Big breaking news -- some would say shocking -- of the firing of FBI director James Comey lead to continuous TV news coverage without commercial interruption for many hours.
All this seems to be
harbinger of things to come. And not just for cable TV networks with big pressing news, but perhaps spilling over into other entertainment TV networks.
Somewhat related to this news, Fox
Networks Group, on Wednesday, made a bold statement by establishing a new kind of advertising executive position in charge of traditional TV advertising and digital media advertising.
In that
regard, its new chief comes from the digital media ranks -- not traditional TV selling ranks: Joe Marchese is the new president of advertising revenue. Marchese ran his own ad tech business up to 2015
-- true[X]-- before taking a position with Fox heading up “advanced advertising.”
In an interview with Business Insider, Marchese said: “We need to have less
interruption in advertising. Consumers have said that. Our job is to get there. We’re in the audience business, not the ad business.”
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All this isn’t new. Already cable
networks, such as Turner’s TNT and truTV, some Viacom networks, have been looking to scale back advertising loads during its programming content.
The question going forward is: How can
TV networks make money this way? Their answer is to offer better targeting, better ROI for advertisers. And, in return, TV networks will get -- what else -- higher ad pricing for those efforts.
For Fox, now may be the best time to do this -- especially with continued media fractionalization and linear/live TV viewing still in an apparent free fall with the average network prime-time show
now around a 1.0 rating among 18-49 viewers.
Maybe the word “advertising” really isn’t necessary for what Marchese will be doing. So what about taking on a better title? Not
his current president of advertising revenue, but perhaps president of “audience” revenue.
If you are an “advertiser” or even “marketer,” you’ll also
need better name too. Maybe as an “audience seeker’ company. This will be the basis of what the upcoming TV upfront show will evolve into -- all with limited commercial interruption.