'60 Minutes,' One Sponsor
The Wall Street Journal reports on news that this week's edition of "60 Minutes" will feature Philips Electronics as the "sole national sponsor" of the broadcast. "Aside from spots promoting CBS's coming shows, and local ads sold by CBS stations, only Philips ads will appear on the show," the Journal writes. The deal, for which Philips is paying about $2 million according to the Journal, will allow for longer story segments within the broadcast. Executive Producer of "60 Minutes," Jeff Fager, told the Journal: " 'There is more content, and less clutter'… Mr. Fager said he'd do this kind of deal 'every week if I could.'"
More details from the Journal:
After a 90-second ad for Philips at the start of the show, the first two stories will run slightly longer than usual and free of ads. The second half of the program will carry two ad breaks, with ads for Philips, network promotions and local-station ads. Ad time will total about 6½ minutes, excluding network promotions, down from the usual 12 minutes. The story segments, which typically run between 11 and 12 minutes, will average around 14 minutes in length. Philips has no say over the program's editorial content, according to the parties involved.
A rep from the media-buying firm that negotiated the deal told the Journal that: "An on-screen graphic will tell viewers about the Philips sponsorship, giving them a chance to offer feedback about the broadcast through the CBS News Web site."
You may recall that The New Yorker caused a bit of a stir recently, when Target purchased all of the ad pages in a single issue without including a notice explaining that the ads did not influence editorial content.
What do you think? As always, you can share your feedback about the broadcast with us.