Vegas station to switch its 7 to single-sponsor format

A Las Vegas station will begin airing its 7 p.m. newscast with a single sponsor — a move that it says will cut down on breaks and bring more content to viewers.

Ed Bernstein Injury Lawyers will become the sole sponsor of Gray Media’s KVVU’s existing 7 p.m. newscast starting Nov. 11, 2024.

“This was an opportunity to try something different than our other 15-and-a-half-hours and see if we can retain viewers, increase viewers and do more in-depth content,” Michael J. Korr, the station’s vice president and general manager, told NewscastStudio.

“We are beyond excited about this partnership and what it will do for our Fox5 viewers,” said in a statement. “Working with Ed Bernstein Injury Lawyers to bring news to our local viewers with limited commercials in this landmark television experience is an amazing feat that came to fruition at just the right time.”

The Bernstein firm has a long relationship with KVVU, including being a closed captioning sponsor for a decade.

“An opportunity to partner with Fox5 on a new venture that will bring more news and information to our local residents is something we can get behind,” said Edward M. Bernstein in the same statement. “And we want to support anything beneficial to our community and its members.”

Korr clarified with NewscastStudio that Bernstein will not receive a mention in the show’s open or titling — nor would its logo appear on-screen during the entire broadcast.

Instead, the firm will get two 30-second spots (including one about 10 minutes in) with a brief on-screen announcement acknowledging the broadcast is being presented with limited commercial breaks thanks to Bernstein.

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The firm has no control over the newscast content, just like any other advertiser, and the newscast story selection will still continued to be handled by the newsroom.

Should the firm become the subject of local news, the station would report it just as any other news, with the option to potentially temporarily pause the single-sponsor format should management or the firm feel it was appropriate. 

John Huck will remain the solo anchor for the broadcast.

Korr noted that KVVU has always been creative with finding ways to strike deals with advertisers wishing to market their products and services to viewers.

For example, it was an early pioneer of the on-set coffee cup “product placement” approach in the late 2000s when it had a deal with McDonald’s. 

Korr also noted that stations all over the country have been using “named” sponsorships for segments such as weather, sports and traffic for years now.

Presenting broadcasts with limited interruption thanks to sponsorships has been around for decades, but has gained some popularity in recent years. NBC, for example, carried a big chunk of the opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics without a break during its first, live airing (though sponsors did receive on-screen credit in this case).

Broadcasters as a whole have also been experimenting with shorter and less frequent breaks as well as ways of formatting breaks with “squeezeback” ads. 

Many of these changes can be seen as creative ways to boost revenue when live TV viewerships continues to shrink.

As a whole, local news and live sports, however, have managed to cling on to some realtime viewers, making it even more critical to keep viewers interest, including during commercial breaks that help pay the bills.

Critics of these practices say it has lead to more of a blurred line between advertising and news, though there have been few alternatives suggested that would still allow commercial broadcasters to operate as a business.

This story has been updated with additional comment and context from KVVU.

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