Big web push for
National Geo Channel

Relief at last from those cursed credit card ads

By Marty Beard

     National Geographic magazine stands out for many as the premier journal of wildlife and anthropology, from the Antarctic to Zimbabwe, as well as a handy place to catch up on the real-life courtship rituals of various exotic critters.
    In January of this year, National Geographic gave birth to a cable channel that has grown to reach 134 countries in 21 languages and is seen in nearly 120 million households.
    Now, in an effort to further build viewership for the network, a partnership between Fox Cable Networks and National Geographic Television, the channel has taken to the web. 
    For the week ending Nov. 4, a banner ad touting the National Geographic Channel was the No. 2 banner online, reaching some 7.5 million unique visitors, or almost 10 percent of active internet users, with 159 million impressions, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
    The National Geographic Channel banners have run on such major sites as aol.com, ebay.com, monster.com, americangreetings.com and netscape.com.
    The flood of banners comes as something of a respite from the credit card ads that over recent weeks have appeared to be taking over the internet.
    National Geographic Channel's big banner push coincides with the network’s spread among U.S. households. The channel is carried by Ameritech, Millennium, James Cable and Qwest, plus AT&T and DirecTV.
     According to the most recent Beta Cable Operators Study on Channel Carriage, 84 percent of cable operators that don’t already carry the channel want to do so.
     The network launched in a particularly tough advertising climate and against the established giant that is the Discovery Channel and its various progeny, such as Animal Planet.
     National Geographic recently initiated a deal with America Online in which the ISP will promote Nationalgeographic.com across its online channels, such as Research and Learn, Travel, News, and Kids Only. And the National Geographic Channel, in turn, will air promotions for AOL.
     As part of the deal, the covers of National Geographic’s magazine properties, including National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, Adventure and National Geographic World, will feature AOL keywords.
     On top of this, the society launched a PR blitz in Europe earlier this month.
     Elsewhere in the rankings, city guide network Ticketmaster-Citysearch forged through its jungle of competitors to become the No. 25 property online, with a unique audience of 2.4 million visitors, with each visitor spending about 12 minutes onsite.
    And Excite@Home was the No. 9 property during that week, a ranking that could change slightly soon. The assets of the portal were acquired recently by No. 15 property InfoSpace, a directory and search site.
    InfoSpace will manage Excite’s search services, while No. 22 online property iWon, a well-known portal that lures people to its network with sweepstakes, will handle much of the rest of Excite’s services, such as news and email.
    InfoSpace officials, citing the fact that Excite is a well-established brand online, with some 14 million regular users, say that they will make few radical external changes to the site.

November 14, 2001 © 2001 Media Life

-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.

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