Traditionally the US Super-bowl is a place where many new advertising ideas are tried, and some go on to change the way the TV and video advertising markets work – that’s quite possible with the way that Fox is experimenting with its sports coverage advertising.
Usually Superbowl advertising is the domain of the very rich and powerful, and no small business would look at trying it – it’s too rich for their blood to risk an entire campaign which might be missed in the blink of an eye.
But Fox plans to offer the event in a few weeks, streamed for no charge and instead pay for it out of adverts sold for it by its affiliate local broadcasters, of which there are 170 different companies. This puts Superbowl advertising down at the level of the corner shop and it could make a killing.
The idea is to launch the advertising approach for all of Fox Sports GO, one of its streaming channels. Now there are only 4 national Broadcast channels so this is really about a strategy which could be tried only by Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC – the idea of programmatically inserting different ads into the steam for local advertisers in each affiliate market
This is the streaming platform which Fox users for all live events, and on this occasion, Fox won’t limit this to TV Everywhere subscribers who require pay TV credentials to log in. If it works, expect Fox Sports Go to emerge as a free to air platform, driven by a brigade of local advertisers, as well as big national brands.
Fox Sports President Eric Shanks said, “As part of the buildup to this year’s Super Bowl, we’re committed to creating the best possible experience for fans by dramatically expanding the ways and places in which they can watch the game. Our pioneering collaboration with our affiliates to allow streaming local ad insertions will make commercials even more relevant for viewers and help make this year’s game even more of a personal experience for every fan.”
It will indeed be novel to watch the Superbowl and when it is interrupted for advertising, see an advert for a local service.
Earlier this year, Fox claimed it was the first network to launch live streaming on a national basis with the relaunch of Fox Now Live in all 210 national markets, driven by local ad insertion from affiliates.
It is only expected to draw in some 3 or 4 million streams while broadcast TV will be closer to 110 million, and Verizon is known to have the NFL streaming rights for smartphones and that’s separate. Expect more trials of this type over the coming year or so. One of the key questions for streaming national broadcast channels has been how to continue to use the power of local affiliates in a purely digital market, and this approach seems to have that covered.