- by Wayne Friedman, Yesterday, 3:02 PM
In a content-glutted TV world, some infomercials may just disappear. San Francisco independent TV station KRON now says it is abandoning daytime infomercials for regular programming. Its three new shows will be “Bridezillas,” “Hollywood Today Live,” and“Crime Watch Daily.”
What gives? Ashley Gold Messina, vice president and general manager of KRON, says the reason is simple: “This move adds continuity to our schedule, gives the Bay area viewers a reason to stay with KRON 4 all day long, and gives us an additional promotional platform for our news products.”
Messina says it’s the first time KRON’s Monday to Friday schedule has been without infomercials in daytime since 2002!
Here’s another reason to kill infomercials: TV viewers no longer have to struggle through obvious long-form TV advertising on traditional TV. They have options -- like long-form programming on Netflix, HBO Now, and Hulu. Consumers can go in the other direction as well viewing skateboard tricks on YouTube after watching just five seconds of an ad message.
There’s also more traditional TV programming than ever before -- a glut, some say.
Proponents who will give you thousand of reasons why infomercials still work. But perhaps you don’t need TV stations’ valuable daytime airwaves to do that. Why can’t TV stations just use -- gasp -- their websites for infomercials, for example?
Lots of TV pundits talk about the death of the 30-second commercial or commercial avoidance due to fast-forwarding, skipping or deleting. But what can you do with infomercials?
Anyone fast-forwarded through P90X, ProActiv, or OxiClean lately?
What gives? Ashley Gold Messina, vice president and general manager of KRON, says the reason is simple: “This move adds continuity to our schedule, gives the Bay area viewers a reason to stay with KRON 4 all day long, and gives us an additional promotional platform for our news products.”
Messina says it’s the first time KRON’s Monday to Friday schedule has been without infomercials in daytime since 2002!
Here’s another reason to kill infomercials: TV viewers no longer have to struggle through obvious long-form TV advertising on traditional TV. They have options -- like long-form programming on Netflix, HBO Now, and Hulu. Consumers can go in the other direction as well viewing skateboard tricks on YouTube after watching just five seconds of an ad message.
There’s also more traditional TV programming than ever before -- a glut, some say.
Proponents who will give you thousand of reasons why infomercials still work. But perhaps you don’t need TV stations’ valuable daytime airwaves to do that. Why can’t TV stations just use -- gasp -- their websites for infomercials, for example?
Lots of TV pundits talk about the death of the 30-second commercial or commercial avoidance due to fast-forwarding, skipping or deleting. But what can you do with infomercials?
Anyone fast-forwarded through P90X, ProActiv, or OxiClean lately?
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