Cinema Advertising Council Joins The Video Advertising Bureau

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

Coming out of New York is news that the Cinema Advertising Council (CAC), the national trade association serving cinema advertising networks and the theatrical exhibition community, will join the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), which represents the programmers and distributors of multiscreen TV content.

The deal, effectively a merger of operations, creates a single industry voice for America’s premier video providers just as advertiser demand for top-quality video reaches unprecedented levels. A year after it formed to unify the multiscreen TV business, the VAB will now represent a combined $55 billion in programming investment and $67 billion in advertising revenue.

“Now there is one industry resource to help brands learn how to mobilize the biggest and best audiences in all of advertising,”
says Sean Cunningham, VAB president and CEO. “Nothing can match the scale of audience commitment for exclusive, first-run, professionally produced video content. Ours is the programming that dominates all screens and generates the appointment viewing at scale that advertisers need more than ever.”

The union follows a year of record viewership for both multi-screen TV and cinema, with TV reaching 292 million viewers (98.7% of the U.S.) and cinema attracting 1.2 billion ticket purchases. Now seemed the idea time for VAB and CAC member networks to unite with a common voice.

“Since 2002, the CAC has championed the world-class content and immersive environment of the movies to the ad industry, and now savvy marketers are buying our medium as part of the premium video universe,”
says Katy Loria, president and chairman of the CAC. “We realized that we and the VAB were promoting the same ideals – highly engaged audiences, appointment viewing, great content and national scale – and decided that we are stronger together as part of one larger Video Advertising Bureau.”

Under the terms of the agreement, CAC will continue to provide select services independently, such as maintaining its own website, while CAC data will now be incorporated into the growing body of reports that the VAB Insights Group produces. A CAC Board Member will join the VAB Board of Directors.

The Video Advertising Bureau is an advocacy group dedicated to providing advertisers and their agencies with the most current, complete and actionable media insights on the expanding world of premium, multiscreen TV content. The VAB member companies include A&E Networks,AMC Networks, AT&T AdWorks, Bright House Networks, Cable One, Cablevision, CBS Corporation, Cinema Advertising Council, Comcast,Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Discovery Communications, FOX Networks, Mediacom, National CineMedia (NCM),NBCUniversal, Screenvision Media, Scripps Networks, Spotlight Cinema Networks, Suddenlink Communications, Time Warner Cable, Tribune Media, Turner Networks, Verizon FiOS, Viacom, Viamedia, and Walt Disney Co..

The Cinema Advertising Council is a national non-profit trade association founded in 2003 and serving cinema advertising sellers, the theatrical exhibition community and the advertising community, acting as a central source of information for the industry. CAC members have generated $600 million or higher in cinema advertising revenue for six consecutive years, with more than $7.31 billion spent on- and off-screen since the CAC began tracking revenue in 2002. In addition to representing cinema advertising companies that account for 35,236* U.S. cinema screens, or approximately 90 percent of U.S. cinema screens and Box Office admissions, the CAC’s membership is also comprised of companies that provide services and products to the cinema advertising industry.


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