Legends of the Fall (schedule): Origins of the media-spending hiatus
This whole "go dark for the holidays" strategy is rooted in television's golden age, when the medium was the anchor for the entire advertising calendar. Back then, the TV season ran like clockwork from September through May, with a pause from mid-December through mid-January. Outside of those periods, networks would retreat to reruns, viewership would predictably drop, and advertisers would follow suit. Like lemmings.
But then Survivor happened. And CNN. And smartphones.
Cheap-to-produce reality TV exploded off-peak content deployment, proving that audiences were hungry for original programming year-round. The 24-hour news cycle (helped in no small part by a shift to news-as-opinion/entertainment) joined the party. Suddenly, the notion of an off-season for content began crumbling faster than a poorly-planned reality show alliance. The internet and social media explosion delivered the final blow to the old model, creating a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week continuous content machine.
But many marketers remain trapped in legacy thinking — still bowing out during holiday periods as if we're living in the era of rabbit ears and TV Guides.
And — they're amplifying this self-defeating behaviour by rushing into market in September or February. You know, when other marketers who believe the same schedule fallacy are doing the same, creating intense competition for production resources, broadcast inventory, and even agency bandwidth.
Meanwhile, the quiet months stay quiet. And become missed opportunities, rather than strategic advantages.