Commentary
TV May Mean Fewer Commercials, Less Ad Talk
- by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 11, 2017
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.”
advertisement
advertisement
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.
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.
Wayne, many of the channels that are talking about minor reductions in their ad clutter "loads" are the very same ones who, in the past, have piled on message after message in their breaks. Their supposed reductions are nothing more than scaling back the clutter closer to normal levels. How will they make money doing this? Simple: by charging higher CPMs.