Caveat Viewer

A door opens to more TV ads

The U.S. Department of Justice has moved to let the marketplace decide how many TV commercials viewers will have to endure an hour. For 30 years the National Association of Broadcasters (N.A.B.), the industry's leading trade group, has operated under a code that kept the lid on both the frequency and the length of commercials. Although the code was voluntary, the members of the N.A.B.--which include the three major networks and their affiliates, as well as most of the independent stations--have, by and large, adhered to it.

Among other things, the code said that advertising during prime time should be limited to 9 1/2 min. an hour (14 min. for independent stations). The Government filed suit against the N.A.B. in 1979, charging that the code had driven up advertising costs by restricting the supply of air time for commercials. Last week U.S. District Court Judge Harold H. Greene signed a consent decree under which the N.A.B. and Justice agreed to eliminate the restraints. Now, theoretically at least, station owners can flood the air with commericals.

For those millions of Americans who still prefer the programs to the advertising, this news is not so alarming as it sounds. The proliferation of cable and other non-network programming has put the networks on the defensive. The audience share of the Big Three--ABC, NBC and CBS--has been shrinking, and is expected to fall further. Thus the network stations, and their independent counterparts, are hesitant to drive viewers away with a barrage of commercials. Said Les Brown, editor of Channels magazine: "It becomes crazy to add commercials unless you have a captive audience."

In other words, the broadcasters will not sell more ads than they think the viewer will put up with. Sports programming, for example, is already peppered with ads, and late-night audiences are bombarded with up to 16 min. of ads an hour. Even in prime time, the networks have found ways to stretch their self-imposed limits: an extra ad is run along with the 50-sec. "news briefs" injected into the regular programming. In the past few months all three networks have started selling an extra 30 sec. of advertising, overall, in the three-hour prime-time stretch. The networks say that they will not cram in more. One reason: advertisers believe that the more commercials a viewer is subjected to, the less attention he pays. Says Louis Dorkin, senior vice president of the Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample agency: "Stations can put on what they choose. But we can take our money and put it elsewhere." Viewers can do their share by changing channels, or simply switching off.

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