Fox Sports this fall for NFL games and other programming will debut the "six-second television commercial," according to Sapna Maheshwari of the N.Y. TIMES. The net will "offer the bite-size slots alongside its standard 15- and 30-second ads for a variety of sporting events after first testing the format on its broadcast of the Teen Choice Awards in mid-August." Fans will first "see the ads on Fox on Sept. 10 just before kickoff in the network’s games on the regular season’s opening weekend." Fox Sports President & COO Eric Shanks said that they were "also being offered for the World Series and other 'marquee events.'” Maheshwari notes the net is "working to integrate them sparingly into some in-game breaks with 15- and 30-second spots; it may also place them through new formats, like in a box adjacent to players on a field during pauses." The hope is that they will "eventually help reduce the overall commercial time that people sit through." Sources said that Fox has been able to "maintain the premium for the six-second ads it is selling now by pointing to lucrative placements, like just before kickoff for an NFL game." They added that while the ads are being "sold as part of broader packages, a six-second spot could cost, at the high end, around $200,000." Shanks said early examples would come from “the bigger marketers who have a variety of messages throughout the game.’’ The ads are "unrelated to statements from the NFL this year about improving commercial interruptions" (N.Y. TIMES, 8/31). AD AGE's Jeanine Poggi notes six-second ads are "becoming all the rage among digital and media companies." The new ad unit is part of Fox' "overall strategy to figure out how to improve the TV viewing experience as more content is consumed on platforms with limited or no commercials" (ADAGE.com, 8/31).
