Oracle Airtime Sales is celebrating 10 years of being in business - from a small operation which began with less than 30 people, Oracle now numbers 72, represents 34 commercial channels and schedules in excess of 300 000 commercial spots per annum.
Oracle evolved in 1995 when DStv was launched and the decision was taken to make M-Net's commercial time sales operation a separate, autonomous entity, to represent 3rd party business.
According to Sales Director, Chris Hitchings, the initial challenge for Oracle was the shift from representing one analogue channel, M-Net, to representing multiple channels on the digital platform: "At that time, digital satellite television was new in South Africa and this was untested territory for us."
He admits it was difficult in the early days, selling a base of only a few thousand subscriber households: "However, we were fortunate to be partnered by several pioneering advertisers who took the leap of faith with us. Most of them are still advertising on the platform today."
Initially, a barrier to investment was the lack of audience measurement of the DStv channels. The medium lacked accountability, because advertisers had no idea if audiences preferred channels or time bands. Oracle proceeded to initiate and fund individual channel ratings, which are now available to the industry.
MD, Peter McKenzie says the key to Oracle's success has been content: "Our channel partners M-Net, SuperSport and the international channels provide a diversity of compelling content, enabling the growth of the Pay TV base and our ability to deliver an important audience segment to our advertisers."
In terms of the immediate future, Oracle is preparing for a number of developments in the industry, such as the introduction of overnight ratings. This means that for the first time, broadcasters can guarantee audience delivery for an agreed price.
In addition, a number of technologies will soon be introduced, which may impact on current advertising models. These include PVR decoders and the possible broadcast delivery to mobile phones via 3G and Digital-Video-to-Handset technologies.
