March 22, 2006

Feel Good TV

Tonight's the TV Land Awards, and there's certainly something wonderfully comforting about this cable channel that plays the best of the classic TV series. If you've been biting your nails over Jack Bauer on Monday nights, TV Land is the perfect antidote.

But TV Land isn't just about classic TV shows. The channel also produces some original programming, and - in honor of Black History Month - they recently produced three one-hour specials called "That's What I'm Talking About." This is television at its best...a free-flowing unfiltered conversation about the Black experience in America, with a wide range of participants ranging from Spike Lee to DL Hughley to Diahann Carroll.

TV Land proves that it's possible to entertain and make a difference.

We are proud to have worked with TV Land in developing its Family Table initiative which encourages more families to share meals together.

Life After 30

I spoke with a client this afternoon who is in New York for a conference on what happens after the 30-second spot.

One thing that's happening - if not after the 30-second spot, certainly in combination with it - is the great surge in product placements.

Watch "American Idol" on any given night (and it seems to be on virtually every night!) and you are likely to see an average of more than 83 product placements per episode.

But "American Idol" isn't the biggest product placement venue. "The Contender" (appropriately named) holds that title. That reality show logged more than 7,502 individual product placements during its 2005 season. That's an average of 500.9 individual occurences of product placements per episode.

Product placements on television increased 32% last year. Ad-skipping technologies, accelerating audience fragmentation, the increase in the number of cable channels, commercial clutter, and the decreasing length of commercials are all reasons contributing to this boom.