December 1, 2002
Studio One spots sponsor advantage

Major advertisers connected to Web sites

By John Dempsey

NEW YORK -- Andrew Susman, president and CEO of Studio One Networks, is positioning his company to become the king of fully sponsored programs.

Studio One has found major advertisers to sponsor six of its information-packed Web sites: Nestle USA/Carnation for YourBabyToday.com, Bridgestone USA for DrivingToday.com, American Express for RealSmallBusiness.com, Mitsubishi Motors for DigitalLivingToday.com, P&G for RealFamiliesRealFun.com and Friskies for TheDailyCat.com.

Organizer of each sites is an expert in the field. Susman said the plan of the advertisers is to help him spin one or more of the programs into a weekly half-hour TV series hosted by the organizer for sale either to a cable network or to TV stations in firstrun syndication.

Susman said he chose the experts at least in part because they could make the transition from writing text for a Web site to delivering the same material in front of a camera to a mass TV audience.

For example, expert Jack Nerad of DrivingToday.com, a former editor of Motor Trend magazine, already does car commentary distributed by Westwood One to 350 radio stations and contributes to CBS TV's "The Early Show."

Another potentially telegenic on-air host is Dr. Lillian Beard, the pediatrician responsible for keeping YourBabyToday.com up to date with the latest information. Taped vignettes from the site run on the Newborn Channel, a network that gets fed into 1,600 hospitals throughout the U.S.

Susman seized on a recent Forrester Research study reporting that 76% of a representative sample of advertisers would cut back on their TV budgets by 2007, when households representing a projected 30% of the U.S. will own personal video recorders, allowing them to zap 30-second commercials with the flick of a thumb.

One of the alternatives for these defecting advertisers is sponsorship of programs. Sponsorships would allow advertisers to weave the content of their messages into the fabric of the program, making it hard for people to use their TiVos to eliminate the sales pitches.

Susman is a former executive with Time New Media. Investors in Studio One include Bob Blackmore, retired head of sales for NBC TV; Tim Robertson, former president of the Family Channel; and Gene Loving, former owner of the TV-station group TVX, now a part of Sinclair Broadcasting.