Fringe Premiere Date, Less Commericals

Fox has announced plans of a new commercial TV model they are calling "Remote-Free TV" that will run with JJ Abrams' Fringe and Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. The plan is to reduce commercial breaks from an average of 15 minutes per hour to around five freeing up those extra minutes for the program.

From the article:

"It's a simple concept and potentially revolutionary," Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori said. "We're going to have less commercials, less promotional time, and less reason for viewers to use the remote. We're going to redefine the viewing experience."

Both "Fringe" and "Dollhouse" would have network commercial loads of about five minutes per hour, about half the usual. The commercial pods would also be shorter and they would have about half the promo load as well.

In an interview after the presentation, Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly acknowledged that "Remote-Free TV" was a risk but there needed to be a "paradigm shift" in network TV.

Cutting down commercials will make the two already pricey sci-fi series even more expensive as they have to produce longer episodes. To offset that and the reduced commercial inventory, the network is planning to charge advertisers a premium.

Ad buyers were generally upbeat about the idea, and said they liked the two shows picked.

Also, the premiere date of Fringe is August 25, 2008 with the two hour pilot produced earlier this year.