"“I still remember a conversation we had early on about the future of data-driven media — David didn’t just see where things were going. He helped shape the path to get there."

— Bill Koenigsberg, Founder and CEO, Horizon Media

By Alyson Trager

As a college student, David Kline never expected a door-to-door salesman to change his life. It was at the Ohio State University, where Kline was initially studying landscape architecture, that a QUBE salesman knocked on his door and asked if he wanted a subscription. It was the first iteration of two-way cable television, and Kline wanted in.

“How cool is this product? I thought, ‘How easy is this to sell?’” recalled Kline, who then interviewed with Warner Cable in New York and got a similar door-to-door job selling cable television subscriptions in Houston, Texas. Though Houston was a bit out of his comfort zone, that job proved to be a launching pad for a career in management and the pay TV business.

This pivot from landscaping to television and the media world is the first of many big swings Kline took throughout his career. Ultimately, taking risks would define his industry tenure in a number of ways, including launching pay-per-view at Showtime in the early 1980s and linear household addressability in television advertising.

“David has spent his entire career pushing the boundaries of what advertising can do, pioneering new models using data and technology while integrating traditional, digital and streaming platforms to connect brands with audiences in smarter, more thoughtful ways. He never settles — for clients, for his teams or for the industry,” said Rich DiGeronimo, president, product and technology and one of Kline’s colleagues at Charter Communications.

Risk-Taker

This predilection for taking chances is epitomized by the day that Kline — who was working as the general manager of Midwestern regional sports networks at Rainbow Networks, the programming division of Cablevision Systems — was called into the CEO’s office and asked to run the entire advertising business.

“What do I know about advertising?” Kline asked himself, but as his boss took a 15-minute call during their meeting, Kline talked himself into accepting the position. “Why not me? Get out of your comfort zone … Try something that you might not know, but use your skills you’ve learned,” he recalled telling himself.

“It was pretty daunting but … I went from ‘I don't think I want to do this’ to ‘you know what, why not me?’ and I think that was the most pivotal decision I made in my career,” said Kline, reflecting on the jump from general manager to president of Rainbow Media Sales.

Kline took the position and ran with it, becoming the first at Cablevisionto pioneer addressable television advertising, rather than relying on the “spray and pray” method, in which TV advertisers had to hope they were reaching the right targets because there had been no readily accessible household data. Kline was also involved in developing interactive television advertisements where viewers at home could click on a remote-control button to get a product sample or store gift card sent directly to them.
 

“You're going to get ads; might as well get ads that you can act on.”

— David Kline

“It helped us sell a lot of advertising because the advertisers had to buy those 30-second ads to then get their message out there,” Kline said. These industry innovations didn’t go unnoticed.

“His passion, integrity and relentless drive to evolve advertising from a ‘spray and pray’ model to one rooted in addressability and accountability have left an indelible mark,” said longtime acquaintance Bill Koenigsberg, CEO and founder of Horizon Media (and a 2014 B+C Hall of Famer). “I still remember a conversation we had early on about the future of data-driven media — David didn’t just see where things were going. He helped shape the path to get there.”

Political-Ad Pioneer

Kline’s work pioneering addressable TV advertising caught the eye of New York City mayoral hopeful Michael Bloomberg, who latched onto the ability to segment audiences and use different messaging across demographics. That was Kline’s first foray into political advertising, but certainly not his last, as in 2024, Kline helped innovate programmatic advertisements for political campaigns.

“Television has always been a wonderful place for political advertising,” Kline opined. Beginning with the ability to pinpoint voters based on geography, to targeting specific demographic sectors, such as those who make over $150,000 and voted for Democrats, Kline watched political advertising explode over his career in cable. Kline’s innovations in the cable advertising industry can be summarized as follows: “You're going to get ads; might as well get ads that you can act on.”

Earlier this year, Kline announced his retirement, though he will continue to serve as chairman of the board for Comscore. Outside of television, Kline plans to spend more time with his family and travel the world, hopefully hitting the Australian Open.