TV Syndication: Unwired Nets Snare Marketers' Dollars

With fewer people watching network television and the cost of network time increasing, many advertisers are looking for alternatives. A fast-growing innovation is unwired networks. These networks do not distribute programming, but typically place commercials in prime-time access lineups of locally o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advertising age 1988-02, Vol.59 (8), p.S12
Main Author: Edel, Richard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cable TV
Networks
Nielsen ratings
Television advertising
Television broadcasting
Television syndication
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:With fewer people watching network television and the cost of network time increasing, many advertisers are looking for alternatives. A fast-growing innovation is unwired networks. These networks do not distribute programming, but typically place commercials in prime-time access lineups of locally oriented shows. The concept, a cross between syndication and spot TV, is not new. Previously, though, the stations worried that advertisers would pay for unwired network deals out of funds earmarked for spot TV, thus undercutting the stations' own sales efforts, but the softness in the 1987 spot market made the stations less reluctant to participate in such deals. Unwired networks received a major boost in mid-1987, when Procter & Gamble placed $10 million each with: 1. Fox Broadcasting Co., 2. Turner Broadcasting System's WTBS superstation and Tribune Broadcasting Co.'s 6 independent stations, and 3. the Katz Alternative Network.
ISSN:0001-8899
1557-7414