The advertisers are, according to a report in the New York Times, buying into six one-hour shows to create what is being described as "a contemporary, hip 'Ed Sullivan' show" for youth.
The show is due to air on the AOL Time Warner-owned WB Network during the summer and is being produced by Michael Davies, who took 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' to the US and produced it for ABC.
According to Davies, the programme will attempt to incorporate the firm's products in a number of ways, including putting singers on a set dominated by a logo or building comedy routines around a product.
The programme is expected to be called 'Live from Right Now', although this has yet to be confirmed, and is due to be broadcast in June and July.
The programming has been developed against a background of growing advertiser concern about viewers skipping ads, exacerbated by the development of technology such as TiVo, which makes ad skipping even easier.
The development of the show sees product placement and programme sponsorship taken to new levels. It also harks back to early days of television in the US when single sponsors bought the rights to entire programmes, giving viewers the likes of 'Kraft Television Theater' or 'The Philco Television Playhouse'.
The historic feel will be all the stronger because Davies told the New York Times that he planned to stage the show live in New York. "I think in a way we're finding ourselves going back full circle to the 1950s."
According to Davies, the associations to the sponsors would be clear through on-camera logos and frequent mentions of the companies and their products and would, in no way, be underhand.
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