Blog

Ready to zap that commercial with your digital video recorder? Go ahead, because advertisers have something in store just for you to see, whether you are in play mode or in fast-forward mode.

As reported in the New York Times, U.K. ads for the Fox drama “Brotherhood,” premiering this October in Britain, shows a photo of Providence R.I., the setting for the show, and the show’s logo.

For those who fast forward, they’ll see a few seconds of this single image; for those who watch the ad it in its entirety, they will hear a clip from the show’s soundtrack.

As reported in the story, a Fox spokesman said the company was experimenting with ways to get its messages to DVR users who often breeze through ads, while trying not to antagonize real-time viewers who would be subjected to a static, silent image for thirty seconds.

As the story states: “Television executives fear the new technology could make ad-supported free programming obsolete. In the United States, DVR users could dodge as much as $8 billion of the $74 billion in television ads shown this year, according to Jupiter Research, a technology consulting company.”

Who said “still” images were dead?