Fox Broadcast Group formally introduced its JAZ pods, which feature only two 30-second spots, during its upfront presentation at the Beacon Theater on Monday afternoon.
The JAZ pod will be the only form of linear national advertising available during FX’s upcoming series The Weekly.
Fox had previously told advertisers it would sell only JAZ pods during its Sunday night animation block featuring The Simpsons. It has changed course, saying that JAZ pods will fill Sundays on “select” weeks.
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The JAZ pods will also appear during live sports on networks including Fox and FS1.
The short pods are part of Fox’s plan to create advertising that is less intrusive for the viewer while bringing advertisers closer to the content in entertainment programming and closer to the action in sports.
“JAZ pods, which offer the highest-impact commercial format on television, deliver on two key objectives for advertisers,” said Joe Marchese, president of advertising revenue for Fox Networks Group.
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“First, we are offering the most effective ad format in television by bringing brands closer to our content, with each commercial airing adjacent to our leading sports and entertainment programming,” he said. “Second, by reducing commercial time, we are limiting the other ads with which brands must compete for viewers’ attention, recall and engagement. A lower frequency of ads with higher impact and memorability means that the brand wins and the viewer wins.”
The pods are called JAZ because they are Just spots in the first, or so-called "A" position in the pod and the "Z" or last position in the pod, with nothing in between.
