Hallmark, known for its weepy television movies, has introduced a new ad unit on its Hallmark Channel called the Sponsored Solutions Unit. It consists of a four minute break during each movie hour – much less than is standard. Claritan bought all the units last month for the channel’s airing of “The Long Shot.” While rating for the movie were respectable and efforts to reduce ad clutter and commendable, do these units really mean more people are actually watching the commercials? We will never know until Nielsen gets with the program, changes its model and starts measuring ad viewership instead of program viewership.
