In a move that at one level brings competitors together, a rep firm owned by three large cable operators will begin selling time on DirecTV. National Cable Communications has a deal to take over national spot sales for regional sports networks carried on DTV in nine markets.
The deal also calls for NCC to meld those DTV-carried networks into cable interconnects in those markets, giving NCC wider reach to sell to advertisers in a single package.
Spot cable firm NCC is jointly owned by Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable, all of which compete with DTV for customers.
...In addition to representing the three MSOs that own it, NCC represents Cablevision, Bright House Networks and other cable operators.
