NBC Universal and WWE will be making changes to the way commercials are presented to viewers during SmackDown Live on the USA Network on Tuesday night’s, according to Broadcasting and Cable. The plan is to see the picture-in-picture approach during commercials so viewers will still see the action in the ring on a small screen while commercials play in a larger second screen.
WWE has done this in the past, a few months ago, during two episodes of SmackDown Live. NBCU claims that ratings were up 13% during the breaks when they did the picture-in-picture test run last year.
NBCU executive vice president of ad sales Mark Marshall stated that “A huge fan base that not only watches it live, but also watches the commercials and pays attention to the commercials. That’s part of what we’re trying to build and part of the reason why we’re doing picture in picture.”
