GM STAYS IN THE GAME WITH MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

Although it has had to compete against NBC’s Olympics coverage for ad dollars from affluent businesses that can afford to shell out the big bucks, Fox said on Thursday that it had sold out all its ad availabilities for next week’s MLB All-Star Game at an average of $550,000 for each 30-second commercial, slightly more […]

GM TO PUSH CADILLACS ON BET AWARDS

General Motors may have pulled out of the Super Bowl and Facebook, but it appears to be funneling the money it saved from those disengagements into more elaborate and focused sponsorships. Advertising Age reported today (Thursday), that GM’s Cadillac division plans to sponsor the BET Awards for the first time this summer. Often criticized in […]

REPORT: THE INTERNET POSES NO CHALLENGE TO TV — YET

The notion that the Internet is drawing viewers away from traditional TV is more myth than reality, the president of TVB, the broadcast industry marketing trade group, suggested on Tuesday. Speaking at the SNL Kagan TV and Radio Finance Summit in New York, Steve Lanzano unveiled his group’s latest study indicating that Internet video amounts […]

REPORT: GM DEMANDS NETWORKS CUT AD RATES

General Motors is getting tough with the major television networks. After deciding not to buy ads in next year’s Super Bowl telecast, the automaker is now demanding that each of the networks cut their advertising rates for the so-called upfront period when ad buyers make the bulk of their purchases, Advertising Age reported today (Monday). […]

GM SHIFTS AD DOLLARS AWAY FROM SUPER BOWL

Four million dollars for a 30-second ad on CBS’s Super Bowl telecast in 2013 simply can’t be justified, General Motors said in a statement over the weekend, indicating that it will spend its ad dollars elsewhere. (But not on Facebook, from which it also withdrew its advertising last week.) The company also sat out the […]

VIEWERS FLEEING NETWORK TV

Every broadcast television network has lost a significant number of viewers this season — particularly among the 18-49 age group that most advertisers target, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing figures from Nielsen Research. Fox, which airs American Idol, has lost an average of 709,000 viewers or 20 percent of its 18-49 demo. […]

FOX STATION FINED FOR AIRING VIDEO NEWS RELEASE WITHOUT DISCLOSURE

Fox-owned KMSP-TV in Minneapolis has been fined $4,000 for failing to disclose that a news feature that it aired in June 2006 was actually a video news release (VNR) produced by General Motors. The FCC ruled that Fox was required to identify the source of the VNR, even if it did not receive “valuable consideration” […]

ADVERTISERS FLEEING MTV’S SKINS

Fans of MTV’s racy new series Skins likely thought that advertisers Taco Bell, General Motors and Wrigley were mighty, well, thinskinned for knuckling under to pressure from the Parents Television Council, which has launched a campaign to encourage followers not to buy products from sponsors of the show. In a statement on Friday, the PTC […]

ADS FOR POST-SEASON BASEBALL ALMOST SOLD OUT

Demonstrating again how eager advertisers are to purchase time on DVR-proof sports telecasts, published trade reports said today that Fox has already sold out 90 percent of the commercial availabilities for post-season baseball. The league championship series, the reports said, is fetching $225,000 for each 30-second spot; the World Series, twice that amount. As usual, […]

GM SPENDING BIG ON TV ADS AGAIN

After drastically cutting back its advertising as it attempted to recover from its own collapse into bankruptcy, General Motors is once again buying expensive ad placements on network sports specials. Coming on the heels of a recent announcement that GM would once again purchase ads — costing $2 million+ each — during the 2011 Super […]