Fox's TrueX is introducing its latest digital ad product that will provide a kind of commercial-free experience.
The California Milk Advisory Board will be the first partner in a new sponsorship on Fox.com that allows viewers to interact with a 60-second ad at the start of the show and watch the rest of the episode sans commercials. CMAB will sponsor episodes of "Master Chef Jr."
This is the first time Fox.com is offering up episodes of a TV show without commercial breaks.
TrueX, which Fox acquired in December, has been providing viewers watching online content a choice to either watch a single interactive ad in exchange for a period of commercial-free content, or the standard, longer ad pod.
Of course, allowing viewers to select their ad experience isn't exactly unique, with companies like Hulu and YouTube having also experimented with the "choose your own adventure" type of advertising.
The acquisition of TrueX is part of a larger initiative at Fox to create a suite of advanced advertising products for an over-the-top and on-demand world and to combat ad blocking and ad skipping, said Joe Marchese, president-advanced advertising platforms, Fox Networks Group and founder and former CEO of TrueX.
"In a world where we time- and place-shift content, will you be able to time-shift and place-shift ads?" Mr. Marchese said.
Noting the recent trend in stuffing more commercials into TV shows, Mr. Marchese said the goal is to fix the relationship with the viewer.
TrueX has also been experimenting with allowing viewers to access interactive ads in live events and is working on an ad product that would allow viewers to "store" the time they spend with ads. Essentially, viewers could watch and interact with ads on their own time, say while waiting in line, and then go back and watch content later in an ad-free environment.