In Houston the cable system is Xfinity. In Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth it is Spectrum. WWC plans cable by zone or by household, then reaches the homes cable misses with streaming.
Who sells it
Cable ad time is sold by the cable company's own ad sales team. In Houston, Xfinity's is Comcast Advertising, which sold local TV under the Effectv name until Comcast retired that brand in April 2025 (opens in a new tab). In Austin (opens in a new tab) and Dallas-Fort Worth (opens in a new tab), it is Spectrum Reach, the ad sales arm of Charter's Spectrum.
Both sell the same three things: spots on cable networks by zone, addressable TV aimed at specific households, and streaming on their own apps. Both will gladly sell you all three. Neither will tell you to put half the budget somewhere else.
That is the case for an independent plan. We buy cable where cable wins, which is still live sports, local news and the households that never cut the cord, which skew older. Then we move the rest to streaming and search when they reach the same people for less.
How to buy it
Zone buys
Cable networks in specific parts of the market. Every cable home in the zone can see the spot. Good for reach in one part of town.
Addressable TV
The spot goes only to the households that match your audience, by income, age, home ownership or other data. Two homes on one street can see different commercials. Higher price per thousand, far less waste.
The cable company's streaming
Streaming inventory sold by the same team. In Spectrum markets that includes the Spectrum TV App, the Spectrum News App and set-top box video on demand, per Spectrum Reach (opens in a new tab).
Local news and sports
Live programming still gathers people in real time. In Texas, Spectrum News 1 is carried only on Spectrum (opens in a new tab), which makes it a cable-only buy in Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth.
How it fits
Cable networks are 18.7 percent of US TV viewing. Streaming is 49 percent, per Nielsen (opens in a new tab). That does not make cable a bad buy. It makes cable one part of a TV plan instead of the plan.
So we plan cable and streaming together, in the same ZIP codes, with the same spot. Cable reaches the homes still on Xfinity or Spectrum. Streaming reaches the ones that left. YouTube TV covers the people who moved their cable channels to the internet. The report shows what each one delivered.
What is Effectv?
Effectv was the name of Comcast's local ad sales team. Comcast retired the name in April 2025 (opens in a new tab) and now sells as Comcast Advertising. In Houston it sells advertising on Xfinity's cable networks along with addressable TV and streaming.
What is Spectrum Reach?
The advertising arm of Charter's Spectrum. It sells ads on Spectrum's cable networks, addressable TV, the Spectrum TV App, the Spectrum News App and set-top box video on demand, including in Austin (opens in a new tab) and Dallas-Fort Worth (opens in a new tab).
What is addressable TV advertising?
TV ads aimed at specific households instead of everyone watching a channel. Two homes on the same street can watch the same network and see different commercials. It costs more per thousand homes than a zone buy and wastes far less.
How much does cable TV advertising cost?
Cable is sold by the spot, and the price depends on the network, the time and the zone. A spot on a small network late at night costs little. Live sports in prime time costs a lot. We build the schedule from the audience and the budget, not from the rate card.
Is cable advertising still worth it?
For some audiences, yes. Live sports and local news still gather people in real time, and the households that kept cable skew older. If your customer is under 35, most of that money usually belongs in streaming and YouTube.
Who sells cable advertising in Houston?
Comcast Advertising, the ad sales team for Xfinity, formerly called Effectv. We plan and buy it alongside streaming so the cable buy and the streaming buy aim at the same households.
Tell us your market and who you need to reach. We will show you which zones, which households and which streaming homes the plan covers.