Post strike, agencies see opportunity

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: Madison Avenue, assessing the aftermath of the writers’ strike, is optimistic that there can be long-term benefits from the disruptions suffered during the 2007-8(asterisk) broadcast TV season. That asterisk may be attached permanently to the truncated season, because of the damage caused during the three months the strike lasted.

“Unfortunately, there’s no opportunity for a do-over,” said Rino Scanzoni, chief investment officer at GroupM, the division of the WPP Group that oversees media agencies like MindShare.

But there is plenty of opportunity to start fresh in the post-strike era, particularly in the areas where agency executives would most like to see change. For one, they would welcome the adoption of a year-round television season rather than the September-to-May schedule.

With all the new series introduced in fall, “there’s a lot of hype in September,” said Charlie Rutman, chief executive for the North American operations of MPG, a media agency owned by Havas. “And by November, half the shows aren’t on anymore.”

Also high on the agencies’ priority list is persuading the broadcast networks to change their venerable policy of selling commercial time ahead of the fall season, in what is called the upfront market, only in the spring. The executives hope that if year-round programming is possible, so, too, is a more flexible upfront.

“People still want to buy commercials on TV shows ahead of time,” said Wayne Friedman, the West Coast editor of MediaPost Communications, who has written extensively about the strike. “But it doesn’t necessarily have to be in May.”

During the strike, top network executives like Jeff Zucker of NBC Universal signaled that they were highly receptive to new ways of doing business. That open-mindedness has been met eagerly by the advertising community, which is hungry for innovation yet still sees television as the best way to reach audiences to sell products.

The settlement “really could usher in the start of a new era,” said Aaron Cohen, executive vice-president at Horizon Media. “We’ve had time to reflect, because of the strike, and open our minds, our frames of reference,” he added.