Lease to Show: Leased Access (page 2)

Before you start pitching ad spots to local businesses, remember this: many business owners mistakenly believe TV time is too expensive. Part of your sales job will be to educate potential advertisers about the affordability of local TV spots.

"We went to a clothing store in town--a mom-and-pop organization--that was having competitive problems," remembers Dan Reynolds of Video Vision. "The local Wal-Mart cut into their business quite a bit."

He told the owners that if they didn't get a response from ads on his show, they wouldn't owe him anything for the first month. If they did, he wanted them to sign a six-month contract. His unique approach worked.

"We produced the spot, let it run for a month and went back a month later. The owners said they were afraid that if I found out what response they got, I'd raise the rates. That was three years ago and they're still running ads with me today."

Commercial time is typically sold to advertisers in 30- or 60-second segments. How much revenue is generated depends primarily on the program's ratings, which provides "proof" of viewership. The more viewers, the higher the ratings and the more you can charge your advertisers. A leased access producer must be creative and flexible with audience measurement methods.

For example, run an ad for a store offering a deal advertised only on your show. The store management can track the number of purchases made as a direct result of your ad. You might use an 800 number for special promotions, the calls are logged and can be used to estimate ratings for the show. This will give you valuable information to take back to your retail sponsors.

Sponsors are one type of customer, viewers are the other. You can't have one without the other. When you promote your program to viewers you also publicize it for current and potential sponsors. Since the cable operator is not likely to invest much effort in telling viewers about your show, if you don't tell cable subscribers about your program, they won't know it exists.

A short, well-written press release is the most widely used promotional technique for any business. To make sure yours receives proper attention, write it so it answers the stock journalism questions (who, what, where, when, how and why) and also leave the reader wanting to know more.

Some proven options for promotion are:

• Placing ads in the TV section of your local newspaper.
• Offering to write a regular newspaper column on a topic related to your program.
• Giving your retail sponsors laminated flyers for counter displays.
• Bartering ad time on broadcast stations and other leased access programs.
• Taping a program live at the county fair or another heavily attended community event.

And let's not forget the programming itself. Production quality is the most important issue for most cable systems. All programming on the system, whatever its actual origins, reflects on the system operator.

Cable companies love being associated with high-quality programming. Regardless whether you produce a show that reviews local restaurants, follows your town's high school football teams or covers city council meetings, there will be a more positive response--from the cable company and the audience--if your program is produced and presented in a professional manner. If you've always wanted your own TV show, now you know how to get it.

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