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Will Remote-Free TV Catch On?

Sep 12, 2008  •  Post A Comment

J.J. Abrams’ “Fringe” wasn’t the only thing Fox debuted on Tuesday night. The network also introduced “Remote-Free TV” during the show’s premiere. “Remote-Free TV” refers to Fox’s experiment with reducing commercial breaks and charging more for them. It’s geared to hopefully make viewers less inclined to switch the channel during breaks or speed over them using a DVR. Advertising Age looks into the new experiment and asks whether or not it’ll catch on with other networks.
—Christopher Perez

3 Comments

  1. I really enjoyed it.
    I noticed the “60 sec” cards and I never sped through Fringe and watched the entire show ads and all.
    I think it was a clever way to hold my attention but I still HATE those pop-ups and ticker tape ads on the bottom of the screen. They NEED to get rid of those as soon as possible.

  2. They also need to get rid of commercials that air between and delay the start of programs, and limit the number of ads for the station’s own programming as well.
    Also, whenever there is a special report, they usually air a bunch of commercials that pay for the special report, then announce “we now rejoin our regularly scheduled program already in progress” which cuts into and drowns out the dialogue on screen, then we almost immediately have a bunch of commercials affiliated with the program.
    With the digital switch, maybe there’ll be a way to pick up on the parts of a program that were preempted, just as you can now rewind actual TV (not just recordings) if you have didgital cable.

  3. I think it’s smart. Advertisers should be willing to pay more as their ad is less likely to get lost in the clutter or forwarded through. What would be smart is to have a countdown time at the top or bottom of the screen that says the show will resume in X seconds. If viewers know it’s only 60 seconds they’ll likely let it roll.

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