Fox, Outdoor Life Strike Product Placement Deal

News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting put together a small but unusual product integration deal with a cable network, Outdoor Life Network--a network that has no News Corp.-ownership ties. Fox has done the deal--somewhat reluctantly.

On Fox's new Friday procedural-crime drama show, "Killer Instinct," cable network Outdoor Life Network had a small video mention in an episode that ran last Friday. Chi McBride's character, Lieutenant Matt Cavanaugh, had on his desk, in the foreground, an OLN-logoed coffee mug in clear view.

Many broadcast networks have given brand awareness to their sister cable networks in the past--NBC has done it for MSNBC and CNBC; Fox has touted Fox News and FX; and ABC has pushed its associated Disney companies.

But it is rare, if ever, that a broadcast network has touted a cable network into its scripted efforts that had no ownership ties.

Cable networks have bought commercial time on broadcast networks for a number of years to tout their cable network brands and their shows. Deals are made through local cable affiliates, network affiliates, or through the networks themselves.

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Broadcast networks do these deals, but with the caveat that specific cable programs' time and dates are not included. The fear is that broadcast viewers would switch to becoming cable viewers.

"Commercials are one thing, but product placement is another thing," said Gary Carr, senior vp and director of national broadcast for TargetCast TCM.

The Cavanaugh character didn't interact with the coffee mug--it just was placed in full view for a couple of seconds. No OLN show was promoted by the deal. At the end of the episode, a disclaimer said the Outdoor Life Network paid for promotional consideration.

While that sounds somewhat standard in the world of product placement, the path to this deal was unusual. Perhaps the tipoff was a simple unrelated brand association between a gruff detective character and a mostly outdoor sports cable channel.

It seems that OLN had a show of its own, called "Killer Instinct"--an adventure-animal-nature show in which experts travel the world looking for dangerous animals. That show is no longer on the air, according to an OLN spokeswoman. But the network retains the rights to the name. And so a deal was struck between the producers, News Corp.-owned Regency Television and OLN.

Interestingly, the rookie Fox show originally had a number of different show names--typical for a new show testing for its best marketing brand name. "Killer Instinct" had also been called "Deviant Behavior" and "The Gate."

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