Advertising Hall of Fame

Hall of Fame - Kay Koplovitz

Hall of Fame - Kay Koplovitz When Kay Koplovitz founded the first ad-supported cable channel, USA Network, in 1977, cable needed bundles of channels to succeed. Now, viewers are unbundling, making it "a very challenging time for advertising," she told Rance Crain prior to her induction into the Advertising Hall of Fame.An advertiser's message needs to be seen by "the exact person to whom it's going to matter," she said. "People don't mind the advertising, but they don't want to watch the advertising that doesn't address them. It's a chaotic time [and] a fascinating time."Kay said she's been surprised at how quickly some of the upstart streaming channels like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu have produced "high-caliber" programming. And they've fostered the growth of binge viewing, a phenomenon that the established cable networks were forced to copy."I've always loved chaos because in chaos there's opportunity," she said. "Today we have some of the best-written and best-produced television series of all time."