PVII to kill the commercial break.
Friday November 13 3:08 PM ET
Digital TV To Kill The Commercial Break - Study
LONDON (Reuters) - Digital television will kill the commercial break as viewers revel in their ability to roam across dozens of programs and channels, according to a new study.
Advertisers will have to learn to associate their products with specific programs and pay less attention to buying space at particular times on a channel, said analyst Alan Griffiths in a report ''Advertising on Digital TV.''
Griffiths, head of electronic media consultancy Digital Strategy, said the on-screen Electronic Program Guide (epg) was a key element of digital television services and would cause grave problems for TV advertisers.
''At present television advertising relies on people staying with channels as they wait for the next program to start,'' Griffiths said.
''However the epg encourages you to migrate from program to program over many different channels. If people do search for programs first and consequently become less loyal to channels then the supremacy of the advertising break will start to fade.
He forecast that advertisers were much more likely to buy adverts in the middle of shows or sponsor programs.
''Identifying programs which deliver target audiences will take precedence over buying channel space. If people are not going to stay with channels why bother?'' said Griffiths, formerly Head of Multimedia at BBC News and the BBC's Editor of Business Programs.
He said interactive television would allow brand owners to secure a permanent presence on television ''and not have to content themselves with the transitory thirty seconds an advert offers.''
''Adverts will become pointers to a brand's permanent presence and not simply a means of getting over a brief message in order to raise greater awareness.''
''The advertising break, so familiar to viewers for the last 40 years, will diminish in importance and be replaced by forms of advertising which rely on an intimate understanding of the viewing behavior and habits of a rapidly fragmenting and more selective television audience,'' Griffiths said.
Now, thanks to Princeton, we'll be able to watch, and programmers will be able to sell, commercials throughout the whole show! If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. |
