Disney’s ABC might be on the lookout for an incursion Fox Nation.
Promos for the new “The Vow,” an original dating series led by Chris Harrison, former host of the ABC mainstay “The Bachelor,” are slated to air in local ad inventory on several ABC stations in roughly a dozen markets, according to a person familiar with the matter. The promos would surface even though Warner Bros. Television, producer of “The Bachelor,” recently sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Fox News Media streaming service calling for it to stop making visual and creative references to “The Bachelor.”
Fox Nation will stay on the march. The new promo is expected to run in local ad inventory on ABC stations in New York City, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas, this person says. Fox News declined to make executives available for comment.
“The Bachelor” has been a mainstay part of the ABC schedule for about three decades, and Harrison served as host for 25 seasons. The promos could air during primetime programs such as “Grey’s Anatomy” one of ABC’s most-watched series.
“I believe in true love,” Harrison says in the promo. “Always have.” At the end of the vignette, graphics inform viewers that the new show debuts November 11 on Fox Nation — as rose petals, a key element of “The Bachelor,” are seen on screen.
WBTV on September 18 claimed recent promos for “The Vow” represented “a plain attempt to capitalize on and ‘ride on the coattails’ of WB’s instantly recognizable intellectual property and the Franchise’s goodwill in violation of, inter alia, state and federal trademark, copyright, and unfair competition laws,” according to a copy of the cease and desist letter reviewed by Variety. “Without having seen the Series itself, we cannot comment on it and reserve all rights in connection therewith. To be clear, though, we have no objection to Fox and Lionsgate releasing a dating show hosted by Chris Harrison in and of itself. But thus far, Fox and Lionsgate have promoted the Series entirely on the back of the Franchise, not on its own merits.”
Fox Nation seemed undaunted by the effort. Your letter appears designed not to vindicate legitimate copyright and trademark interests, but to restrict FOX Nation and Chris Harrison from promoting a competing dating show. It is unfortunate that Warner Bros. is targeting Mr. Harrison in this malicious and vindictive manner,” the company said in a September 24 response.
Buying local inventory on stations is a tried-and-true method for companies to get commercials on air that might otherwise be blocked. In the world of TV promotion, it’s almost impossible to get a rival network to pick up an ad that disparages or emulates its programs. The alternative, a select few have discovered, is to purchase ad slots on local stations or cable and satellite systems and deliver the equivalent of a hard elbow to the ribs: Stop watching this and start watching us.
In 2014, the CW ran ads on the cable network once known as ABC Family telling TV viewers to stop watching “Pretty Little Liars” and turn instead to its own “The Originals.”
The technique was also used to great effect by Time Warner’s TNT in 2004. When the cable outlet was running “Without A Trace” on Mondays, it bought up ads during NBC’s “E.R.,” which just happened to air opposite the current season of “Trace” on CBS on Thursday nights. “”If you’ve been watching ‘E.R.’ on Thursday nights,” the narrator told viewers, “you’ve missed the drama critics say is…Gripping. Stylish. Addictive.” And of course, available at that exact moment on CBS as the promo blared.
Top NBC executives were barely aware the spots were running on the network’s affiliates and even some of local stations the Peacock owned. The plan that had been orchestrated in part by Steve Koonin, who at the time was exec veep and chief operating officer of TNT and its sister outlet, TBS. Once The Wall Street Journal called to ask about the presence of the spots on NBC, the network disclosed the promos were being pulled from all of its owned stations – even though they had been on the air for about four weeks.
Others have tested the method. In 2009, ABC snatched up ad inventory on various cable distributors – who usually get about two minutes per hour to sell to their own clients – on a range of cable-news outlets, including CNN and MSNBC. Between the hours of 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. – the exact time when ABC’s “Good Morning America” was on, the promos suggested viewers tune in to the “GMA” team of the time: Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts, Chris Cuomo and Sam Champion. Alan Ives, executive creative director and executive producer at ABC News, put the plan into place.
Advertisers have also tapped the technique. The Super Bowl was once off-limits to any brewer other than Anheuser Busch InBev, which paid handsomely to ensure it would be the only malt-liquor sponsor of the event. Rrivals such as Diageo and MillerCoors hawked their wares during the broadcast of the game: In 2009, MillerCoors touted Miller High Life in one-second ads that ran on local stations across the U.S., and in 2003, Diageo ran local ads for its Smirnoff Ice during the pigskin classic.
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