Automotive Sponsorship Available for PBS's Most-Watched Series

BOSTON, Sept. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- For the first time since 2004, Antiques Roadshow, PBS's most-watched television series, has an opening for a new automotive sponsor, a category that had been locked down first by Toyota and then Subaru for the last 8 years. The flagship PBS series reaches an average of 8.8 million viewers* each week, with another 550,000 monthly visitors** to the website and nearly 40,000 attendees at live events each summer. 

"Sponsors love Antiques Roadshow not only for its large audience, but because it is the only sponsorship on PBS that brings brands face-to-face with thousands of passionate fans," said Suzanne Zellner, vice president of WGBH Boston's Sponsorship Group for Public Television, the exclusive corporate sponsorship sales organization for Antiques Roadshow.  "The ability to engage with prospects at the summer taping events, which draw thousands of avid fans, is a unique opportunity for automotive brands to display their cars and generate leads for local dealerships."

The exclusive automotive sponsorship is a multimedia opportunity to reach PBS's highly-desirable audience. It includes two :15 or :30 television spots per broadcast, display ads, instream video, exposure in social media and high-profile visibility in an innovative new interactive play-along game that will launch in October. Antiques Roadshow's annual multi-city appraisal events and production tour typically attracts approximately 5,000 people at each venue. At the live taping events, sponsors receive dedicated booths with display space, logos on event signage and program guides, 50 complimentary tickets per taping for sponsor's use, VIP passes and inserts in ticket mailings.

The sponsorship availability in the automotive category comes on the heels of national media coverage of Antiques Roadshow's most valuable sports appraisal in its nearly two decades on air. During tapings last month in New York for season 19, a set of rare baseball cards and autographs from the 1870s Boston Red Stockings team were valued at $1 million. The rare find was profiled on ABC World News, ESPN, Wall Street Journal, CNBC and USA Today in the weeks ahead of the premiere of new season 18 episodes on September 22, 2014.

For additional information about sponsorship opportunities, contact the Sponsorship Group for Public Television at 800-866-9364, email [email protected] or visit sgptv@org.  For press requests, contact Michael Raia at 617-300-5333, or email [email protected].

Antiques Roadshow will premiere its 19th season in January 2015 and is produced by WGBH Boston for PBS under license from the BBC. Marsha Bemko serves as executive producer. Funding for the series is provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance and public television viewers.

*Source: NTI Live+7 Nielsen NPOWER, 12/20/13-6/29/14

**Source:  Google Analytics 12/20/13-6/29/14

SOURCE WGBH