Dive Brief:
- Viewers of “MasterChef Junior” on Fox.com this week will be part of an ad avoidance experiment where they will be given the option to watch one 60 second interactive ad before the program runs and then go ad-free for the rest of the episode.
- TV networks have increased ads in recent years with cable networks going from 14.27 minutes of ads per hour of primetime content in 2009 to 15.49 in 2015.
- Ad blocking is an issue, especially online where ad blocking technology has cost around $22 billion in ad revenue so far this year alone.
Dive Insight:
That Fox.com is testing out ways to get around ad avoidance for online viewers is not entirely unexpected. Looking for ways around more traditional ad formats fits into new CEO James Murdoch’s digital vision. At Cannes Lions in June he asked, “How do we think beyond interruptive ad formats, how do we think beyond assuming that the viewer is just going to tolerate a certain number of ads?”
TV networks are in something of a vicious cycle serving up more ads per hour of primetime content to make up for declining viewership. And online advertising faces a serious issue with ad blocking software, which has grown 41% globally year over year, and has cost around $22 billion in lost ad revenue so far this year.
Campbell Foster, director of product marketing at Adobe, recently told Marketing Dive the issue of ad blocking could even hit video. "If ad blocking goes mainstream in digital video, huge amounts of advertising won’t be seen, and will therefore be ineffective. This would then push ad dollars back to TV, reversing a trend," he said, adding, "Interestingly, the demographic group that uses ad blockers most frequently is one that’s highly coveted by advertisers: millennials and gen Z."