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Streaming-Era Commercials Invade Forbidden TV Territory: Presidential Debates, HBO Shows and Other Content Once Deemed Off-Limits


New commercials in the streaming era aim to infiltrate TV terrain that has been off-limits to advertisers for years

Nearly two decades ago, Speciale, then a senior media buyer at MediaVest who negotiated prices and terms for commercial time, approached TV networks with an intriguing idea: Why couldn’t her company buy up an entire ad break, then “program” it with spots from clients in a way that would keep people from tuning away or getting up for a snack? Disney early last year sold PepsiCo one-third of a single day’s commercial inventory on ABC, so that the company’s Frito-Lay snacking giant could run eight different ads repeatedly to tell a story starring actor Stephen Tobolowsky. One of the biggest concerns in streaming is a tendency by media companies to serve the same ad over and over to a single subscriber — a bid to deliver guarantees of impressions in a venue where people often watch programs at moments of their own choosing, not in giant crowds.

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