ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment Announces Family Programming Sponsorship Fund | ANA
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ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment Announces Family Programming Sponsorship Fund

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (June 22, 2010) – Today, at the ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment’s sixth symposium, THE AMERICAN FAMILY: IN CONTEXT, the Alliance announced the formation of a $10 million media fund to support family entertainment content.

The Alliance is a consortium of leading national advertisers dedicated to nurturing, developing and supporting family entertainment. The group’s fund will commit participating members’ advertising dollars toward sponsoring broadcast network shows. The ultimate goal is to increase the networks’ scheduling of primetime scripted drama and comedic family programming. As the model rolls out, the Alliance intends to expand the fund to include sponsorship of programming on cable networks and other media distribution platforms. 

“It is critically important for marketers to have family entertainment options. Unfortunately, there simply are not enough at this time,” said Marc Goldstein, chief content officer, ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment and founder of Media Solutions, LLC. “In creating this fund, the participating Alliance marketers are demonstrating that they will collectively support family programming with their advertising dollars. This will encourage the networks to support and expand family programming options. We are starting the program with broadcast network partners, as that is a first stop for many consumers as a primary source for entertainment. We hope, however, to expand to numerous platforms in the future.”   

The media fund is the second fund launched by the Alliance. At last year’s symposium, the group jointly announced a script development partnership with Humanitas, the Hollywood organization that annually honors excellence in film and television writing with the Humanitas Prize. There are currently numerous projects in various stages of development. 

The new fund complements but is not directly associated with the Humanitas partnership, as it will include projects the networks are already developing. 

The Alliance hosts the annual symposium to engage key constituents of the entertainment community in a dialogue with advertisers about the importance of ensuring family programming options for consumers. The event was held at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, CA. 

In addition to the unveiling of the family programming sponsorship fund, the program featured a series of talks and panel discussions, including: 

  • Keynote: Randy Jackson, Musician, Producer and Judge for American Idol: Randy Jackson, the Grammy Award winning producer and judge of American Idol, delivered the opening keynote. He discussed how American Idol has influenced family viewing, including the show’s multi-generational audience, and the brand’s successful online and mobile components. 
  • Heads of Households: Broadcast Network Execs’ POVs:  Heads of the broadcast networks discussed family entertainment, issues and trends in how American families are portrayed on TV. They shared successful programs/integrations with marketers, and their thoughts on how media ecosystem landscape will look in 2015. Participating in the conversation were: 
    • Angela Bromstad, president, primetime entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios; 
    • Stephen McPherson, president, ABC Entertainment Group, Disney-ABC Television Group; 
    • Dawn Ostroff, president, entertainment, The CW Network; 
    • Kevin Reilly, president, entertainment, FOX Broadcasting Company; and 
    • Nina Tassler, president, CBS Entertainment, CBS Corporation.  
  • The American Family 2010: By the Numbers:  Building on its 2009 findings, the Alliance revealed new qualitative research that demonstrates programming has a strong influence on the effectiveness of advertising. 
  • Follow the Family: Context-Appropriate Content across Channels:   The panel included a robust discussion of how multiplatform opportunities have expanded for content developers. Panelists included: 
    • Bill Abbott, president, chief executive officer, Hallmark Channels; 
    • Joanne Bradford, chief revenue officer, Demand Media; 
    • Steve Governale, executive director, interaction & innovation, AT&T; and
    • Tom Zappala, executive vice president, program acquisitions and scheduling, ABC Cable Networks Group, ABC Family.  
  • The Family Room: The Writers’ POV:  This panel of leading writers discussed the creation process and what kind of stories modern American families want to see.  Panelists included Brad Falchuk, creator, Glee; Marc Guggenheim, executive producer, No Ordinary Family; and Eileen Heisler, creator, executive producer, The Middle.   

 

About the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment: The ANA represents over 400 companies and 9,000 brands. These companies collectively spend over $100 billion in advertising and marketing every year. The Alliance for Family Entertainment is a group of nearly 40 national advertisers, supported by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), representing approximately 30 percent of all U.S. television advertising dollars. Its mission is to find, nurture, develop and support high quality content the entire family can enjoy on multiple distribution platforms. Since its inception as the Family Friendly Programming Forum more than a decade ago, the group has played a role in bringing 20 family primetime programs to air. This includes Friday Night Lights, Chuck, Everybody Hates Chris, 8 Simple Rules, Gilmore Girls and more.