News & Commentary
CW Takes On the DVR
The new network will air 'mini-shows' during commercial breaks to combat ad-skipping.
By Phillip Swann

Washington, D.C. (July 18, 2006) -- CW, the new broadcast network, has found a way to stop Digital Video Recorder owners from Fast-Forwarding past commercials.

Don't show any commercials.

Well, sort of.

CW, which was created from the merger of the WB and UPN networks, said yesterday that it will air 30-second 'mini-shows' that will replace the traditional commercial. The mini-shows will follow a character's actions from one commercial break to the next. To keep the bean counters happy, the spots will prominently feature an advertiser's product, either as part of the mini-show's content or displayed at the bottom of the screen.

``Our audience has grown up with television and new media. We are giving them new ways to get involved," Dawn Ostroff, CW's president of entertainment, said yesterday at the Television Critics Association conference. ``This is an experiment. We heard from the advertising community that we needed to reinvent the wheel. There had to be a different way to communicate to (viewers)."

The CW network will debut on September 20 with shows such as 7th Heaven and Gilmore Girls.

Swanni Sez:
Advertisers are skeptical that Digital Video Recorder owners are actually watching their commercials when they playback their shows. So, as I have predicted, the networks and advertisers are teaming to offer new ways to present commercials and other advertising messages.
The DVR, which enables people to skip ads during recorded programming with the Fast Forward button, is unquestionably changing how people watch TV. But it's still wrong to say the device will hurt advertising in the long run. In fact, I predict that it will lead to more advertising than ever before.

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Phillip Swann is president and publisher of TVPredictions.com. He has been quoted in dozens of publications and broadcast outlets, including CNN, Fox News, Inside Edition, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Financial Times, The Associated Press and The Hollywood Reporter. He can be reached at swann@tvpredictions.com or at 703-505-3064.

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