17: Chapter TV/Cable Sales
Television stations are in business not to entertain or inform you, but to make a profit. Stations derive income from advertising sales, both in the form of national spot and local advertising revenues. The larger the market, the higher the percentage of national business a station will have. Television stations have a local sales staff that sells to local advertisers. Stations contract with a national rep firm to sell to national advertisers across the nation. TV viewers are not loyal to television stations (unlike radio) but rather to individual TV programs. Viewers switch among television channels a great deal (of course, with the remote control, this is an understatement). Thus, an advertiser can reach a large percentage of people in a market on just one television station with a spot campaign that airs for five to seven days in all dayparts. Television reaches virtually everyone: 97+% of households in the U.S. have a TV and every demographic group (age, sex, race, income, education) watches television. Overview of TV Commercial Sales Television is sold predominantly in 30-second units, although there are units of 10, 15 or 60 second spots, between or within programs. Between program positions (at the hour or half hour) are referred to as adjacencies. If a network program ends and there is the opportunity for adjacencies, this is referred to as an end break. However, in prime time, in particular, networks are increasingly going "seamless" one show segues into the next without any commercial break. When this happens, the network may offer the local station one or more spots at the quarter or three-quarter hour. During network programming, local spots normally only occur at the half hour and top of the hour. An in-program commercial is referred to as a participation. A single commercial all alone within a program is called an island. Island positions are extremely rare in television. Most commercials run in clusters of four or more, typically each 30 seconds in length. A rotator/orbiter is a pair of half-hour shows that are sold together. Commercials are spread across the two shows so that one show is not sold out with the other unsold. Normally, local stations give advertisers competitive protection from runnin...
Chap17TVSales