Thursday, March 15, 2007

Long Live the TV Commercial!

The report of the death of the TV commercial has been greatly exaggerated. CNN Money has an article claiming that the 30-second spot is on life support and that Apple's new TV box is playing the role of Dr. Kevorkian.

While TV advertisers are under increasing pressure to change, they aren't dead yet, and Apple is way down on the list of companies pushing them into the light.

Despite CNN's provocative headline, the article talks true when it says:

Experts aren't convinced that Apple TV will be as big of a hit with consumers as the iPod was right off the bat -- after all, people have to pay for a TV show they could see for free on network TV.

Yes, people will pay for mostly-commercial free cable if you can produce shows like the Sopranos and Weeds, but they aren't available for free elsewhere. And people while some people pay for satellite radio, commercial radio is healthy.

Commercial TV will have to change once online video companies figure out how to target pre-roll ads to consumers and how to develop compelling interactive spots. Once advertisers get accustomed to higher, more measurable audience penetration and master turning a 10 second spot into a relationship (and lets not forget the TiVo effect), then commercial TV will be in a pickle. But the 30 second spot isn't going away anytime soon if ever.

Posted By John Gartner at 10:44 PM
Permanent Link: Long Live the TV Commercial! | Comments (1)

(1) Comments on Long Live the TV Commercial!

Estimates peg the number of DVR households at close to 25 million by the end of this year. It's hard to see commercial TV staying "healthy" in this type of environment. The studios can try 10 second commercials, but the whole market will eventually move to product placement. If they don't integrate their ads into the actual progam, they are going to miss 25% of the people actually watching a show and this number is going to go up. The economic model hasn't been developed yet, but the end of the 30 second ad is coming sooner then you'd like to admit.

Comments by Davis Freeberg : Friday, March 16, 2007 at 10:01 AM

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