Longform ads replace kid fare on Fox
Infomercials set for Saturday morning slate
By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER
Fox is getting into the infomercial business.
In an unprecedented move, Fox will program two hours of longform
commercials on Saturday mornings starting in January.
That's believed to be the first time a major network has slated full-
blown, program-length advertisements on its schedule.
Move follows an out-of-court legal settlement with children's TV
producer 4Kids, which had been programming Fox's Saturday morning kids
block under a time-buy agreement.
Under the settlement, Fox and 4Kids are terminating their deal early,
at the end of December; 4Kids continues to buy time on the CW, where
it programs that netlet's Saturday morning slate as well.
With the kids TV marketplace completely depressed, there was no other
obvious programmer available to fill the slot -- or come up with the
hefty $20 million that 4Kids had been paying Fox per year.
Instead, Fox opted to return two hours of the block to affiliates, and
program the other two with infomercials.
"Weekend Marketplace" will air from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays; the
block is cleared on 95% of Fox affils.
Because of the swiftness of the announcement -- the settlement with
4Kids was reached Nov. 9 -- Fox execs said the initial "Marketplace"
programs will indeed be the kind of infomercials seen on basic cable
and local TV.
Long term, the net hopes to seal deals with major marketers to create
more traditional-looking programming that weaves in advertising
messages.
"These are hopefully not infomercials," said Fox Networks Group
chairman Tony Vinciquerra. "These will be longform programs that
highlights their product. In that regard, it will have a little better
quality."
Long the bane of insomniac TV viewers, infomercials have rarely been
seen on the broadcast nets -- save the occasional political time buy,
such as Barack Obama's recent primetime campaign ad. Advertisers
played an active role in producing the early days of TV, but those
programs didn't center on the heavy-sell, pitch-heavy content seen in
modern infomercials.
Fox Affiliates Associates board of governors chairman Brian Jones said
he supported the network's decision to program the infomercials -- but
added he believed the move was a "short-term type of answer."
"We are all trying to navigate some critical times here in the
business," said Jones, who's also co-chief operating officer of
Nexstar Broadcasting. "We will continue to talk to them, and they'll
continue to look at what the best use of that time is, and the type of
programming that's the best long-term business for the network and the
affiliates."
Jones said he did appreciate the return of two hours on Saturday
morning. Stations have been looking for more flexibility to broadcast
their government-mandated weekly three hours of educational/
informational programming.
Because the 4Kids block only programmed 30 minutes of educational
fare, affils had to squeeze the other 2½ hours in during the week.
"A lot of us are wanting to expand our morning news presence during
the week," Jones said. "This allows us to move that E/I programming to
the weekend to facilitate more local news."
The relationship between 4Kids and Fox soured earlier this year, after
4Kids demanded a refund for some of the money it paid Fox.
According to a suit it filed against Fox in April, 4Kids said it was
entitled to a refund if Fox didn't maintain at least a 90% clearance
for its Saturday morning kids block in the 8 a.m. to noon slot.
The producer computed the Fox affiliate clearances and determined that
it was owed $13 million. Fox shot back that it didn't owe 4Kids a
dime.
The producer continued to program the block but didn't pay Fox a $5
million fee due April 1, another $5 million due July 1 or $3 million
of the $5 million due Oct. 1 (all told, making up the $13 million
4Kids believed it was owed).
In the settlement deal, 4Kids agreed to pay $12.25 million of the $13
million it had withheld. But with the two sides parting ways in
December, 4Kids will no longer pay the $15 million it was on the fence
to cough up between January and September (when its deal was set to
expire).
The producer will now move some of the more popular fare from its Fox
block to its CW slot. In an earnings call earlier this month, 4Kids
CEO Al Kahn said he believed "the advertising market will be very,
very tough in the first two quarters."
Exec hoped that demand for spots in 4Kids' CW block will improve now
that the 64 advertising units on 4Kids' Fox lineup are being
eliminated.
Infomercials set for Saturday morning slate
By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER
Fox is getting into the infomercial business.
In an unprecedented move, Fox will program two hours of longform
commercials on Saturday mornings starting in January.
That's believed to be the first time a major network has slated full-
blown, program-length advertisements on its schedule.
Move follows an out-of-court legal settlement with children's TV
producer 4Kids, which had been programming Fox's Saturday morning kids
block under a time-buy agreement.
Under the settlement, Fox and 4Kids are terminating their deal early,
at the end of December; 4Kids continues to buy time on the CW, where
it programs that netlet's Saturday morning slate as well.
With the kids TV marketplace completely depressed, there was no other
obvious programmer available to fill the slot -- or come up with the
hefty $20 million that 4Kids had been paying Fox per year.
Instead, Fox opted to return two hours of the block to affiliates, and
program the other two with infomercials.
"Weekend Marketplace" will air from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays; the
block is cleared on 95% of Fox affils.
Because of the swiftness of the announcement -- the settlement with
4Kids was reached Nov. 9 -- Fox execs said the initial "Marketplace"
programs will indeed be the kind of infomercials seen on basic cable
and local TV.
Long term, the net hopes to seal deals with major marketers to create
more traditional-looking programming that weaves in advertising
messages.
"These are hopefully not infomercials," said Fox Networks Group
chairman Tony Vinciquerra. "These will be longform programs that
highlights their product. In that regard, it will have a little better
quality."
Long the bane of insomniac TV viewers, infomercials have rarely been
seen on the broadcast nets -- save the occasional political time buy,
such as Barack Obama's recent primetime campaign ad. Advertisers
played an active role in producing the early days of TV, but those
programs didn't center on the heavy-sell, pitch-heavy content seen in
modern infomercials.
Fox Affiliates Associates board of governors chairman Brian Jones said
he supported the network's decision to program the infomercials -- but
added he believed the move was a "short-term type of answer."
"We are all trying to navigate some critical times here in the
business," said Jones, who's also co-chief operating officer of
Nexstar Broadcasting. "We will continue to talk to them, and they'll
continue to look at what the best use of that time is, and the type of
programming that's the best long-term business for the network and the
affiliates."
Jones said he did appreciate the return of two hours on Saturday
morning. Stations have been looking for more flexibility to broadcast
their government-mandated weekly three hours of educational/
informational programming.
Because the 4Kids block only programmed 30 minutes of educational
fare, affils had to squeeze the other 2½ hours in during the week.
"A lot of us are wanting to expand our morning news presence during
the week," Jones said. "This allows us to move that E/I programming to
the weekend to facilitate more local news."
The relationship between 4Kids and Fox soured earlier this year, after
4Kids demanded a refund for some of the money it paid Fox.
According to a suit it filed against Fox in April, 4Kids said it was
entitled to a refund if Fox didn't maintain at least a 90% clearance
for its Saturday morning kids block in the 8 a.m. to noon slot.
The producer computed the Fox affiliate clearances and determined that
it was owed $13 million. Fox shot back that it didn't owe 4Kids a
dime.
The producer continued to program the block but didn't pay Fox a $5
million fee due April 1, another $5 million due July 1 or $3 million
of the $5 million due Oct. 1 (all told, making up the $13 million
4Kids believed it was owed).
In the settlement deal, 4Kids agreed to pay $12.25 million of the $13
million it had withheld. But with the two sides parting ways in
December, 4Kids will no longer pay the $15 million it was on the fence
to cough up between January and September (when its deal was set to
expire).
The producer will now move some of the more popular fare from its Fox
block to its CW slot. In an earnings call earlier this month, 4Kids
CEO Al Kahn said he believed "the advertising market will be very,
very tough in the first two quarters."
Exec hoped that demand for spots in 4Kids' CW block will improve now
that the 64 advertising units on 4Kids' Fox lineup are being
eliminated.
