Fox goes back to future to counter fastforwarding

Owen Gibson, media correspondent
Friday September 15, 2006
The Guardian

Digital channel FX has developed what it claims is the first television advert aimed at combating the growing number of viewers who fastforward through its commercial breaks.

The channel, aimed at men and mostly featuring glossy drama and comedy imports including Sleeper Cell and The Wire, will air the advert for upcoming series Brotherhood later this month.

Broadcasters, particularly those aimed at a younger demographic, have been looking for ways to tackle time-shifted viewing whereby programmes can be stored on a personal video recorder (PVRs). With the growing popularity of PVRs such as Sky Plus, which the pay-TV giant aims to have in 2.5m households by the end of the decade, research shows that more and more viewers are skipping adverts. In Sky Plus homes 13% of all viewing is time-shifted, rising to 30% of drama. FX said four in 10 viewers of its drama Sleeper Cell had recorded the show to watch later.

The 30-second promo has been designed to retain its message when viewed at up to 12 times its normal speed. The trail recalls the earliest days in television advertising when a static image was common. Featuring a single image on the screen for the duration of the ad, the creative team behind it claim it will also remain entertaining at normal speed. FX, a division of News Corp's Fox International, said it hoped it would be a step towards providing "PVR resistant" solutions for all advertisers.

Jason Thorp, senior vice-president and deputy managing director of Fox International Channels UK, said: "This particular experiment is part of a campaign to address a question that every channel must be thinking about, which is: How do we keep the audience tuned in, in real time, during breaks and get our messages across when they don't?"

· The advert will be aired on FX on September 22.