FIESTA BOWL SETS ADVERTISING RECORD

Tostido BOWL

Tempe (WPI) - The ABC network set a new record yesterday during its broadcast of the Ohio State vs Notre Dame bowl game from Arizonia. Coverage of the Tostida Fiesta Bowl ran four hours and twenty two minutes (4:22:00). During that time the network managed to sell two hours an twelve minutes of commercial advertising not including ABC program promotions or “visual” and “sponsor” ads.

Visual ads include any time during the program where a product or service is seen legibly by the viewer. Sponsor ads include any mention of the sponsor as well as the sponsor’s visual ad time.

Here’s how the program broke down:

Actual football action (Team breaks huddle; runs play until it is called dead): Five minutes, ten seconds (5:10).

Actual football coverage (Replays, referee’s announcements, penalty reviews): Twelve minutes, six seconds (12:06).

Non-action football coverage (Shots of coaches, players, benches, non player interviews*, shots of fans**, etc): Twenty Seven Minutes, eleven seconds (27:11).

[*Does not include interview with Jerry Rice, this is listed under ABC Program Promotion; ** Does not include special category, “Quinn’s sister/Hawk’s girlfriend” scenes- 4:44]

Paid Commercials (actual TV commercials): Two hours, twelve minutes (2:12:30)

Visual Ads (Visual ads are billed to clients as unique time, however these ads typically run during the Actual and Non-action football coverage shots. This time is not additive to the program length.): Forty three minutes, fifty five seconds (43:55).

Sponsor ads (Includes Visual Ad time but limited to the Pepsi /Tostida Corporation. Not additive): Ninteen minutes, forty one seconds (19:41).

ABC Program Promotions (Includes both visual ads [superimpositions, pop-ups, still images] and straight verbal promotion statements): One hour, twenty one minutes (1:21:00).

In addition, Brent Mussberger mentioned Bill Parcells, a coach not involved in the game, 11 times and Brady Quinn’s sister 19 times. Both new records for irrelevant repetition by an announcer. No statistics are kept for random or single irrelevant and awkward comments.

The Nielsen Corporation which tracks the industry announced that ABC had set new records in the Visual Ads, Sponsor Ads and Program Promotion categories. Program Promotions beat the previous record, held by the Fox network for last year’s Super Bowl by nearly twenty five minutes.

This year ABC dropped Monday Night Football from its lineup siting declining viewership.