• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, September 29, 2008

Unilever has signed on as the presenting sponsor of the new DirecTV season of "Friday Night Lights." The 13-episode run will be ad-free, but billboards and other promotions for the new Vaseline Men brand will be inserted into the presentation.

 

Vaseline, which has a new line of lotions for men, has also been given a presence on print and Web promotions with "presented by" mentions, leading up to the show's launch Wednesday night. That includes eight-page advertorials running in Entertainment Weekly and Us Weekly, as well as banner ads on NBC.com.

As part of their deal, the two are splitting production costs.

NBC, which has carried the show the last two years, and DirecTV are cross-promoting the third season of "Lights" on each other's dedicated sites.

The arrangement calls for DirecTV to air the series over the next few months (Wednesdays at 9 p.m.) on its own entertainment channel, The 101. The same episodes will then move to NBC starting in January.

There is one difference: Since there are no ads, the episodes on DirecTV will be slightly longer than the NBC versions. They will include some added content, and will be billed as "extended versions." For example, the first episode is 50 minutes; an NBC episode might be 44 minutes or less.

To illustrate how much it is investing in "Lights," a live call-in show, "Live from Dillon," (the show's fictional Texas hometown) will take place with cast members after each DirecTV episode starting Oct. 15. "Dillon" will also be ad-free, and will run as long as 45 minutes.

In addition to a print and Web effort, DirecTV has been promoting "Lights" via ads in movie theaters before films with target audiences that match with the series.

The critically acclaimed show has failed to garner breakout ratings and could have been canceled, save for the cost-sharing deal with DirecTV. DirecTV has a significant portion of subscribers who are football fans because of its "NFL Sunday Ticket" package. They might gravitate to the show.