'Saturday Night Live' will cut down on commercials to make way for sponsored content

Commercials will soon be interrupting Saturday Night Live less often -- because they will sometimes be mixed right in with the sketches instead.

NBC says the long-running live comedy show is cutting its commercial load by 30% -- two commercial breaks per episode -- as it makes a modest push into content created in collaboration with advertisers.

That push will mean six opportunities per year for the show's advertisers to work with its writing staff to create original work that promotes their brands. 

It remains to be determined whether the cast members will also be part of the projects, said NBC Universal's chairman of advertising sales and client partnerships, Linda Yaccarino.

The move is in line with a growing trend in the TV industry to cut down on actual commercials in favor of so-called branded content and product placement, thus ensuring that the advertising will stay with shows as they are streamed online.  

That's especially important for SNL and other late-night comedy shows that are increasingly viewed the next day in the form of online clips.

"When you get connected contextually to the right piece of content and you're able to travel with it across platforms, it becomes that much more powerful," Yaccarino told Mashable. 

But Yaccarino doesn't like to use phrases like "branded content" and "product placement" to describe what SNL is doing -- even though that's essentially what it amounts to. 

"We're really not calling it branded content at all," she said. "The reason I say that is that it's a very big broad over-used industry term." 

The limited nature of the effort is meant to keep advertiser control from diluting the SNL brand.

"It really speaks to how discreet and selective these opportunities are," Yaccarino said. "This is really our first gift to our audience, the continuity of having less commercial time, and on just select few occasions we will have this original content developed with our advertisers."

Depending on how the content is received, Yaccarino says, she is expecting that similar models will be used across more NBC shows.

"It just makes complete sense," she says.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.