The Media Drop

Friday’s New York Daily News has an article by Richard Huff about a recent “slip up” by New York’s Channel 4 NBC affiliate. According to the story, NBC featured a corporate sponsor of their Democracy Plaza exhibition, currently inhabiting a good portion of Rockefeller Center, on-screen during a newscast. Of course, showing “sponsors” of the news really isn’t legit - NBC states that it was an accident. But it brings about an interesting question - transparency. Obviously there are commercials during television newscasts, and those are generally accepted. But with increased focus on “time shifting” via DVR/PVR technology with regard to other programming, the world of :30 spots is going to change eventually. And unless the news is the only place we’re going to see that style of advertising, newscasts will most likely have to accept some sort of change in order to keep their broadcast on the air.