Online Ad Rates Higher On Certain TV Shows Than TV Ad Rates

from the go-simpsons dept

We were just being told by a supposedly respectable media analyst that things like Hulu were anti-American, because it gave away content for "free" and could potentially bring down the entire media business. Yet, it appears that media businesses are learning how to monetize that online content quite well. Bloomberg notes that for shows like The Simpsons and CSI, online ad rates are actually higher than TV ad rates. There are good reasons for this, including the fact that advertisers recognize viewers of shows online are more committed to the shows -- in that they actively chose to seek out and watch that show, as opposed to just having the TV on in the living room while doing something else. Also, people are more willing to watch those ads, in part because they're shorter and they don't have to watch as many to get to the content they want. Now, it is true that the number of viewers still represents a substantial difference and that media companies rely heavily on carriage fees from cable companies and the like. But the idea that ads can't support TV shows online doesn't seem to be based on anything in reality.

Filed Under: csi, online ads, simpsons, tv ads