/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
The JJ Abrams-created sci-fi series 'Fringe' and Joss Whedon's 'Dollhouse' were the first programmes in which the 'Remote Free TV' approach was tested, but these will return to a normal amount of ad breaks next season, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
During the test period, 'Fringe', which airs on Sky One in the UK, ran with around 10 minutes of ads, about four to six minutes less than the typical hour long show.
Fox's experiment with airing full seasons of shows with fewer ads was designed to combat ad clutter and stop viewers from fast-forwarding through breaks.
When Fox announced the experiment at last year's upfronts, Fox chairman of entertainment Peter Liguori said he wanted Remote-Free TV to "be bold, to engage, to make audiences lean forward".
Some advertisers are understood to have paid premiums of 40% or more for the spots, but the prices were not high enough to match what Fox would have made selling more ads at standard prices.
Fox said that it still plans to use the strategy in limited instances, such as for special events or premieres.
The move comes as analysts predict that the 'upfront' ad-sales marketplace, where broadcast networks traditionally sell about three quarters of their ad inventory, could shrink 15% as slack consumer spending encourages advertisers to cut back.
More on Brand Republic
Comments
The current advertising market is in meltdown...
... with audiences disappearing, TV rates plummeting and clients cutting already slender budgets. Perhaps we should be rejoicing that the days of hype and excess are finally over. And there is nothing...repeat...NOTHING the media companies nor advertising agencies can do about it!
The advertising boom of yesteryear will forever be associated with the credit boom. Just as the values of that economic system are now discredited, so to will be the values of the marketing and advertising boom that went with it.
In the future we will no longer have high regard of advertising/marketing that is mass-produced. We will be amazed that Clients, like Guinness, will have paid 15 million pounds for the production of a TV commercial.
Marketing is everything a company does to acquire customers and maintain a relationship with them. Even the small tasks like writing thank-you letters, playing golf with a prospective client, returning calls promptly and meeting with a past client for coffee can be thought of as marketing.
The all-embracing concept of marketing has been lost on a lot of companies, resulting in a poisoning of the well, a deeply ingrained lack of trust that, now has become an enormous obstacle to overcome:
Marketers have spammed, lied, deceived, cluttered and ripped us off for so long, we're sick of it.
Which means that even if you have a really good reason, no, you can't call me on the phone. Which means that even if it's really important, no, I'm not going to read the instructions. Which means that god forbid you try to email me something I didn't ask for... you're trashed. It's so fashionable to be sceptical now that no one believes you if you attempt to do something for the right reasons.
Like all those packaged-up bundles of bad debt, contemporary advertising had no fundamental value. It was misplaced faith in future economic growth that drove up the values of 30-second TV commercials!
The Clients spent so much money on advertising because they believed that they were living in the best of times and that it was all just a one way street - upwards! We all now know all this wasn't true.
In the years to come this advertising will be seen as the ultimate symbol of the economic fairyland we have been living through in the past five years, an era in which the world lost touch with its sense of value. These were not masterpieces of advertising, they were the icons of idiocy.
My recently published book "Television killed advertising" is now available @ Amazon Books UK. In the book I detail just how much more effective interactive communication is when compared to conventional advertising and details the results of a research investment in excess of £5 m. It also discusses where we went wrong in the past and where we are going to go wrong in the future unless we learn the real meaning of the word "communication". Want to hear more you can contact me at paul.ashby@yahoo.com
Discover more on http://interactivetelevisionorinteractivetv.blogspot.com
Comments
Paul Ashby - 15/05/2009
The current advertising market is in meltdown... ... with audiences disappearing, TV rates plummeting and clients cutting already slender budgets. Perhaps we should be rejoicing that the days of hype and excess are finally over. And there is nothing...repeat...NOTHING the media companies nor advertising agencies can do about it! The advertising boom of yesteryear will forever be associated with the credit boom. Just as the values of that economic system are now discredited, so to will be the values of the marketing and advertising boom that went with it. In the future we will no longer have high regard of advertising/marketing that is mass-produced. We will be amazed that Clients, like Guinness, will have paid 15 million pounds for the production of a TV commercial. Marketing is everything a company does to acquire customers and maintain a relationship with them. Even the small tasks like writing thank-you letters, playing golf with a prospective client, returning calls promptly and meeting with a past client for coffee can be thought of as marketing. The all-embracing concept of marketing has been lost on a lot of companies, resulting in a poisoning of the well, a deeply ingrained lack of trust that, now has become an enormous obstacle to overcome: Marketers have spammed, lied, deceived, cluttered and ripped us off for so long, we're sick of it. Which means that even if you have a really good reason, no, you can't call me on the phone. Which means that even if it's really important, no, I'm not going to read the instructions. Which means that god forbid you try to email me something I didn't ask for... you're trashed. It's so fashionable to be sceptical now that no one believes you if you attempt to do something for the right reasons. Like all those packaged-up bundles of bad debt, contemporary advertising had no fundamental value. It was misplaced faith in future economic growth that drove up the values of 30-second TV commercials! The Clients spent so much money on advertising because they believed that they were living in the best of times and that it was all just a one way street - upwards! We all now know all this wasn't true. In the years to come this advertising will be seen as the ultimate symbol of the economic fairyland we have been living through in the past five years, an era in which the world lost touch with its sense of value. These were not masterpieces of advertising, they were the icons of idiocy. My recently published book "Television killed advertising" is now available @ Amazon Books UK. In the book I detail just how much more effective interactive communication is when compared to conventional advertising and details the results of a research investment in excess of £5 m. It also discusses where we went wrong in the past and where we are going to go wrong in the future unless we learn the real meaning of the word "communication". Want to hear more you can contact me at paul.ashby@yahoo.com Discover more on http://interactivetelevisionorinteractivetv.blogspot.com