On 30th March 1997, Five was launched as the "modern mainstream" alternative to Britain's other network TV channels. It broke the mould in UK media launches by meeting, and in some cases surpassing, all business targets for its first year. Its audience share is growing steadily, year on year and 20 million viewers are tuning in each week. In some parts of the UK, Five is already achieving a 10% share of viewing, and for many people, Five is now their regular third choice after ITV and BBC1.

None of this happened by magic. Before broadcasting could begin, Five was faced with the mammoth task of ensuring all its transmission and technological support systems were actively and reliably in place. Thanks to its high-profile "give me Five" retuning campaign, nearly everyone in the country was aware of the new channel. Few, however, would have been aware of the campaigns being conducted internally that would affect the commercial viability of the channel.

One such issue was - which computerised system would be used to support the station's lifeblood of advertising sales. "We needed the best tool for bringing in revenue for the station," emphasised MARK WHITE, Sales Controller for Five. "The advertising community was looking forward to a new terrestrial channel funded by advertising which could increase their campaign options whilst achieving their desire to reduce the price of television advertising. Intense pre-launch activity went into ensuring we wouldn't disappoint them."

Selling television advertising is unique in its complexity. Few systems would be able to cope. (In 1999 Five negotiated, administered and delivered over £200m of TV commercials.) These ads have to satisfy advertisers' specifications for particular audience profiles and ratings across widely varying programmes and viewing figures.

As far as Five was concerned, the tried and tested functionality of CCA's OASIS system and its user-friendly applications made it the solution most favoured by Mark White and his team. "I'd used OASIS before, both at Thames Television and at UK Gold. I knew it could comfortably perform the complex task of balancing deal delivery, even with the unpredictable nature of television audiences."

OASIS can analyse millions of impacts (i.e., each time someone sees a commercial) second-by-second against hundreds of deals, across a twelve month period. In 1998 Five delivered 39.2 billion impacts to its advertisers. OASIS was able to handle detailed analysis of this mass of data, online and at anytime.

CCA has customised the use of OASIS for Five to meet the very specialised nature of its adsales function. The overriding criterion is to maximise the efficiency of its commercial airtime. All British television channels are governed by the ITC regulations that limit the airtime that can be sold for advertising to 168 minutes a day, so broadcasters cannot afford for any minute to be wasted. OASIS is set up to know how to find the audience that matches the demographics an advertiser has specified for his product or service. In addition, OASIS is programmed to produce slots that will guarantee an advertiser the ratings that have been agreed for the campaign.

To achieve this, Five offers 16 different demographic audience profiles in its deals. For example, a car advertisement can be scheduled to target ABC1 men, whilst a record promotion would be transmitted at a time that reaches 16 to 24 year old adults. The OASIS system combined with its operators' experience is used to find the best spot for each commercial, so that it reaches its target audience to maximum effect and with least wastage.

Every month, three weeks prior to the next months' transmission of pre-booked advertising campaigns, the committed revenue from advertisers is processed by the OASIS Generator. The system analyses all the campaigns against their demographics and attributes a package of spots to each advertiser, based on the deal price, the campaign dates, the daypart laydown and the audience. Its' computations use CFIs (Conversion Factor Indices), which mathematically compare breaks across the day according to the audiences they deliver. The OASIS Generator takes advertisers' target profiles and, by matching these to the best CFIs based on predicted ratings, it produces a recommended booking plan that ensures that the minimum airtime is used to achieve all advertisers' targets. The system operators then check the bookings, input any special needs and electronically dispatch the campaign schedules to the advertising agencies, for them to input into their buying systems. The deals are done on the basis of delivering a certain number of impacts per campaign and per day-part, e.g., day-time, peak-time and night-time. 80% of airtime sold up until transmission is booked directly into the system in this way, and the whole process takes only a few days. It would take weeks if it were done manually.

The 20% airtime left, allows for special targeting needs and sales in the short-term market. The sales team uses the system to find the open time that can still be sold to the market. Any further sales made are automatically loaded onto the system, which provides up-to-date reports on the airtime still available.

Once the advertising is transmitting, the sales team uses OASIS to check the status of each campaign on a daily basis, so that they are able to report on and advise on its progress. Explains Mark White: "OASIS will show us if we are under or over-delivering on the agreed number of impacts to any advertiser, on any given campaign. We are then in a position to redress any imbalance by adding or removing spots until they match the terms of the deal."

From everyone's point of view it is essential that OASIS helps the adsales function to perform to maximum efficiency. The advertisers want an accurate and timely delivery of a campaign that will deliver their required audience profiles and ratings. The sales team needs a system that is accurate, fast and reliable. Five management needs a system that can interface with its other functions and support management and marketing decisions. OASIS is customised to be able to do this and can cross-refer and cherry-pick relevant data from the Channel's internal systems. For example, it can produce invaluable management reports that link the effectiveness of airtime sales to the channels programme output. A commercial broadcaster's programmes, the audiences they deliver and the revenue these will attract are interdependent, so OASIS' ability to relate and report on the picture as a whole can be a great asset to scheduling and programming decisions.

CCA's OASIS system has always been ahead of its time, but complacency is never allowed to stagnate its continued development. CCA's latest initiative is to further enhance the user-friendliness and "windows" compatibility of the system. Already, the front-end is more user-friendly than its rivals, in that it is mouse driven and works on select-a-bar options, rather than the more demanding alternatives of code entry applications. Future improvements will give it a VB front end, offering icons and tool bars on a desktop, just like other "windows" desktop systems. It will also be faster at drawing and refreshing screens and processing information when it comes back into the system.

"Everything about our relationship with everyone at CCA gives me good cause to retain it," comments Mark White. "They are proactive in anticipating and meeting our needs. They are reliable, honourable, and I trust them. I believe they share the same ideals as us about providing a service that gives peace of mind to our clients. I am delighted that we have just signed a new five year contract with them. They know what they are doing."