An interesting sweeps stunt starts tonight at on Illinois station.

Starting at 6PM tonight, WAND (Decatur) will do their 6PM newscast with no commercials.

In fact the 6PM newscast will not have any spots for the rest of the week.

The station sent out a press release and they said, “During the situation of the country, management has decided to provide the most informational news, weather, and sports possible for one week. Special reports regarding COVID19 will be included.”

Of course this is a sweeps stunt.

And why just a week. The station’s release says that, “management has decided to provide the most informational news, weather, and sports possible for one week.”

In other words, you’re not getting all this information for the other 51 weeks of the year.

Not sure I would have worded it that way in the press release, by the move to a commercial free newscast is a smart one.

Many stations are not selling ads anyway and instead of filling the spots promos or low paying ads, why not go commercial free?

It’s a gimmick, but it could also be a test to see how an ad free newscast could work.

Also, if you think the station is giving back all their ad money, think again. In the release, WAND writes: The Special Edition 6pm Newscasts are brought to you by Prospect Bank (Champaign), Tanzyus Logan Funeral Service (Decatur), Marx Fireplaces and Lighting (Springfield), Papa Murphy’s (Decatur), Green Toyota (Springfield) and Lincolnshire Place (Decatur).

So, my guess is that you will see those companies’ logos on the screen at some point.

Props to WAND for coming up with a gimmick, still selling it and acting like the viewer is the one that wins out. I would have worded the release a bit differently, because it makes it sound like management only cares about giving you the most news for just a week.

But hey, hat tip for execution and I would not be surprised if you see some other stations try this in the future.

Just saying…