Movie Box Review

With network on-air promotion activity tracked in hit summer shows (those at or above a 2.0 Adult 18-49 rating) for about three weeks since mid-July, the networks' promotional priorities are summarized below.

FOX continues to heavily promote X-Factor and New Girl at high levels, although Terra Nova has been catching up over the last week.  In fact, FOX devoted a full 60-second promo to the prehistoric family drama (emphasizing the family drama aspects) in MasterChef last night.  A :60 promo, rarely seen on network TV, is the ultimate sign of commitment and allows the marketing department the time to tell a real story about the series.  In addition, X-Factor  receives mostly :45 promos, while New Girl has a somewhat higher frequency of spots in the :20 and :30 format. 



NBC continues a three-tier approach to its new fall shows.  Tier 1 is made up of the new comedies Up All Night and Whitney.  Tier 2 are the dramas Prime Suspect and Playboy Club, while Tier 3 is comprised of the comedy Free Agents and The Sing-Off.  NBC is using mostly :15 and :30 promo lengths for its new series in each tier.   


Over at CBS, Unforgettable and Person of Interest receive the most promo time (with mostly :30 spots), while 2 Broke Girls is assigned a lot of :10 and :20 promos, mostly hammering away at the creative auspices of the show.  Friday night's A Gifted Man continues to be an afterthought.     

At ABC, Revenge still is the #1 priority, in fact receiving a full :60 spot at the end of Bachelor Pad's premiere last night.  Charlie's Angels, Suburgatory and Pan Am come in at a level slightly behind Revenge's, while Sunday night's Once Upon a Time has been a fairly low priority to date.  Curiously, although we added Wipeout to the list of program examined this week (a much more male audience than the very female Monday lineup), Tim Allen's Last Man Standing is almost a forgotten, at least in the highly-rated shows we are looking at.  However, one would think Last Man would be getting more attention in these 2.0+-rated shows at this point.


Keep checking back each week, as these numbers will be updated cumulatively.


     ON-AIR PROMOTION SCORECARD
   Fall Series Promos (in seconds)
  In Hit Summer Shows since July 19

FOX      X-Factor            485
         New Girl            485
         Terra Nova          400

NBC      Up All Night        260
         Whitney             235
         Prime Suspect       190
         Playboy Club        185
         Free Agents         105
         Sing-Off             90

CBS      Unforgettable       160
         Person of Interest  150
         2 Broke Girls       110
         A Gifted Man         30

ABC      Revenge             180
         Charlie's Angels    120
         Suburgatory         120
         Pan Am              105
         Once Upon a Time     60
         Last Man Standing    15

Note: New fall series not listed
have not been promoted in hit summer
shows during this date span.

To see the list of shows in which
promotion activity is tracked, see
the Summer Broadcast Ratings update.

With network on-air promotion activity tracked in hit summer shows (those at or above a 2.0 Adult 18-49 rating) for the second half of July, each network's marketing strategies are becoming clearer.

FOX, with only a 15-hour a week schedule to support, continues to pound away at three new series: X-Factor and New Girl at a very high level and Terra Nova one notch below.  The table below summarizes the number of seconds devoted to on-air promotion within hit summer shows (Hell's Kitchen, MasterChef and So You Think You Can Dance in FOX's case). 



In contrast, NBC is promoting more shows (it has more holes to fill in its 22-hour schedule) in two basic tiers.  The top tier includes new comedies Up All Night and Whitney and the Thursday at 10 drama Prime Suspect, which had been the network's #1 priority by a hair last week in terms of on-air promo time.  The second tier contains Playboy Club, Free Agents, and to some extent The Sing-Off (which arguably could be a third tier).   


CBS is promoting four shows, with three receiving the most promotion time (dramas Person of Interest and Unforgettable, followed closely by the comedy 2 Broke Girls).  Note, however, CBS's overall new show promo time is quite light as a ridiculous amount of promo time can be called "Julie Chen time": promos for the 24/7 Big Brother online feed (a tidy profit center) and even promos for The Talk.   

At ABC, Revenge still leads the way, although three other new series (two dramas and a comedy) are close behind.  Starting this week, promos within Wipeout will be added to the ABC analysis. 


Keep checking back each week, as these numbers will be updated cumulatively.


     ON-AIR PROMOTION SCORECARD
   Fall Series Promos (in seconds)
  In Hit Summer Shows since July 19

FOX      X-Factor          285
         New Girl          280
         Terra Nova        200

NBC    + Up All Night      170
       + Whitney           160
       - Prime Suspect     140
         Playboy Club       95
         Free Agents        75
         Sing-Off           45

CBS      Person of Interest 70
         Unforgettable      70
         2 Broke Girls      60
         A Gifted Man       25

ABC      Revenge            90
         Charlie's Angels   60
         Suburgatory        60
         Pan Am             60
         Once Upon a Time   30

Note: New fall series not listed
have not been promoted in hit summer
shows during this date span.

To see the list of shows in which
promotion activity is tracked, see
the Summer Broadcast Ratings update.