Comments on: Lame Commercials, Boring Game

By: Bruce McCarthy

Bruce McCarthy — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:18:16 +0000

Assuming they could sell those spots at that price. I used to work in the magazine business and we filled ad pages we didn’t sell with in-house ads.

By: Adam College

Adam College — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:17:29 +0000

Yes it does, Kevin. Of course Fox, like the other networks that air large sporting and entertainment events, reserves some number of advertising spots for in-house promotional materials.

Hollywood economics is convoluted (or at least I assume so), and I imagine the end result is that there’s no line-item for “In-House Spots” on Fox’s SuperBowlAds.xls. Nor is there one for “Super Bowl Ad Time” in TerminatorBudget.xls. As you said, it’s “free” for Fox to air Fox commercials, less any production costs of making the commercial itself.

But for each 30 second ad for their own shows, Fox spends $2.7 million in opportunity cost. By not showing someone else’s ads and gaining income from that commercial, Fox has, in effect, “spent” money on their advertisements. That’s my point.

By: Kevin Tostado

Kevin Tostado — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:37:57 +0000

You do realize that it costs Fox essentially nothing to run commercials for their own shows, right?

I was rewatching Season 3 of Lost during the game because I had pretty much no interest in who won the game.

Kevin