Here’s an interesting tidbit. AdAge reports that media buyers have purchased American Idol ad inventory for Sunday and MONDAY nights at $200,000 for a 30 second spot:
ABC’s reboot of “American Idol” is costing advertisers around $200,000 for a 30-second spot, according to media buyers, who say they have purchased inventory for the show on Sunday and Monday nights.
ABC has not said what nights it plans to run the reality singing competition when it returns in the spring. A spokeswoman for the network declined to comment Tuesday.
It’s hard to imagine ABC running the Idol reboot directly against The Voice. Even diehard Idol fans would be torn between the reboot and catching the OG American Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson as one of the coaches on The Voice season 14 panel. Additionally, there is Dancing with the Stars to consider, which ABC typically airs in the 8-10 time slot opposite The Voice. Maybe Monday night episodes of Idol will air AFTER Dancing with the Stars at 10 pm? Or perhaps DWTS will be cut back to an hour. Remember, the junior edition of DWTS that is supposedly coming this spring could have a limited schedule.
In any case: DO NOT WANT AMERICAN IDOL COMPETING DIRECTLY WITH THE VOICE. Don’t do it, ABC.
Also, Ad Age recalls that American Idol in its heyday “easily fetched more than $500,000 for a 30-second ad, running neck-in-neck with NBC’s Sunday Night Football. But by the end of its run on Fox in 2016, advertisers were paying less than $200,000 for 30 seconds.”
According to Variety:
“At least one media buyer expects “Idol” to generate a rating slightly lower than NBC’s America’s Got Talent, which has been pulling about a 2.6 rating this summer. The spring 2017 season of The Voice averaged 10.4 million viewers and a 2.2 rating in the demo.”
That seems optimistic to me, considering the return of Idol will saturate the market for competitive singing shows even further. The “farewell season” of Idol in 2016, marketed as if the veteran should would be leaving the airwaves forever, pulled in some decent numbers. But the penultimate season 14 couldn’t crack a 2.0 for the finale.
As far as how ABC will approach advertising, Variety reports:
“ABC will look to revamp the ad experience in its version of the show. Rita Ferro, who leads ad sales for the Disney/ABC TV Group, has said that while product placement is available for clients that want it, the focus will be more on branded content opportunities and extending ads across the company’s other networks and digital assets.”
By comparison, according to this October 2016 article from Variety, The Voice cost advertisers $200,742 and $219,461 on Monday and Tuesday nights respectively.
