One of the great debates inside advertising circles is how much is too much? The typical American has the TV on for 5 hours and 9 minutes each day, of which 27% is paid advertising. Do the math and that's 1 hour and 23 minutes of TV spots per day, or at 30 seconds per spot, 166 commercials a day.
Enter Mad Men. The Daily is reporting a catfight between the creator of the show, Matthew Weiner, and Cablevision executives, who are said to want to trim the length of Mad Men by 3 minutes to insert, yes, 6 more 30-second commercials. The AMC cable channel, you see, is part of Rainbow Media Holdings, a gem that Cablevision reportedly hopes to spin off soon in an IPO. Improving the financial performance of a business before going public is standard procedure, so what's a few more spots?
Alas, Mad Men's beautiful content would have to be cut. It is hard to believe that back in the 1960s U.S. TV viewers only saw 9 minutes of commercials per hour, vs. today's 16-18 minutes. We love advertising, yes we do ... but with 166 TV spots hitting you each day, how many more can possibly work?
2 comments:
There is nothing wrong with advertising. But why can't AMC add a few more minutes of ads without cutting the time from the show? There is no reason why a cable show can't run over three minutes on the hour; with a little creativity both sides could be served.
wow I didn't know that American has the TV on for 5 hours and 9 minutes each day, of which 27% is paid advertising. this must change, because it is too much
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