Orlando, FL, February 14, 2002: Clutter levels showed record-high increases in many TV dayparts this year, indicating a reversal of last year when the amount of non-programming minutes on TV's broadcast networks went down. The only exception to the upward trend was in primetime, which showed a slight decrease in clutter.

The increases were revealed in a joint report by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Association of National Advertisers, Inc. (ANA) entitled the 2001 Television Commercial Monitoring Report.

The annual study was released today in conjunction with the AAAA 2002 Media Conference & Trade Show being held February 13-15 at the Disney Contemporary Resort here.

The report showed that on average, non-program minutes reached an all-time high. Of the six dayparts monitored, three set clutter records-early morning (18:02 minutes per hour from 17:44 in 2000), daytime (20:57 in 2001 from 20:03 in 2000), and local news (17:10 from 17:05 in 2000). Although not at record levels for their dayparts, non-program minutes were also high for late night and network news. Prime boasted the only decrease-down to 16:08 from 16:17 last year, the lowest it's been since 1998.

As a result, prime emerged as the least cluttered daypart while daytime remained the most cluttered for the 10th consecutive year.

Four networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC) are within one minute of each other for non-program minutes in prime time, the closest they've been since November 1999. CBS experienced an increase of 26 seconds to 16:04 from the previous year while ABC, the least cluttered network in prime, remained the same. Despite showing the greatest fluctuation with a decrease of 43 seconds, NBC, remained the most cluttered daypart in prime.

"Unfortunately, the level of non-programming time seems to increase inexorably every year on both the broadcast and cable networks," said O. Burtch Drake, AAAA president-CEO. "The agency industry has long complained about clutter because it continues to represent a negative advertising environment for our clients."

"The environment in which advertising appears is extremely important to our members," said John J. Sarsen, Jr., president-CEO of the ANA. "We are disappointed that clutter in some dayparts is at a record high since it can only decrease the impact of each commercial message."

The report reveals any increases and/or decreases in clutter compared to the previous year's study, which may impact the effectiveness of television as an advertising medium. It provides analysis of non-programming content among six major broadcast networks, 19 cable networks, and 19 syndicated shows.

All programming covered in this report was monitored by Competitive Media Reporting (CMR) for two distinct seasonal time periods-May 14-20, 2001 and November 12-18, 2001. Conclusions presented in prior studies were based primarily on the November period because fourth quarter ad spending is traditionally heavier than in other periods.

Clutter is defined as all non-programming content, which includes network and local commercial time, public service announcements (PSAs), public service promotions (PSPs), promotions aired by broadcast and cable networks, program credits not run over continuing program action, and "other" unidentified gaps within a commercial pod.

Amount of Commercial Minutes Also Increases
Network news, which saw a dramatic four-minute decrease in commercial minutes in 2000 (11:39) mainly due to election news coverage, is slowly returning to levels prior to last year at 14:49. Before 2000, more than 15 commercial minutes were reported each year in the daypart for three straight years.

Daytime and prime continue their steady increase in commercial minutes following a slight decrease the previous year. Daytime continued to reign as the most commercial-laden daypart, up from 16:34 to 17:14 in 2001-a record high for any daypart.

Regarding primetime network commercial minutes, ABC (which showed a consistent decline for the past three years) and NBC experienced the only decreases in November 2001 from 2000. The remaining four networks (CBS, FOX, UPN, WB) showed an increase in the number of commercials per hour with the greatest increase seen on CBS of 54 seconds, from 8:39 in November 2000 to 9:33 in November 2001.

UPN set a record high for all six networks, with 10:08 minutes of network commercial minutes in November 2001, with FOX delivering the least of the networks at 8:39 per hour. Excluding FOX, the other five networks were within 47 seconds of each other.

Syndication Market
Total syndication commercial minutes broke the 14 minute barrier for the first time ever, going up to 14:02 in November 2001 from 13:59 in 2000, while local and non-commercial minutes increased slightly. Local commercial minutes have risen steadily from year to year.

Once again, King World/Camelot delivered the most cluttered syndicated programs, as "Hollywood Squares" and "Wheel of Fortune" topped the list in November 2001 with 22:25 and 21:58, respectively. "Home Improvement" experienced the largest decrease in clutter versus a year ago, a difference of 3:34 minutes to 16:58 in 2001. Due to this, "Frasier" replaced "Home Improvement" as the syndicated program with the most commercial minutes (17:07).

Cable Networks
Fox Family Channel emerged as the most cluttered cable network running 17:54 minutes in May 2001, while E! had the most in November (17:31). The least amount of non-programming minutes were posted on The Weather Channel (12:42) and CNN (9:58) also in May and November, respectively.

VH-1 delivered the most commercials in both May and November 2001 while delivering the lowest number of promos as well. Comedy Central had the most promos (11) in November and HLN and CNN had the lowest number of commercial units in November 2001 (14 and 15 respectively).

Recommendations
Advertisers and advertising agencies should continue to monitor television programming; this information should be carefully weighed when making planning and buying decisions. The AAAA and ANA recommend that:

• Programmers should make clear in advance the maximum amount of non-program material that each program will carry.
• Limits should be placed on the number of promos appearing within each show.
• Variations among programs within a network daypart should be minimized.
• All guidelines should be strictly followed.

The AAAA is the national trade association of the advertising agency business. The 1,225 member agency offices it serves in the U.S., employ 60,000 people, offer a wide range of marketing communications services, and place 75 percent of all national advertising, as well as a large share of local and regional advertising. The management-oriented association helps its members build their businesses, and acts as the industry's spokesman with government, media, and the public sector.

The ANA is the industry's premier trade association dedicated exclusively to marketing and brand building. Representing over 300 companies with 8,000 brands that collectively spend over $100 billion in marketing communications and advertising, the association's members market products and services to consumers and businesses. ANA serves the needs of its members by providing marketing and advertising industry leadership, legislative leadership, information resources, professional development and industry-wide networking.