Dive Brief:
- A Turner Broadcasting cable network, truTV, is bucking industry trends toward squeezing as many ads as possible in shows by reducing ads and lengthening prime time shows.
- Beginning next quarter, prime time shows on truTV will run 24 to 25 minutes.
- “Ad stuffing” is a tactic that annoys both viewers and marketers who feel their message can get lost in the overabundance of ads.
Dive Insight:
In the cable industry the norm is for networks to engage in “ad stuffing” by reducing the length of shows by various means to get as many ads into the time slot as possible. TruTV, a Turner Broadcasting network, is going to take a different approach beginning next quarter by lengthening its shows by a few minutes and selling fewer ads per time slot.
In a Wall Street Journal article, Joe Hogan, who oversees ad sales for Turner’s Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and truTV explained, “Our ambition is to offer our advertisers a way to rise above the noise.” He added the move is seen as a premium value for advertisers and “there will be a premium price associated with it.”
The shift represents a major change in truTV’s approach. Once the new program goes into effect, the network will show about 10 minutes of ads per hour, compared to the current average of 18 minute and 13 seconds of commercial time per prime time hour.
TruTV has recently boosted its millennial viewership after a move to more comedy programming and the change in ads might be in recognition that millennials are sensitive to being messaged too directly.