Advertiser funded programming
Encyclopedia
Advertiser Funded Programming (AFP) is a recent term applied to a break away from the modern model of television
funding in place since the early 1960s. Since that time, programmes have normally been funded by a broadcaster
and they re-couped the money through selling advertising
space around the content. This has worked fine for decades, but new technological advances have forced broadcasters and advertisers to re-think their relationship.
The concept is as old as television itself; the term soap opera
is derived from the fact that the original soap operas were in fact funded and produced by soap companies such as Procter & Gamble
. Shows such as the Texaco Star Theater
, which were among the earliest television programs, included the practice. It was not until the quiz show scandals
of the late 1950s, when particularly aggressive advertisers began rigging game shows to produce a more entertaining product, that the practice fell on the wayside. By the time television became a worldwide phenomenon in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the original model had mostly been eschewed in favor of the modern model, which separates programming and advertising. (The fact that many of the early television broadcasters outside the United States were public broadcasters that restricted the use of advertising may have been a contributing factor to this.)
With the advent of digital recording devices, also known as personal video recorders (PVR's), viewers can choose to record episodes or entire series of their favourite shows and watch them in their own time. Not only does this skew the idea of 'primetime', (advertisers being charged a premium for buying spots around the most popular viewing times), but it means viewers can skip the ads altogether.
Advertiser funded programming (AFP), largely a neologism, is a solution to this change and means the advertiser pays to integrate their message in the tv programme itself, rather than just buying advertising space around it. It includes product placement
, sponsorship, naming rights
and more recently the actual creation of whole shows from scratch. Many of these projects are enabled by a Content partnership
where the programming is co-funded by multiple stakeholders.
Both independent agencies and the global networks have even created dedicated units to concentrate on AFP, such as JWT Entertainment, BBH, Hubbub Communications, Now Inc., Mudra, WPP's Group M, or Omnicom's Grand Central, London based, Advertiser Funded Programming agency.
The increasing popularity of advertiser branded projects in Britain has also led to an increase in TV executives approaching advertisers to co-develop programme content. BrandsonTV, the first AFP consultancy run solely by former TV programming executives, was set up in 2009 by producer Ben Devlin
to create new relationships between brands, broadcasters and distributors across the entire range of traditional and emerging media platforms and to anticipate changes in UK legislation governing product placement.
Some recent examples of AFP:
Most sports organizations heavily restrict the use of advertiser funded programming, particularly amateur competitions such as the Olympic Games
and the FIFA World Cup
, both of which ban the practice as ambush marketing
. Other sports have embraced the practice as an additional form of revenue, both for the leagues and the networks. Naming rights have been sold for bowl game
s, tournaments, television presentations, halftime show
s, stadium
s and arena
s, with the practice of selling team names more common outside North America, while product placements and advertisements can be seen on the fields, on sideboards surrounding them, or as on-screen graphics without interrupting a telecast. Advertiser funded programming techniques give sports broadcasters a third channel of revenue, in addition to retransmission consent fees and traditional advertising, allowing stations such as ESPN
to pay high rights fees and still make significant amounts of money.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
funding in place since the early 1960s. Since that time, programmes have normally been funded by a broadcaster
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
and they re-couped the money through selling advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
space around the content. This has worked fine for decades, but new technological advances have forced broadcasters and advertisers to re-think their relationship.
The concept is as old as television itself; the term soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
is derived from the fact that the original soap operas were in fact funded and produced by soap companies such as Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
. Shows such as the Texaco Star Theater
Texaco Star Theater
Texaco Star Theater is an American comedy-variety show, broadcast on radio from 1938 to 1949 and telecast from 1948 to 1956. It was one of the first successful examples of American television broadcasting, remembered as the show that gave Milton Berle the nickname "Mr...
, which were among the earliest television programs, included the practice. It was not until the quiz show scandals
Quiz show scandals
The American quiz show scandals of the 1950s were a series of revelations that contestants of several popular television quiz shows were secretly given assistance by the show's producers to arrange the outcome of a supposedly fair competition....
of the late 1950s, when particularly aggressive advertisers began rigging game shows to produce a more entertaining product, that the practice fell on the wayside. By the time television became a worldwide phenomenon in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the original model had mostly been eschewed in favor of the modern model, which separates programming and advertising. (The fact that many of the early television broadcasters outside the United States were public broadcasters that restricted the use of advertising may have been a contributing factor to this.)
With the advent of digital recording devices, also known as personal video recorders (PVR's), viewers can choose to record episodes or entire series of their favourite shows and watch them in their own time. Not only does this skew the idea of 'primetime', (advertisers being charged a premium for buying spots around the most popular viewing times), but it means viewers can skip the ads altogether.
Advertiser funded programming (AFP), largely a neologism, is a solution to this change and means the advertiser pays to integrate their message in the tv programme itself, rather than just buying advertising space around it. It includes product placement
Product placement
Product placement, or embedded marketing, is a form of advertisement, where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, music videos, the story line of television shows, or news programs. The product placement is often not disclosed at the time that the...
, sponsorship, naming rights
Naming rights
In the private sector, naming rights are a financial transaction whereby a corporation or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, typically for a defined period of time. For properties like a multi-purpose arena, performing arts venue or an athletic field, the term ranges from three...
and more recently the actual creation of whole shows from scratch. Many of these projects are enabled by a Content partnership
Content partnership
A Content Partnership is a new term describing a joint venture between brands, broadcasters, publishers and producers to create original audio visual programming across any media platform...
where the programming is co-funded by multiple stakeholders.
Both independent agencies and the global networks have even created dedicated units to concentrate on AFP, such as JWT Entertainment, BBH, Hubbub Communications, Now Inc., Mudra, WPP's Group M, or Omnicom's Grand Central, London based, Advertiser Funded Programming agency.
The increasing popularity of advertiser branded projects in Britain has also led to an increase in TV executives approaching advertisers to co-develop programme content. BrandsonTV, the first AFP consultancy run solely by former TV programming executives, was set up in 2009 by producer Ben Devlin
Ben Devlin
Ben Devlin is a British television Executive Producer. After periods working in journalism including a stint at the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph he entered tv broadcasting and worked for the BBC, Rapido TV, Clive James's Watchmaker Films, Graham Norton's So TV and Visual Voodoo, the...
to create new relationships between brands, broadcasters and distributors across the entire range of traditional and emerging media platforms and to anticipate changes in UK legislation governing product placement.
Some recent examples of AFP:
- The Krypton FactorThe Krypton FactorThe Krypton Factor was a British game show produced by Granada Television for broadcast on ITV. The show originally ran from 7 September 1977 to 20 November 1995, and was hosted by Gordon Burns and usually broadcast on the ITV network on Mondays at 19:00....
, in partnership with The Sage GroupThe Sage GroupThe Sage Group plc , commonly known as Sage, is a global enterprise software company headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. It is the world's third-largest supplier of enterprise resource planning software , the largest supplier to small businesses, and has 6.1 million customers...
on ITVITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK... - http://www.eurosport.com/ The Factory on EurosportEurosportEurosport is a pan-European television sport network operated by French broadcaster TF1 Group. The network of channels are available in 59 countries, in 20 different languages providing viewers with European and international sporting events...
, in partnership with the PhilipsPhilipsKoninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
and AT&T Williams F1 - Beat: Life on the Street on ITVITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, in partnership with the Home OfficeHome OfficeThe Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,... - Vodafone TBA on Channel 4Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, in partnership with VodafoneVodafoneVodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of... - FordFord Motor CompanyFord Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
and Toyota in 2424 (TV series)24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration... - Crest toothpaste in The ApprenticeThe Apprentice (U.S. TV series)The Apprentice is an American reality television show hosted by real estate magnate, businessman and television personality Donald Trump, created by Mark Burnett and broadcast on NBC...
- American ExpressAmerican ExpressAmerican Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
in The RestaurantThe RestaurantThe Restaurant is a reality television series that aired on NBC in 2003, with a second season broadcasting in 2004. The series had encore presentations on CNBC and Bravo.... - Findmypast.co.ukFind My PastFind My Past is a leading UK-based online genealogy service owned by UK company Brightsolid. It was awarded the Queen's Award for Innovation in 2007. In October 2011 Find My Past used the new UK product placement legislation opportunites by sponsoring a genealogy TV series...
sponsored the genealogy TV series 'Find My Past' on the Yesterday channel in October 2011.
Most sports organizations heavily restrict the use of advertiser funded programming, particularly amateur competitions such as the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
and the FIFA World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
, both of which ban the practice as ambush marketing
Ambush marketing
Ambush marketing can be defined as a marketing strategy wherein the advertisers associate themselves with, and therefore capitalize on, a particular event without paying any sponsorship fee. The Macmillan English Dictionary defines ambush marketing as a marketing strategy in which a competing...
. Other sports have embraced the practice as an additional form of revenue, both for the leagues and the networks. Naming rights have been sold for bowl game
Bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is commonly considered to refer to one of a number of post-season college football games. Prior to 2002, bowl game statistics were not included in players' career totals and the games were mostly considered to be exhibition games involving a payout to participating...
s, tournaments, television presentations, halftime show
Halftime show
A halftime show is a performance given during halftime, the period between the first and second halves, or the second and third quarters, of a sporting event. Halftime shows are not given for sports with an irregular or indeterminate number of divisions , or for sports that do not have an extended...
s, stadium
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...
s and arena
Arena
An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...
s, with the practice of selling team names more common outside North America, while product placements and advertisements can be seen on the fields, on sideboards surrounding them, or as on-screen graphics without interrupting a telecast. Advertiser funded programming techniques give sports broadcasters a third channel of revenue, in addition to retransmission consent fees and traditional advertising, allowing stations such as ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
to pay high rights fees and still make significant amounts of money.