HD Goes for the Gold

CTAM’s OnlyCableCan top dogs Tues confirmed details of the Panasonic Olympics HD promotion that breaks tomorrow. Comcast’s Andy Addis and TW Cable’s Brian Kelly said that like CTAM’s March Madness HD promo with Samsung, ‘Make It a Hi-Def Summer’ uses a big ticket sporting event to tout HD, offering two $50 rebate checks for digital cable with HD service to anyone buying select Panasonic HDTV sets from July 1-Aug 31. The new wrinkles: all top 10 MSOs are on board (Cablevision and Cable One sat out last time). And it’s a bigger media buy ("much larger than $10mln, in the eight figures" Addis says) and a broader retail push, with PRN promos in Best Buy, Circuit City and Sears plus other retailers. The only downside: spots won’t run on NBC’s Olympics trials coverage because its exclusive CE HD sponsor is Sony; and the promotion is avoiding explaining the cable card piece of the cable HD picture that also kicks in Thurs. Addis says the CTAM partners hope to run 4-6 tentpole HD promos like this annually, and another joint promo is possible in ’04, but not yet finalized. — Best Lines: Addis calls the Olympics "a two-week Tupperware party" to sell HD and quips cable and CE are like "Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: the two just go together." (Shirley Brady)