NATPE 2008: WGA Strike To Kill Upfronts, Breed Shorter Series
Ad Panelists Expect TV Business Rewrite Over Short, Long Term
By Multi Channel News Staff -- Multichannel News, 1/30/2008 7:09:00 AM
The strike by the Writers Guild of America will drastically change the television business both in the short and long term, and some advertisers say they welcome the seismic shifts to come.
One possible change: “the death of the upfronts as we know it,” predicted Matt Seiler, president and CEO, PHD North America.
Seiler said the real business of buying and selling ad time actually takes place in advance of upfront “extravaganzas.” Distributors and advertisers have to think differently about future relationships, he said, but “we'll all be better for it.”
He made his comments during a NATPE panel on new advertising forms. But has been the case at most panels at this confab, the discussion sooner or later turned to the strike, its impact and forecasts about its conclusion.
Laura Caraccioli-Davis, executive vice president/entertainment director of Starcom USA, predicted that TV schedules will be very different after the strike. She and other panelists expect shorter, more self-contained series.
Mark Kaline, global media manager for Ford Motor Co. noted that buyers always grappled with TV seasons spanning two years, when most advertisers think in terms of single calendar years. He suggested that the telenovela form is a good programming gambit: a short series telling a complete story in one season.
Gayle Troberman, global general manager, branded entertainment at MSN, said the portal has seen an uptick in content consumption. Consumers are discovering Web series like Style Studios, then watching five or six episodes at a time.
Troberman predicted that such behavior might change the “hold back and parse it out over time” strategy of networks that try to dribble out episodes to extend their seasons
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