ABC TO SELL TIME ON SOME SHOWS TO LOCAL STATIONS

Saying that her network was “breaking a 60-year tradition,” Anne Sweeney, president of Disney-ABC Television Group, outlined on Wednesday a plan to sell time slots ordinarily reserved for national advertisers on ABC programs to local station. The plan is set to be implemented during the last two weeks of October on several programs as local stations become swamped with demand for political advertising for the November elections. In order for the plan to kick in, the total number of buys from local stations must come to a greater amount than what the network would receive from a national advertiser. The network said that it will use a computer system called the Inventory Exchange System, to sort out the local sales and assign the time slots. If stations decide to opt out of the exchange, the IES will assign promos, public service spots, or regional ads to be run instead.