• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, November 2, 2006

There has been much talk lately about spending less on TV shows -- especially for those weak-advertising 8 p.m. time slots. Fox has another idea -- how about just spending less on the marketing of those shows?

In the midst of the hubbub over the remarks of Jeff Zucker, president/CEO of the NBC Universal Television Group, concerning cutting production costs on 8 p.m. shows, Peter Liguori, president of Fox Entertainment, tossed in his own math.

At the Hollywood Radio & Television Society lunch recently, Liguori said Fox doesn't need to save on production. Instead, cuts come from a different area--off-air marketing. "We'd rather spend money on content and create assets in the long term than spend money off air," he said, according to Daily Variety. There were no follow-up questions about that issue directed at Liguori after the event. Later, when Fox Network press representatives were asked about it, they said there would be no further comment.

What did Liguori mean? We can only guess. Competitive industry executives say it doesn't seem that Fox is spending any less money on marketing, but you never know.

No less an expert that Sandy Grushow, ex-chairman of the Fox Television Entertainment Group, who doesn't have firsthand knowledge, surmised that one area Fox--and other networks, too--could definitely be looking to trim is radio.

Fox was instrumental in the late '80s and early '90s in buying radio promos as a way to create big off-air marketing buzz. Now, some two decades later -- and especially during sweep periods -- all networks have increasingly used the radio airwaves to drive listeners into becoming network viewers. So much, says Grushow, that sometimes it just creates a lot of conflicting "noise" with no real impact.

Now, for most networks, radio is perhaps their biggest slice of off-air marketing, with cable TV perhaps the next biggest. At their peak, for some big new rookie shows, networks can spend $8 million to $10 million in off-air marketing to launch a new show. Eliminating those costs would mean some pretty good savings for dramas that cost $2.5 million to $3.0 million an episodes these days.

What does this mean? Perhaps Fox has found other ways to promote off-air. Surely new shows leading out of Fox's powerful "American Idol" and "24" need perhaps less off-air marketing support than other areas.

Major League Baseball's playoffs have been used to promote Fox shows--though critics say this tactic is becoming way less effective in recent years. Perhaps Fox is hoping new Internet areas such as MySpace, a sister company, can aid in the marketing of future Fox shows.

Wherever the cuts are, NBC isn't the only network with a new plan for the new digital-age network.