Jon22: The Website of Jonathan Dobres

Television networks are getting desperate when it comes to advertising.  Can you blame them?  The traditional broadcast networks are bound by an increasingly outdated revenue model:  charge advertisers for commercial time, with the price of the commercial slot determined by the popularity of the show.  This is why you see so many ratings stunts (deaths, pregnancies, cliffhangers, guest stars, audience participation) during the “sweeps” of November and May.  Ratings from these specific time frames are used to set advertising prices for the rest of the year, so a big audience then means big money later.  It’s also why guaranteed mega-events like the Superbowl and the Oscars rotate through different networks every year.  Oh, and do you know why we call those cheesy daytime dramas “soap operas”?  Originally, shows like General Hospital were sponsored almost exclusively by soaps and detergents.

Things are changing, however.  It started with competition from premium cable, which draws revenue from subscribers, not advertisers, while at the same time pulling viewers away from the advertiser-supported networks.  Then came TV on DVD.  Why bother sitting through the torture of those Heroes hiatuses when you could just consume the whole season in three or four incredibly satisfying marathon sessions?  Then there’s TiVO and its generic rival, DVR.  Let’s not even talk about the ever increasing popularity of iTunes video and BitTorrent.

Suffice to say that the old model just doesn’t work anymore.  With the TV experience growing more fractured with every passing year, a time will come very soon when networks can no longer count on a large, focused audience being around to catch a commercial.  It’s just as well.  Commercials are dumb.  By and large, they condescend to the audience and reinforce the same tired stereotypes that have been around for sixty years.  Women run the house and like to moisturize.  Men like big, loud machines and are also lazy idiots.  Awesome.  Product placement within the show itself is an excellent alternative, eliminating both the annoyance of a commercial break and the insult of the commercial content.  American Idol gets it just right.  It’s a live show—and live for a reason—that’s absolutely saturated with product placement, from the innocuous Coca-Cola cups on the judges’ table to the abhorrent Ford “music videos”.  Surprisingly, I like this.  It’s a throwback to an earlier time.  I don’t know much about the 1950s, but I know what brand Fred Flintstone pefers.

A new (or old) advertising model opens up new possibilities.  Without the constraint of the seven minute act, television has the opportunity to become more cinematic.  Maybe without constant commercial interruptions, The Black Donnellys would have felt more like The Sopranos and been a bigger hit.  Lack of commercials could restore the American attention span.  In other countries it’s quite common for a show to have a predetermined limited run.  The UK version of The Office ran for two seasons of just six episodes apiece, intentionally.  Can you imagine?  There are already signs that we may be adopting a more international broadcast model.  Partly in response to viewer dissatisfaction with the meandering plot, the creators of Lost struck a fairly unprecedented deal to complete exactly three more seasons of the show.  With a definite end in sight, the writers can begin to tie everything together and, in essence, write a better show.  Compare this with The X-Files, which left essentially every question unanswered thanks to an unceremonious cancellation after its ninth season.  That’s right, nine years and no answers.

I say good riddance to commercials.  I’d also like to point out that the executive vice president of NBC’s ad sales department is a guy named Ed Swindler.  As in, to swindle.  Now look me in the eye and tell me there’s no grand order to the universe.