Advertisers happy to have ‘Idol’ time
TEXT OF STORY
TESS VIGELAND: So Congress and the President both sign a bill into law, and then part of it just doesn’t count? Isn’t that kind of like Randy and Paula and Simon agreeing that somebody’s a good singer, and then Simon deciding he doesn’t like the singer’s hair-do so, well, she can’t be on the show?
OK, OK, maybe they’re not quite the same. But anyway, for those of you — OK, us — who’ve spent the last several months practicing the insults you’ll hurl at the television — it’s back.
AMERICAN IDOL CLIP: American Idol returns Tuesday, January 15th on Fox.
Yes, American Idol is back tomorrow night. And its 30 bazillion viewers are rejoicing. Almost as much as advertisers are. We begged Marketplace’s Lisa Napoli to sing this next story. She politely declined.
LISA NAPOLI: Advertisers were already ponying up 30 percent more cash than last year for commercials on this upcoming round of American Idol, but now that they’re desperate to reach a strike-weary television audience, word is the charge for a 30-second spot on the show has zoomed up to $1 million per. More than any other TV series out there.
MICHAEL BURGI: Idol right now is a great place to be for anyone whose product needs to be advertised on television.
That’s Michael Burgi, editor in chief of Mediaweek. He says previous talk of Idol-fatigue is going by the wayside now that there’s nothing much new to watch on TV.
BURGI: It’s going to deliver a huge audience from the get-go. Even if it’s 10 percent lower than last year, that’s going to be way larger than anything remotely approximating it on television right now.
And Idol’s enormous 18 to 49-year-old audience already had a great reputation with advertisers. Media analyst Jack Myers says that’s because viewers actually watch the ads.
JACK MYERS: American Idol gets a higher commercial playback than many other programs for those people who do pre-record. It’s viewed heavily live. Commercials aren’t skipped as much on American Idol
Myers says even though advertisers are paying a premium to get their messages out on the show, they feel it’s a cost-effective bang for the buck. No matter who wins the latest Idol competition, the biggest winner of all will be the TV network that carries it — Fox.
In Los Angeles, I’m Lisa Napoli for Marketplace.
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