• Advertising Age, Friday, June 12, 2009 9:30 AM

On-air promos, or house ads, are more important to a TV network than any $100 million upfront buy. Now, instead of simply being free advertising for the networks, as they have been in the past, the promos double as everything from co-sponsored vignettes for advertisers, to customized stunts for movie studios.

For instance, ABC is pairing its shows with contextual marketing partners, such as Touchstone's Sandra Bullock comedy "The Proposal." Footage from the movie will be paired with live wedding-proposal promos for "The Bachelorette" next week. Networks sometimes go to extremes to make promos work for sponsors. For example, Discovery Channel recruited Red Lobster to sponsor a show about exploring aquatic life. Spike attempted to tie sci-fi movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still" to wrestling.

Stephanie Gibbons, executive vice president of marketing at FX, says programming commercial breaks has become as critical as designing prime-time schedules. "We're working aggressively with advertisers to provide them with more innovative opportunities to blend our promos with their products and their commercial time with our content," she says.

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