ABC Ads Take Over TV Guide for Fall Preview

In an unprecedented promotional print stunt, ABC Television is sponsoring TV Guide’s Aug. 25 fall programming preview issue.

The network will also include a DVD featuring the pilot episodes of its Wednesday primetime shows, “Private Practice,” “Pushing Daisies” and “Dirty, Sexy Money,” with newsstand copies of the magazine in New York and Los Angeles. The issue hits newsstands on Thursday.

TV Guide subscribers will also receive copies of the DVD. The idea is to offer sampling to viewers who might not be familiar with the shows, according to Michael Benson, ABC executive vice president of marketing.

Benson said the TV Guide sponsorship is the first time ABC has attempted to promote its entire schedule in this manner. It also marks the first time a single advertiser has sponsored an entire issue of the consumer magazine.

“You look at all these shows and there’s really no better time for something that brings together the stars and the shows,” Benson said. “We really wanted to cast ABC as the umbrella brand that has all these great starts living underneath it.”

ABC’s popular “Grey’s Anatomy” is featured on the cover of the issue. The network will start to premiere its primetime lineup during the week of Sept. 21.

ABC’s fall lineup includes only two new series, “Life on Mars,” based on a popular UK drama, featuring Harvey Keitel and Michael Imperioli and “Opportunity Knocks,” a reality game show that includes elements of “Extreme Makeover.”

ABC and TV Guide have collaborated on novel promotions in the past, including an issue plugging the fourth season premiere of “Grey’s Anatomy” that came with life-sized paper hospital gowns in polybags.

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