• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 12, 2011

 

 Promises, promises. Everyone in television needs to make them -- but what is actually delivered can look a lot different.

Comcast has to make more than its share -- all to get done what many think will be a media merger with NBC Universal that might wreak havoc on adult consumers, independent filmmakers, competitors -- and apparently kids.

As one of its long lists of promises, Comcast says it will restrict certain types of advertising -- interactive advertising in particular -- especially for kids under 12 years old.

Interactive TV has been full of promise. The easiest, most accessible example comes from just pressing a button on your remote for further information -- a coupon, say -- in response to a TV commercial you have just seen.

Of course, there is irony here. People have complained TV is too much of a passive entertainment system for kids -- that, in fact, kids need to be more interactive. To be sure, there is better interactive TV, when it comes to educational programming content, prompting kids to offer up the right answer to a math question or a history question for an educationally minded show, be it on PBS Kids, Nick Jr. or the forthcoming Disney Jr.

But interactive advertising efforts -- or traditional advertising efforts, for that matter -- have never been in the plans for those pre-school-minded TV networks and programmers. So all this is not much of a promise. Put some of that stuff on the air, and you'll hear from parents, or worst, have very few viewers.

If Comcast really wants to do us a favor on the advertising front, maybe they won't give any viewers, including adults, any interactive TV advertising -- at least until it makes some real sense.

If Comcast really wants to do us a favor, maybe it should cut down on the amount of advertising clutter -- not just for TV viewers, but for TV marketers -- on its networks, both cable and network.

If Comcast really wants to do us a favor, maybe it might offer its "TV Everywhere" programming efforts with an extended free sampling program -- say, for a couple of months, to get a really good idea about the "value" of programming they are offering.

The Comcast-NBC Universal deal will almost assuredly be completed soon. You want to be a good, long-time consumer? Make some big promises for the viewer -- and the advertiser -- and deliver on them.