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.

May 2013:

  • 31.6% of television households subscribe to ADS
  • 59.5% of television homes subscribes 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 cable interconnects.


See “National ADS, Wired-Cable & Over-The-Air 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


See "ADS and Wired-Cable Penetration by DMA" in the left navigation for more detail.

Television HH
DMA Rank DMA Name % ADS
47 Albuquerque-Santa Fe 48.5
37 Greenvll-Spart-Ashevll-And 47.6
42 Birmingham (Ann and Tusc) 45.7
13 Phoenix (Prescott) 44.9
33 Salt Lake City 44.1
20 Sacramnto-Stkton-Modesto 43.4
17 Denver 41.8
29 Nashville 40.9
49 Memphis 40.1
21 St. Louis 39.3


See "ADS and Wired-Cable Penetration by DMA" in the left navigation for more detail.

 
 
 

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