By Dmitriy Karelin @ Shutterstock.com
Fox Network Group’s ad chief wants to reduce TV ad time to two minutes an hour by 2020 from over 13 minutes today. Fox would need to boost price in order to cut volume, but an 85% reduction in commercials would be a hit with consumers.
The WSJ has more.
The shift is contingent on the industry changing the way it buys and sells media. Mr. Marchese wants to sell ads using a metric based on time spent with content, versus the number of views.
“The two minutes per hour is a real target for Fox, and also our challenge for the industry,” said Ed Davis, chief product officer for ad sales at Fox Networks Group, in an email. “Creating a sustainable model for ad-supported storytelling will require us all to move.”
Mr. Marchese’s 2020 goal was part of his closing remarks. “It was sort of an aspiration or goal. Not a declaration,” said one ad buyer who attended the event. “His whole closing section was about the value of the commercial and if they can provide more value by limiting commercials and creating new commercialization it will be better for networks’ health and better for advertisers.”
The move is in line with a trend toward fewer ads on TV, as consumers increasingly ditch ad-supported cable and broadcast television for ad-free streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon.
Read more here.
Jeremy Jones, CFA
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