Starting next week, Fox will begin testing a new way to try to retain viewers through commercial breaks. The network will run short animated clips of a taxi driver named Oleg in between ads. “It’s something that pops up that is unexpected and the viewer says, ‘What the hell is that?’ It may keep them around for a while longer,” says Jon Nesvig, Fox Broadcasting’s president of sales. In less than two months, Nielsen is rolling out its commercial ratings service. (WSJ sub. req.)
WSJ has a video report with a couple of the clips (runs after an ad.)
Adds Michael in comments: “Time and effort that could be funneled into creating better programming, which has a better chance of keeping me around. Or if I’m watching a show on TiVo, it’s just one more blur as I fast forward through the break.”


