Fox will debut a new animated TV program next week, but in an unusual time slot, as it will sandwiched between ads. The net will run eight-second animated clips about a taxi driver named Oleg who
likes to identify what store stray shopping carts came from while he goes by at high speed.
The idea is to keep viewers amused during commercial breaks as the explosion of DVRs has
led to an epidemic of ad-skipping. It is all the more urgent to hang on to those viewers as Nielsen Media Research starts to release commercial ratings. "It's certainly gotten more impetus with the
movement toward commercial ratings, but there's been a concern for a long time," says Jon Nesvig, president of sales for Fox Broadcasting Co.
And with Nielsen supplying minute-by-minute
data, it's likely that ads at the top and bottom of a break will pull better numbers, meaning the men in the middle will want to pay less. "It's going to open just a monster can of worms," says Ellen
Comley, executive vice president and managing director for Boston-based media buyer MPG.
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