Ted Nugent-Tarleton knows television and he knows what the viewers want. As President of TNT Sports, Mr. Nugent-Tarleton has the finger on the pulse of the tv viewing public and credits the success of his network to the delicate balance he has achieved between quality programming and advertising revenue.
“I always struggle with how much racing people tune in to see,” said Nugent-Tarleton. “The average TNT viewer is accustomed to enjoying at least 15 commercial breaks an hour. That’s more than double than what they get when watching other networks. Some would say its revolutionary. I would say it’s just the way we do business over here at TNT.”
While NASCAR fans have long complained about the number of commercial breaks they are subjected to when watching a race on TNT, that is of little concern to Nugent-Tarleton. “NASCAR fans aren’t my target audience although they should be, watching NASCAR is pretty much like watching one big commercial anyway with all the sponsorships,” said Nugent-Tarleton.
Averaging a commercial break every 7.5 laps, TNT managed to maintain their high standard of advertising overload while finding the time to fit in a couple laps of racing. “When we got the NASCAR contract there was a bunch of fancy talk about having to show a certain amount of racing during each hour and that concerned me. How are my viewers going to get to see the commercials they crave? That was a real problem for us when debating whether to show NASCAR races or not.” Not one to back down from a challenge, Nugent-Tarleton cut 30 seconds off each commercial break and added an additional 10 commercial breaks per hour. “It’s no trade secret,” said Nugent-Tarleton. “I don’t care if my competitors know how I managed to squeeze in all that extra advertising revenue. I challenge them to show as many commercials as TNT. They won’t do it. They can’t do it. They are too focused on their programming to make the tough choices. That’s why TNT is number 1.”
Given the demand and the response from the fans, Nugent-Tarleton is thinking about starting a whole new network dedicated to showing only commercials. “All commercials, all the time,” Nugent-Tarleton said. “That’s what people want. That’s TNT.”
2 responses so far ↓
1 Nascar Fan // Jul 6, 2008 at 7:39 am
I don’t know what planet Nugent-Tarleton comes from but those nascar fans that watch the race want just that……..to watch the race. We don’t care for all the damn commercials you shove on the screen one after another and you don’t give a commentary about what’s going on with the race. Hey Ted let me give you a clue, “We want the race without all the BS you say people want.” It’s obvious you haven’t asked any of us but if you go to Nascar.com to the community blog page……….there you’ll find what people really think of all your lame commercial/split screen/terrible sportscasters. Your sportscasters don’t have a clue about calling a race. Sounds like John Madden explaining things to people that they already know. Tell us something with more substance instead of BS.
2 Nascar Fan // Jul 6, 2008 at 7:38 am
I don’t know what planet Nugent-Tarleton comes from but those nascar fans that watch the race want just that……..to watch the race. We don’t care for all the damn commercials you shove on the screen one after another and you don’t give a commentary about what’s going on with the race. Hey Ted let me give you a clue, “We want the race without all the BS you say people want.” It’s obvious you haven’t asked any of us but if you go to Nascar.com to the community blog page……….there you’ll find what people really think of all your lame commercial/split screen/terrible sportscasters. You sportscasters don’t have a clue about calling a race. Sounds like John Madden explaining things to people that they already know. Tell us something with more substance instead of BS.
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