The Sponsor Moves In

摘要

In 1948 the men at texaco (who famously toiled from Maine to Mexico) decided to take the variety program they sponsored on radio and transfer it to network television, which was then in its infancy. With Milton Berle as host, Texaco Star Theater has been credited with inspiring millions of Americans to purchase their first television set. Now, as network TV seems to be in its dotage, executives at ABC are hoping that a new corporate sponsorship scheme will come to the rescue again. Beleaguered by management problems and several flopped prime-time seasons, the network was looking for another source of financing for a scripted series. Enter MindShare, a media buyer that wanted to move its advertising clients inside the creative process by producing and underwriting the costs of a new show. It seemed a match made in media heaven. But there were concerns: What if ABC wanted to cancel the show? And how much commercial airtime could the network retain to sell to other advertisers during the program? Network executives also worried that audiences would be turned off if the show seemed to be too commercial. But Mark Pedowitz, executive vice president of ABC Entertainment Television Group, saw a chance to help revive his troubled network. "You never know where a hit show will come from," he says.