CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Fox Broadcasting's move this season to offer the new drama "Fringe" with limited commercial interruption is showing some success, with audiences showing better-than-average recall of the ads, according to a new survey.

In an era when an increasing number of viewers watch their shows on digital video recorders -- skipping ads in the process -- Fox NWSA, +0.75% NWS, +1.01% (NWS) decided to see what would happen if, during "Fringe" and another drama, "Dollhouse," it aired fewer, and shorter, commercial breaks. The bet was that viewers would pay more attention to the ads they do see.

It calls the experiment "Remote Free TV," and research issued by ad agency Magna Global IPG, +2.01% suggests that the plan worked.

"We're really trying to look for ways to keep viewers tuned to the commercials," said Steve Sternberg, executive vice president of audience analysis at Magna Global. "So we're working with broadcast and cable networks to figure out how best to restructure commercial pods to enable that."

Magna Global selected a random sample out of 20,000 TiVo viewers on Feb. 3. Of those surveyed, 60% recognized that the show had shorter commercial breaks than other programs. During the program, Fox runs messages, known as bumpers, that say "'Fringe' will return in 90 seconds.'"

About 36% of those surveyed fast-forwarded past the ads.

Respondents were asked to write in the names of any commercials the remembered seeing while watching the show. Some 10% of "Fringe" viewers correctly recalled at least one ad. This was nearly twice as a high a percentage as during any other Tuesday night drama, including popular offerings "Law & Order: SVU," "NCIS," "Without a Trace" and "The Mentalist."

Asked if they saw the show's advertisers more or less favorably, 34% said they saw them more favorably. Some 62% were neutral, but the favorable number was quite high, said Sternberg.

"That's a giant number. Most people are going to say 'neutral.' But if you have a high positive number, that's a very good thing."

In the DVR environment, 56% of "Fringe's" commercials were played back, Magna Global found, well ahead of the primetime average of 40%.

"Fringe" viewers also took note of movie ads, with 14% of respondents correctly remembering at least one trailer.

Previous studies done by Fox with research firms Innerscope and IAG seem to support Magna's data, but those were based on "Fringe's" pilot episode, which was heavily promoted.

Fox Broadcasting is owned by News Corp., which also owns MarketWatch, the publisher of this report.

"I think it was very effective," Sternberg said of the experiment. "The problem financially was that it was much more expensive for advertisers to buy those spots [on 'Fringe'], so a lot of advertisers didn't want to do it without knowing what the results would be. So for Fox, the higher rates weren't expensive enough to offset the fact that there were fewer commercials."

Kevin Reilly, head of Fox Entertainment, has said the network will wait until the end of the season to make a final determination about the Remote Free TV format.

Whatever Fox decides, said Sternberg, "it gives us some idea of the dynamics of limited commercial pods, and maybe some of the dynamics we need to be looking at as we go forward."