Mike Shaw, president of ad sales for ABC, plans to call on advertisers to push the Nielsen Co. to measure TV shows viewed on cable video-on-demand services.
ABC has made deals with cable operators that make its programs available free if the fast-forward button on remote controls is disabled.
“This should be a business that is in all of our interests,” said Mr. Shaw, in a draft of a speech to be delivered at the network’s upfront presentation Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s on television, what can be easier than that? … There is no monthly fee. You don’t have to remember to program or set your DVR. You have a return path for addressable and interactive advertising. And we preserve the ad model with the fast-forward disabled,” Mr. Shaw says in his speech.
Mr. Shaw also will be talking up a new ad-targeting tool called the Advertising Value Index.
“For too long we’ve all talked in terms of CPMs [cost per thousand viewers] against a far oversimplified buying target,” Mr. Shaw says.
ABC’s AVI allows advertisers to include the factors they think are important—income, education, engagement, tune-in duration, HDTV use—in figuring out which viewers they’re reaching when buying a show or a network, broadcast or cable.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Shaw says ABC performs well when these calculations are made.
In one example, using an advertiser who wants to reach consumers in the most urban counties with four years of college, household incomes of $75,000 and up and high engagement, ABC scores an advertising value index of 167, compared to CBS with a 157, NBC with a 150, Fox with a 135, USA Network with a 100 and TNT with a 97 among adults 18 to 49.
“Our goal is to help you grow your business, by placing your commercials where they will be seen, where they will be paid attention to and where they will reach an audience that will purchase your goods and services,” Mr. Shaw says. “That’s the opportunity—that’s the advantage we deliver.”