Fox proposes two minutes of ads per hour of television – how would that work?

PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 04: (L-R) Panelists Meghan Trainor, DJ Khaled and Sean 'Diddy' Combs of the television show The Four speak onstage during the FOX portion of the 2018 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on January 4, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Last week, in a private industry event in L.A., Fox Networks Group’s ad sales chief speculated on an unusual goal: two minutes of ad time per hour of television by 2020.

In the words of David Levy, executive vice president of non-linear revenue at Fox Networks Groups, “the price of attention has gone up.” And this proposed shift is likely meant to entice viewers from ad-less streaming sites like HBO GO or Netflix.

The current ad time average is 13 minutes per one hour of network T.V., so reducing that time to two minutes would necessitate a change in how ads are sold, how they’re produced and how much that air-time would cost. And after all that, would it really work against cable cutting?

How common is this move to shorter T.V. commercial time? How will it change the nature of ads? And how would it transform the ways in which ads are sold?

Guest:

Jeanine Poggi, she covers the TV industry for AdAge, a trade publication for the marketing and media industries; her recent article is “What Ads Would Cost If Fox Really Cut Them To 2 Minutes Per Hour”