Tech & Biz

Fox Yells "Cut" on Commercials

by Critical Todd | May 16, 2008 at 10:33 am

266 views | 22 Recommendations | 8 comments

In a move that is certainly intriguing, Fox is planning to air a couple of its higher profile new fall shows with less commercials than normal:

Fox Broadcasting saidThursday it would drastically reduce the commercial levels oftwo upcoming action dramas -- "Fringe" and "Dollhouse" -- in aneffort to reinvigorate broadcast television.

I've seen this in the past with films on the networks. I remember ABC airing Shindler's List commercial free (although it was sponsored by somebody). This is decidedly different, I think, because it is both not a single event type broadcast and because it doesn't look like there is going to be an umbrella sponsor of either show. Fox's marketing department has already christened it "Remote-Free TV". We'll see.

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

j_bonkowski

at 11:12 on May 16th, 2008

But when will we go to the bathroom? It is a neat idea, and maybe it will help to regain our short attention span.

Jordan Yerman

at 11:28 on May 16th, 2008

You'll just ahve to hold it. Oh, and avoid watching anythign about rivers or waterfalls.

j_bonkowski

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:14 on May 16th, 2008

Critical Todd, I like this story. It's good stuff. I like that you included your own opinion!

Jordan Yerman

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:20 on May 16th, 2008

I imagine the ad-buy price will increase accordingly- perhaps the selling point is that advertisers will have less competition during a given program slot.

(also, as noted above, a shorter break means that the viewer can't wander off to do other stuff)

michelle.sundvick

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:41 on May 16th, 2008

Critical Todd, I like this story. It's good stuff.

This decrease in commercial time will only force companies to look for alternate methods of getting their brand names out there. Product Placement, for example, (paying a production company 'x' amount of money in order to place their brand in an t.v. episode) is becoming increasingly popular across all forms of media: t.v., movies, song lyrics, and more recently video games.

Another thing they're going to have to battle is the increased use of TiVo's and personal video recorders throughout North America... As they become more popular and come down in price, more and more people are going to be taping their shows and fast forwarding through those commercials.

neclimdul

at 12:07 on May 16th, 2008

I might switch over to fox for once and watch that. This will be interesting to see.

Rob Peters

at 14:21 on May 16th, 2008

Interesting, it's like diet commercials. I prefer cutting out commercials altogether by going the DVD route. That way watching a season of TV is like reading a book--you can finish it off in an afternoon if you're ambitious.