We all know how much FOX enjoys cancelling shows. Well, it looks now like they've run out of good shows to cancel, because now they're cancelling the commercials.
Fox will premiere its new fall drama Fringe in a format that it is calling Remote Free TV, in which it will run only half the number of commercial and promotional minutes of a traditional show in order to try to maximize viewer engagement.
Fox will also premiere its second new drama next January, The Dollhouse, using the same format. Fox sales president Jon Nesvig said each show will only contain five minutes of national commercial time per hour and each commercial break will include shorter commercial pods.
Nesvig told advertisers at Fox's upfront presentation today (May 14), "We will work with you to see if this model is economically viable."
Added Fox entertainment chairman Peter Liguori, "We need to give viewers a new reason to come to network television, and we hope that this will give them less reason to change the channel during commercial breaks."
I suppose in the end that this doesn't make a huge difference to my household, where we worship at the shrine of Tivo, but fewer commercials won't have anyone complaining.