Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney-ABC Television group, has decided to sell national ABC advertising slots to local ABC syndicates, beginning with six slots during Grey’s Anatomy and Modern Family at the end of October. “We’re breaking a 60-year tradition,” Ms. Sweeney told The Wall Street Journal.
The total amount of money that local stations can get by selling in their markets is often higher than ABC can get for selling a national ad. The new strategy, which has been under discussion for the last four years, will help local ABC networks capitalize on contentious midterm elections and sell commercial time to political campaigns that are willing to pay higher prices for limited air time. Selling a package of 10 national advertising slots will bring in about $2 million to ABC, which has a total advertising revenue in the ballpark of $3.35 billion. “I don’t sneeze at $2 million,” Ms. Sweeney said.
