sponsored TV is a self-service advertising solution designed for brands to reach and inspire audiences on the largest screen in the home.
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What is cable TV advertising?
Cable TV advertising is the practice of purchasing and placing advertisements on cable television networks. Today's cable TV ads can be placed on hundreds of specialized networks, from news and sports channels to lifestyle and entertainment programming.
Why should I use cable TV ads?
Cable TV has been a trusted advertising medium since the 1950s, offering brands a reliable way to reach engaged viewers at home. Despite the rise of connected TV (CTV) and streaming services, cable television still captured 24.4% of TV viewership in January 2025.1 Cable continues to excel at reaching viewers during live events, sports, and news programming—content categories where traditional cable viewing remains strong. For advertisers seeking established audiences with proven viewing habits, cable TV remains a valuable part of their media strategy.
Benefits of cable TV advertising
Cable is a strategic choice for brands wanting to connect with engaged audiences in a trusted environment. It offers a unique combination of audience reach, established credibility, and cost-effectiveness that continues to make it a valuable part of many advertisers' media mix.
Local reach
Local businesses can focus their advertising dollars on the communities they serve, ensuring their message reaches the right audiences. This allows advertisers to customize messaging for different markets while avoiding wasted impressions on viewers outside their business footprint.
Trusted environment
Consistently perceived as trustworthy, cable TV offers a brand-safe environment that can enhance a company's reputation and message impact.
Cost efficiency
Cable’s lower cost per impression (CPM), compared to other linear TV formats, makes it an efficient choice for reaching defined audiences, particularly for local and regional campaigns. The cost efficiency can help businesses allocate more of their budget toward frequency and consistency, increasing the likelihood of message retention.
Incremental reach
Cable TV advertising can help extend a campaign's reach by connecting with audiences who may be unduplicated through other media channels. This additional audience coverage is particularly valuable for reaching viewers who maintain cable subscriptions and may be less active on digital platforms or streaming services. For advertisers looking to reach older demographics or regions with strong cable TV viewing habits, cable TV ads can be especially effective for incremental reach.
How does cable TV advertising work?
Cable TV advertising works by delivering commercial content to viewers through subscription-based television networks. Businesses purchase ad space from cable providers or media buying agencies. Advertisers can engage audiences across cable networks using first-party signals from subscriber viewership patterns, selecting specific channels, programs, or time slots. Ads appear seamlessly during scheduled program breaks, with spots ranging from 15 to 60 seconds, allowing both national advertisers and local businesses to connect with audiences based on location signals.
Types of cable TV advertising
Cable TV advertising offers businesses two approaches to engage audiences: spot advertising and network advertising. Spot advertising allows businesses to target specific geographic regions through local cable providers, while network advertising broadcasts commercials nationally through individual cable channels. Understanding the differences between these two primary types of cable TV advertising can help marketers make informed decisions about their TV advertising strategy.
Spot TV ads
Spot TV advertising involves purchasing commercial time on specific cable networks in selected geographic markets. For example, a local car dealership might run ads on ESPN, but only in its service area, not across the entire country. This approach allows businesses to reach audiences in particular cities or regions rather than broadcasting nationally. Spot buys can be tailored to specific dayparts (morning, daytime, primetime, late night) to reach viewers when they're most likely to be watching. This approach can help make spot TV advertising more affordable and efficient than national campaigns, especially for small to medium-sized businesses focused on local markets.
Network ads
Network TV advertising provides commercial opportunities across a cable network's full national distribution. This method offers extensive reach while maintaining the audience focus that comes with specialized cable programming. Advertisers benefit from aligning with networks whose viewership and content match their intended audience profile. For businesses aiming to establish brand recognition across multiple regions simultaneously, national cable network advertising proves particularly valuable. While the investment typically exceeds that of local market buys, the broader reach often translates to competitive cost efficiency when considering viewers reached, making it an effective choice for companies with nationwide audiences.
How does network TV advertising differ from cable, satellite, and local TV advertising?
Network TV (also known as broadcast TV) is free to viewers and can be accessed via an antenna. It differs from cable, satellite, and local TV advertising primarily in terms of reach, targeting capabilities, and cost structure. Through networks like ABC, NBC, and CBS, network television advertising reaches a broad national audience, while cable and satellite services offer more localized options.
Cable TV vs. Network TV advertising
Cable television enables advertisers to reach relevant audiences through specialized channels such as ESPN, HGTV, and the Food Network. Network TV reaches a broader audience through networks such as ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX. Due to broader reach, Network TV typically commands higher advertising rates.
Cable TV vs. Satellite TV advertising
Cable and satellite TV advertising share many similarities, as both deliver content through specialized channels rather than over-the-air broadcasting. The primary difference lies in distribution method and geographic targeting capabilities. Cable systems operate within specific geographic areas, allowing for zone-specific advertising, while satellite distribution covers the entire country. Both services offer similar channel lineups and viewing experiences for consumers, with advertising opportunities on the same networks. However, satellite providers typically sell national advertising packages.
Cable TV vs. Local TV advertising
Local TV advertising enables businesses to reach audiences in defined geographic areas, making it ideal for small and medium-sized businesses seeking to build brand awareness or drive foot traffic in their local markets. There are various mediums for local TV advertising and cable TV is one method that advertisers can use due to its ability to reach certain zones or regions.
Cable TV advertising rates and costs
Cable TV advertising rates are variable based on factors like market size, time slot, seasonality, and more. Most cable providers offer package deals that reduce the cost per spot when purchasing multiple airings. These packages often include placements across different networks and dayparts to maximize reach while controlling costs. For businesses new to television advertising, starting with a modest campaign on specific networks can provide valuable exposure without requiring major investment.
Factors influencing cable TV advertising costs
Several elements influence cable TV ad costs, including market size and location, network popularity, time slot, ad length, and seasonality.
- Market size and location: Advertising in major metropolitan areas costs significantly more than in smaller markets due to larger potential audience reach. Advertisers also have the option to buy a full designated market area (DMA) if they are advertising to more than four zones.
- Network popularity: Higher-rated networks with larger viewership command premium rates compared to niche channels with smaller audiences.
- Time slot: Primetime (8–11 p.m.) commands the highest rates due to peak viewership, while overnight and daytime hours offer more affordable options.
- Ad length: Standard 30-second spots typically cost twice as much as 15-second spots, with 60-second spots commanding premium rates.
- Seasonality: Rates increase during high-demand periods like holidays, major sporting events, or season premieres.
How to buy cable TV advertising
As with any advertising campaign, it’s important to first identify your marketing goals. This could be increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or promoting a specific product or event. From there, you can contact your local cable provider’s advertising sales department to develop the right cable TV advertising plan. For brands looking to expand their reach, cable TV advertising can be easily integrated into a broader omnichannel strategy, helping reinforce the message across TV, digital, and social platforms.
The buying process usually follows these steps:
- Identify the ideal market
Choose the regions, demographics, and interests you want to focus on based on your market segmentation. With the growing use of addressable advertising, brands can now deliver content that resonates with consumers’ interests and behaviors—despite any ad identifiers. This approach ensures that marketing efforts are not wasted on irrelevant audiences, optimizing the allocation of resources. - Select ad placement
Decide whether to run spot ads (local/regional) or network ads (national). If your audience is served by multiple cable providers (MVPDs), request proposals from each to compare offerings and rates. National advertisers may work with media buying agencies to coordinate placements across multiple markets and providers. - Choose airtime and frequency
Pick the times and programs that align with the audiences you want to reach. - Set a budget
Determine how much you want to invest and work with the cable provider or agency to maximize your reach within your budget. - Create and submit the ad
Develop a compelling commercial, keeping in mind the optimal length (typically 15, 30, or 60 seconds) and the call-to-action. - Track and optimize
Monitor the campaign’s performance using marketing metrics like impressions, reach, and conversions. Adjust your strategy as needed to enhance effectiveness.
Measuring the effectiveness of cable TV ads
The effectiveness of cable TV ads is measured using a combination of key performance indicators including reach (total viewers), frequency (average number of exposures), and cost per thousand impressions (CPM). Other traditional TV metrics include Gross Rating Points (GRPs), which multiply audience size by ad frequency within a campaign window to estimate household reach as a percentage. Nielsen Ratings provide total viewer numbers for programs and time slots and metrics like Cost Per Point (CPP) help evaluate spending efficiency across campaigns.
While these measurements track campaign reach, understanding true effectiveness requires additional analytics like attribution modeling and brand recall studies. Brand lift studies, for example, provide a layer of insight by measuring changes in awareness, perception, and purchase intent among viewers exposed to commercials. Businesses also benefit from measuring incremental reach—understanding how many viewers were uniquely reached through cable TV versus other channels. With today’s addressable advertising technology, businesses can understand how audiences interact with their brand across multiple touch points, enabling smarter decisions about future campaign investments and adjustments.
Video ads solutions from HAQM Ads
HAQM Ads offers comprehensive video advertising solutions to help businesses reach audiences across over-the-top (OTT) and online video services. From Prime Video and live sports to Twitch and third-party publishers, these solutions help brands connect with relevant audiences throughout their viewing journey.
Available to businesses whether or not they sell on HAQM, our video advertising solutions support various industries and objectives—from local restaurants and car dealerships to hotels and fitness studios. These flexible options help businesses of all sizes leverage the power of video advertising across HAQM's easy-to-use ad tech suite.
Streaming TV
Show up alongside the content your customers love with Streaming TV ads. These full-screen, non-skippable video ads appear before, during, or after video content like TV shows, movies, and live entertainment across connected TV, mobile, and desktop. They can appear in pre-roll or mid-roll formats on Prime Video and live sports programming like Thursday Night Football, Twitch, Fire TV channels, and top third-party TV publishers and broadcasters.
Sponsored TV
Sponsored TV is a self-service advertising solution designed for brands of any size to reach and inspire audiences on the largest screen in the home. Powered by billions of first-party shopping and streaming signals, these Streaming TV ads can help your brand connect with the right audiences, in the right time on streaming services like Prime Video and Twitch.
Prime Video ads
Prime Video ads help brands connect with relevant audiences using HAQM’s exclusive first-party signals and tools. HAQM Ads offers powerful ad tech tools that make it easier to drive results across the planning and activation stages of your Prime Video ads campaign and beyond.
Online video
Online video (OLV) ads are in-stream (before, during, or after video content) and out-stream (in non-video environments between text and images) ads across desktop, mobile, and tablet. Online video ads appear on HAQM-affiliated sites including IMDb.com and Twitch, as well as top third-party publishers.
TV advertising examples from HAQM Ads
Case Study
HexClad Cookware partnered with digital agency Premiere Creative and HAQM Ads to expand their customer base through Streaming TV ads in 2022. Using video content featuring Gordon Ramsay, they implemented a strategy targeting both in-aisle and out-of-aisle shoppers across streaming platforms. The campaign proved highly successful, generating 7.4K branded searches, 5.4K detail page views, and reaching 513K shoppers between April and July 2022. By December 2022, their monthly ad-attributed branded searches had increased more than 40 times compared to their April launch, prompting continued investment in Streaming TV advertising.
Case Study
Yamaha Boats and WaveRunners expanded their digital marketing strategy by implementing Sponsored TV ads to reach new audiences and enhance their existing campaign mix. The brand, which doesn't sell products on HAQM, partnered with agency Marketwake to leverage HAQM Ads audience insights and complement their successful paid search and social media campaigns. The strategy proved highly effective, resulting in significant performance improvements across channels, including a 55% increase in paid social click-through rates and more efficient Connected TV advertising with 30% lower CPMs.
Case Study
As an early adopter of Prime Video ads in 2024, Hasbro launched campaigns for Peppa Pig in the U.K. and Play-Doh in the U.S. The Peppa Pig campaign reached 7 million unique users, driving a 21% increase in branded searches and 18% increase in sales, with 68% of purchases from new customers. The Play-Doh campaign reached 7.2 million unique shoppers, achieving a 14% increase in ad recall and a 6.4% higher purchase rate among customers exposed to all ad formats. By combining Streaming TV ads with Sponsored Brands placements and leveraging HAQM's first-party signals, Hasbro effectively demonstrated how Prime Video ads can drive both brand awareness and sales growth while reaching new customer segments.
Case Study
Turismo de Andalucía partnered with Amazing Agency in 2023 to attract U.S. tourists, particularly from New York and Florida, using HAQM Ads solutions. Working within a tight five-day deadline, the agency implemented a two-phase strategy combining Fire tablet ads, Streaming TV ads, and Twitch advertising. The campaign successfully generated over 73 million impressions and achieved a 0.28% click-through rate, exceeding the industry average of 0.09%-0.2%. Notable successes included Fire tablet ads reaching a 0.60% CTR and an 80% video completion rate across all placements. The campaign effectively balanced a precise approach with broad-reach tactics, demonstrating how HAQM's advertising solutions can successfully promote tourism destinations, even within challenging time constraints.
Explore TV advertising solutions for your goals
While cable TV advertising remains an established way to reach engaged audiences, today's advertisers have more options than ever to connect with TV viewers. The evolution of TV advertising now includes Performance TV solutions that combine television's broad reach with precise digital measurement capabilities. For brands looking to reach today's streaming-first audiences, HAQM Ads offers innovative streaming TV solutions that help you engage viewers across their favorite content.
If you have limited experience, contact us to request services managed by HAQM Ads. Budget minimums apply.
FAQs
Cable television advertising costs vary by market reach, scheduling, and seasonal considerations. Media packages from cable providers typically include cost advantages for multiple airings. These offerings combine placements across various networks and times to enhance audience reach while maintaining efficient spending levels. Small businesses entering television advertising can begin with focused campaigns on select networks to build awareness efficiently.
Advertisers can reach audiences based on location, including through neighborhoods or specific geographic zones. Additionally, through the use of addressable TV advertising, brands can present unique advertisements to audiences even when audiences view the same programming content.