• Ephron on Media, Tuesday, May 9, 2006 12 PM

Erwin Ephron's complaint is a familiar one: There are too many commercials on TV, and they arrive in swarms that are not only distracting and annoying, but actually serve to undermine the engagement the advertiser is hoping to create with consumers. "We can bring engagement measures into media planning by reducing audience counts to potential buyers who actually see the ads. In this scenario we can improve TV measurements by improving targeting," Ephron says in his latest newsletter. (His headline: "Preventing Dis-Engagement.") "How many interruptions, how many commercials? The data are available. It is estimated that the average cable system will expand ad insertion capabilities to an additional 30 channels in the next two years, adding thousands of commercial units to a market that is already over-supplied. No wonder viewers tend to wander."

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