Marc Graboff, the new co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, said advertisers are no longer getting sufficient value from the 30-second spot and that his new mission is to “reinvent the broadcast business.”
Recently appointed co-chairman with Ben Silverman, Graboff told “Fortune Magazine” that — with traditional spots not delivering the results of the past — the network must help advertisers “deliver impressions in a way that the audience won’t ignore or skip.”
That means not only product integration within programs, but also perhaps an advertiser sponsoring a single program, as in the past with shows like “Texaco Star Theater.”
If advertisers, however, continue the current trend of migrating away from broadcast television, Graboff said the result would be fewer hours of original programmed television entertainment.
“Toss in viewer fragmentation and rising production costs, and you can’t afford to pay for 19 hours a week of original high-quality programming,” Graboff said. “Something has got to give. For years everyone programmed Saturday night with originals. Now nobody programs Saturday.”
