It's the future, apparently.  FOX, as part of their upfront presentation yesterday, where they laid out the Fall and Spring prime time schedules and introduced their new series, made another big announcement: highly anticipated new series Dollhouse and Fringe will both air with nearly no commercial breaks.  Both series will have around five minutes of commercials per hour, as opposed to 15-18 minutes of commercial and promo time usually found in an hour-long series.  Both Fringe and Dollhouse come from high-profile creators – J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon, respectively.  Even though no one has seen even the pilot for either show, the expectations are very high, and this advertising experiment shows FOX's confidence in them. 

While you'd think that FOX might try to experiment with fewer commercials on an already established series, it actually makes more sense with a new show.  House, for instance, is used to producing 43 or so minutes of content per episode.  Dollhouse and Fringe will each have to produce 55 minutes of content, which changes the lengths of the scripts, how plot points are delineated among acts, and how the series is budgeted. 

As for the reasons why FOX would attempt this, in general, here is what FOX Chairman Peter Ligouri had to say about the announcement: "It's a simple concept and potentially revolutionary.  We're going to have less commercials, less promotional time, and less reason for viewers to use the remote. We're going to redefine the viewing experience." In addition, advertisers are going to be charged a premium for the little commercial time that is available. 

While I understand the idea, and I respect the fact that FOX is trying something revolutionary, I'm not sure how sound of an idea it is.  In the modern era of DVR and Tivo, either people are going to watch all of the commercials or none.  If I'm a fan of a show, I feel no less inclined to watch the commercials, and if I've DVRed the show, there's no way I watch the ads.  That's just the world we live in.  However, in the sense that Fringe and Dollhouse are trying to acquire viewers in the early going, it makes sense.  The fewer commercials, the less likely someone is to get bored and click away.  We'll see how it works out.  I'm just excited to have 55 minutes of content on a network TV series. 


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of FOX)