Panel: Execs Grapple With Ads

Television executives, agents and creators agree that marketing and the interests of advertisers are becoming bigger concerns in today's TV climate. But there is no one vision of what the future will be, according to panelists addressing the outlook for these areas at the Promax & BDA convention at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Wednesday.

The high-profile panel, moderated by Broadcasting & Cable editor P.J. Bednarski, included Chris Albrecht, president of original programming at HBO Worldwide; Ariel Emanuel, partner in the Endeavor Agency; Sandy Grushow, chairman of Fox Television Entertainment Group; Mindy Herman, president and CEO of E! Networks; John Wells, executive producer of "ER," "The West Wing" and "Third Watch"; and Ed Wilson, president of NBC Enterprises, who filled in for NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker.

Wells said he was interested in achieving reality in his shows through the use of real products but had several concerns about the integration of branded products into his shows. One concern was that sponsors might try to dictate content down to specific scenes. Another issue is that "actors have to be contractually willing participants" in product placement deals, Wells said.

Grushow pointed to Fox's current hit summer reality series "American Idol" as an example of a successful sponsorship deal. Coca-Cola and Ford are major sponsors of the show, which integrates their products into the story line. Grushow said: "Summer is becoming an important time. … '(Who Wants to Be a) Millionaire,' 'Fear Factor' and 'Survivor' all came out during the summer. Now, it's our turn." Emanuel pointed to last year's Fox show "Murder in Small Town X," in which Endeavor packaged integrated sponsors like Taco Bell.

Albrecht said integrated placement deals would be tricky for HBO because the network has agreements with the movie studios that prohibit it from advertising. "Product placement is a slippery slope for us. … We spend more time trying to defuse rather than enhance those opportunities," Albrecht said.

Albrecht and Herman made the strongest cases for network branding. Ablrecht said HBO was really all about its brand and showed by way of illustration an arty black-and-white promo image spot using behind-the-scenes footage from such HBO series as "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City." Herman showed portions of several spots from E!'s recently launched branding campaign directed by Robert Altman.

Asked about advertisers and content issues, Albrecht admitted that HBO had greater programming leeway as a pay cable channel directed at adults. He contended, though, that HBO's level of violence is probably no greater than what can be seen on the networks. Wells said that in the appropriate context, boundaries can be pushed without setting off alarms. He said "ER" had lately pushed the envelope on language "without calling attention to it and with no viewer letters" because of the approach they took.