Ad agency to make TV programmes

Advertisers are looking to get more involved with TV content

Global ad agency WPP is moving into the world of TV production, making a new six-part drama for US broadcaster ABC.

October Road will be co-produced by Touchstone Television and WPP's media buying and planning arm Group M.

Group M is not relying on advertisers to help fund the series but its involvement will enable it to get better rates and slots for its clients.

It is a new example of how advertisers are looking to get more involved with TV content.

Although the exact model used by WPP in the US is unlikely to be repeated in the UK or Europe, experts say broadcasters and advertisers are rethinking the way they work with each other.

Commercial breaks

The UK's commercial TV channels are mostly funded by advertising during programmes and sponsorship, with some networks such as Sky One also picking up subscription income.

Executives are worried the increasing popularity of personal video recorders will diminish the value of traditional advertising spots, with viewers able to bypass schedules and skip through commercial breaks and sponsorship credits.

Product placement is rife on US shows such as American Idol

"The interruption model of TV commercial breaks is becoming less effective," says Nick Walford, managing director of Mindshare Performance and Entertainment, a division of WPP.

"Together with the migration of young viewers to the internet, this is becoming an ever increasing problem.

"The model of funding TV through advertising revenue alone is broken."

Earlier this year consumer products giant Unilever was heavily involved with the production of Sure Fans United, a TV series that promoted its deodorant brand while looking at the antics of football fans in the run-up to the World Cup.

The series went out on ITV in the UK and in 40 other TV markets around the world.

Product placement

But Mr Walford says that one area where the UK is unlikely to follow in the footsteps of the US is in the widespread practice of placing advertisers' products in programmes.

Product placement is widely used in US TV programming, with a market worth $941m (£496m) in 2005.

"The European audience is much more sophisticated and would reject that level of product placement," Mr Walford says.

It is banned in the European Union, but European Commission officials are considering a change to the "Television without Frontiers" directive, which would bring product placement rules more in line with the US.

On Wednesday, UK media watchdog Ofcom published a summary of a consultation it had invited on the likely impact of product placement.

Most broadcasters favoured a controlled introduction of product placement, while several consumer and viewer organisations opposed it.