Cable & ADS
National Trends
National ADS (Alternative Delivery System) penetration is at an all-time high in television households and in homes that pay for cable, satellite or telco delivery; wired-cable penetration remains at its lowest in 21 years.
February 2012:
- 31.1% of television households subscribe to ADS
-
60.1% of television homes subscribe to wired cable delivery.
Nielsen includes telco (FiOS and U-Verse) homes in its reported wired cable penetration figures. These homes are not available via local wired cable interconnects.
See "National ADS & Wired-Cable Penetration Trends" in the left navigation for more detail.
Local Trends
Broadcast television has the potential to reach 100% of television homes. A significant number of television households are missed if you're buying local cable because local cable commercials may not be seen in ADS homes. Many markets exceed the national ADS average. It is even more important for advertisers in these markets to consider the ADS factor.
Top 10 ADS levels in markets 1-50
| Television HH | ||||
| DMA Rank | DMA Name | % Wired Cable and/or ADS | % Wired Cable | % ADS |
| 37 | Greenvll-Spart-Ashevll-And | 91.7 | 45.4 | 46.9 |
| 45 | Albuquerque-Santa Fe | 80.9 | 34.5 | 46.6 |
| 39 | Birmingham (Ann and Tusc) | 94.4 | 50.3 | 44.6 |
| 13 | Phoenix (Prescott) | 84.7 | 43.0 | 42.1 |
| 17 | Denver | 89.7 | 48.4 | 41.6 |
| 20 | Sacramnto-Stkton-Modesto | 89.9 | 48.9 | 41.5 |
| 33 | Salt Lake City | 83.5 | 42.9 | 41.1 |
| 49 | Memphis | 88.2 | 49.2 | 39.7 |
| 21 | St. Louis | 89.8 | 50.9 | 39.3 |
| 29 | Nashville | 93.2 | 56.0 | 37.8 |
See "ADS and Wired-Cable Penetration by DMA" in the left navigation for more detail.