Charter sells local ads for AT&T U-verse TV

AT&T (NYSE: T) struck a deal with rival pay TV distributor Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR) to sell local advertising on national cable networks carried by its U-verse TV service in markets where both companies have cable systems.

While AT&T competes against cable and satellite providers for pay TV customers, it's not unusual for multichannel providers to team up to sell the roughly two minutes per hour of ad inventory that most national cable networks set aside for operators to sell to local media buyers. AT&T signed a similar agreement with Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) in February to sell ads in 20 markets where the companies compete.

In June, DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) signed an agreement with NCC Media, the advertising rep firm owned by Comcast, Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Cox Communications, to use NCC's advertising interconnects to deliver targeted ads to DirecTV homes. And in January, Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH) signed Comcast to sell ads for regional sports networks it delivers to customers in Boston, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, Atlanta and Houston.

Under the agreement Charter Media announced with AT&T AdWorks Thursday, Charter will sell local advertising on more than 50 cable networks, including USA Network, Food Network and ESPN HD. The deal should help AT&T reduce costs, since it can rely on Charter's local sales force, and Charter will benefit from the fees it will collect from AT&T for selling local ads.

For more:
- see news release

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