ACA STUDY SHOWS AD CLUTTER "PILING UP"
By Adnews Staff
Ad clutter is increasing according to the Association of Canadian Advertisers' latest study conducted by AC Nielsen. The study was based on more than 7,000 hours of both conventional and specialty programming in the Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal markets. Results showed 80% of the hours monitored exceeded 12 minutes of commercial programming content per hour and 66% reportedly had more than 30 commercial messages per hour. Calgary was the most cluttered market with a total of 89% of the hours monitored having more than 12 minutes of commercial content with 79% of those hours having more then 30 commercial messages per hour. On the opposite side, specialty channels were reported to be the least cluttered, with 66% of the hours monitored exceeding 12 minutes per hour. According to the ACA, clutter is brought on by a combination of two factors: the length of U.S. programs purchased by Canadian networks and the increased number of exemptions to what the CRTC considers "advertising material."