Inspired by a comment in this thread. Since the networks are going to filling the airwaves with memorial programs on the one year anniversary of the attacks, are they going to be running ads during those programs? Or are they going to be doing something similar when Schindler’s List was broadcast and have a “sponsored by” message at the beginning and end of the programs? Any estimates on what their ad revenue will be for that day?
i hope that they go with no ads. so far i’ve only watched programs on pbs, so, no ads.
I was reading an article on this recently. The company(Nextel I think) that sponsored that big 9/11 memorial with the two French filmmakers was asked if they would do something like that again. They said no. The article went on to say that the vast majority of sponsors and advertisers were refusing to have anything to do with 9/11, for fear of being seen as attempting to cash in on the tragedy. So the networks decided to go commercial free entirely, for more or less the same reasons.
From what I’ve read in a TVguide article (3 or 4 weeks ago?) the networks didn’t “decide” to go ad free so much as 1/3 of advertisers said they’d pay for ads, 1/3 flat out refused to be associated with any 9/11 coverage, and the last 3rd was undecided as to if they were going to do ads. With only 1/3rd of the advertisers being strongly in favor of doing ads, they might not have stood to gain much $ from actually airing ads in the first place.