• by Wayne Friedman , April 24, 2007

While looking to change audience metrics for TV advertisers this upfront season, broadcast and cable networks can point to some concessions--a leveling off of commercial clutter on their schedules.

MindShare, in its annual survey Clutter Watch, says broadcast and cable networks still average around 15 minutes of non-program time per hour. Non-program time consists of national and local commercials, and national and local program promos.

ABC was the leader among broadcast networks again--but only slightly. The net increased non-program minutes by 1% to 15:38 from 15:26. NBC was also slightly up--2%, to 13:04 from 12:48.

"Over-commercialization continues to be a problem," writes Debbie Solomon, senior partner, research director of MindShare, although she credits TV sellers for keeping the lid on clutter this past year.

It's mostly cable that has good news for marketers. A big exception is the Fox News Channel, which increased 10% to 15:10 of non-program content from 13:05 the season before. MTV continues to the leader in total non-program minutes for any broadcast or cable network, at 16:09.

While traditional commercial messaging seems to be leveling off, MindShare cautions that networks have increased their use of branded-entertainment messaging in program content. MindShare notes that a 2006 report from TNS Media Intelligence reveals that 35%, or 21 minutes, of every prime-time hour includes some kind of branded message.

For the first time, MindShare also included Spanish-language networks in the report. Those networks showed less clutter overall and ran fewer network commercials than English-language networks.