Davidcard[Posted by David Card]

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According to Ad Age's math, if Comcast buys NBC Universal, Comcast's advertising revenues would go from 7% of its total take to over 20%. Most of the potential synergies described in the piece could be done via thoughtful deals rather than by acquisition, and plenty of pundits don't like the potential combo. But think about how that increased importance of advertising might affect Comcast, and the industry.

Talk of advanced TV advertising is back in the air, courtesy of Comcast, Cablevision, Hulu, Canoe, etc. But it's going to take a pretty complicated value chain to deliver on the promise of addressable set top boxes and interactivity. While the networks – and agencies – are the ones that most need to re-invent TV advertising, they have a lot of bad habits entrenched behaviors. Will TV innovation – and industry power – come from Internet power players (Google, Microsoft)? from startups? from the guys that actually have the set top boxes and distribution pipes?

If Comcast's ad business suddenly triples in importance, it has a serious incentive to innovate.

I'm working on a report on what measurement techniques will cross over from online to TV and vice versa, and I'd like to hear your opinions on how this will shake out, and when.