The Fox Broadcasting Co. is hoping animation can keep viewers tuned in during commercial breaks. Starting tonight, April 9, the FOX network will begin airing eight-second animated vignettes that chronicle the adventures of a half-Greek, half-Lithuanian taxi driver who picks up the occasional celebrity.
With the proliferation of digital recording devices that automatically edit out commercials, FOX and other broadcasters are looking at ways to keep advertising revenue coming in as more and more people are bypassing the ads that cut into their favorite programs. Making the issue even more pressing is a new system by which Nielsen Media Research is starting to track commercial ratings.
MSNBC recently started running a news crawl during commercials, but FOX’s animated solution is Oleg, a fast-driving cabbie who takes time to identify where wayward shopping carts have come from while hauling such notable personalities as Tom Cruise and Donald Trump. If the campaign is successful, we could see a lot more animation sneaking into primetime as nets try to give corporate sponsors more bang for their buck without having to lower their rates.
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