Fewer of them seem to get produced year by year. ontv4u.com - a website that is a major clearing house for infomercial products, and offers stations a 24 feed of related paid programs is down to 25 of them! (So most running twice each day) Another once prolific infomercial supplier, Guthy-Renker, has also downsized to a handful of celebrity beauty lines. TV stations that were once 24/7 infomercial based just last year, have turned to either live hosted Home Shopping, or a digital net channel, plugging in local sports for better revenue. If this trend continues, could we see the eventual end of Paid Programming as it is now?
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Infomercials - An Endangered Species??
- Thread starter CaliRadioFan
- Start date
Selfishly speaking, I'd hope the infomercials all disappear. But I can see more stations going dark rather than airing any sort of local programming. What sort of local sports bill well enough to make up for revenue lost from two to four hours of infomercials?
Mostly overnight or weekends some during the day on like the cw or fox networks that probably have the most Informarcials
WREG CBS 3 in Memphis has been terrible about running infomercials for 5 or 6 hours on non-sports Saturdays or Sundays, sometimes the same one repeated multiple times. I hope infomercials die out to put an end to this garbage.
Just as bad are all the PIs and advertisers that pay a bulk price for a percentage of the avails. Nothing like seeing the same spot every other stop set around the clock. From a station's perspective, at least they're not paying to run programming but getting paid to play the infomercial. With all the viewing options, it's tough to make ends meet (paying for rights to play programs versus advertising sold). I'm not a fan of infomercials either but I understand why they air.
looks like I missed a misspell
It should read "...plugging in local spots"Are there still any hour long informercials being produced? I remember, a few years ago, seeing some hour long informercials being shown on some of the Kansas City area TV stations.
With the TV audience going down (look at everyone going to streaming!), so are anyone who watched infomercials to order that product. We lost Ron Popeil a couple of months ago. Albeit, it may also be pandemic-related in some ways.
More often than not, my local NBC (KNDO) in Yakima will use their 12:30PM 'infomercial' slot to air a mixture of E/I programs from NBC's 'The More You Know' block. Even when they are not make-goods from golf preemptions.
When the infomercials finally go away, what will stations run in the overnight hours or during weekends when there are no sports scheduled? The infomercials net them money. I would suppose some stations would pipe in a subchannel or simulcast a home shopping channel overnight? My local ABC (KAPP) does that on weekend late nights with their MeTV subchannel.
More often than not, my local NBC (KNDO) in Yakima will use their 12:30PM 'infomercial' slot to air a mixture of E/I programs from NBC's 'The More You Know' block. Even when they are not make-goods from golf preemptions.
When the infomercials finally go away, what will stations run in the overnight hours or during weekends when there are no sports scheduled? The infomercials net them money. I would suppose some stations would pipe in a subchannel or simulcast a home shopping channel overnight? My local ABC (KAPP) does that on weekend late nights with their MeTV subchannel.
WBBJ in Jackson, TN runs Me TV as filler on their CBS subchannel on 7.3. It's been irritating because they don't have it as a full time channel, but when there are non-sports times on weekends on CBS they carry Me TV instead. To me this is better than filling the time with infomercials. WREG in Memphis could do the same thing with Antenna TV and likely get more viewers vs. getting little or no viewers with the 5 to 6 hours of infomercials. I actually wonder if they get enough money from running infomercials vs. what they could get in local ad dollars running Antenna TV instead. To me they just seem to be taking the easy (lazy) way out.
It might seem equal to scouting for clients to buy time versus taking a phone call and selling an informercial order but it is not. The per unit price, production costs and client budgets need to be considered against the manpower to do the commercial route. So, would you hire staff, pay them and hope you can find enough people locally who might spend $300 to $500 a month with you and hope you can deliver the results you need. Or take that phone call and write an informercial for a few grand, skip the added payroll, equipment and canvasing for clients. If you were running the business which option makes the best sense for your bottom line?
I seen Infomercials move to Youtube in recent years such as the Bitcoin videos they are hyped up but the investment is questionable given these peoples gimmicks.
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Are the walls closing in on cryptocurrency ads?
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I guess it will just depend on what they have to sell, if they can fill a 30 minute block with BS about it, and if there's a market that will buy enough of their product to pay for the creation of the infomercial, purchasing airtime, all the infrastructure that goes with order placing, fulfillment, shipping, etc. and then to give them a profit. The Showtime Rotisserie oven, for instance, generated a billion $$ in sales during its run. Keep in mind as well that we're just now at the tail end of summer. Once October kicks in, you may see more infomercials running to try and drive Christmas/holiday sales.
Earlier on, there were infomercials for things like steam irons, polymer car waxes, sandwich makers, cookware and the like. It seems they'd find or invent a marketable product, create an infomercial, overhype and promote it, generate millions in sales relatively quickly and then once interest started to cool off, they'd move to the next product.. The items they weren't pitching as actively on TV anymore would usually find their way to the "As Seen on TV" sections of some stores, or being hawked to passersby in mall kiosks. There were a fair amount of infomercials about flipping houses or making money on real estate back when, but so many of those hosts such as Don Lupree got into hot water and in some cases lawsuits due to misleading claims they'd made or shady business dealings. At least the car wax ones and the infomercials from people like Mike Levey could be somewhat entertaining. The ones that got monotonous were the ones for cosmetics (sometimes parodied brutally by shows like SNL, MadTV and In Living Color), vitamin, supplement and snake oil sales, and gimmicky crap like speed reading courses and the like. Amazing sometimes the crap people will fall for and buy.
Most TV ads now seem to be overly repetitive standard-length commercials that run during regular spot breaks (the guy who cuts open a boat and fixes it with Flex Seal before speeding across a lake in it, for instance). Obviously since most music is downloaded these days, most all the Time Life Music infomercials and even spots for record and CD sales are long gone.
Earlier on, there were infomercials for things like steam irons, polymer car waxes, sandwich makers, cookware and the like. It seems they'd find or invent a marketable product, create an infomercial, overhype and promote it, generate millions in sales relatively quickly and then once interest started to cool off, they'd move to the next product.. The items they weren't pitching as actively on TV anymore would usually find their way to the "As Seen on TV" sections of some stores, or being hawked to passersby in mall kiosks. There were a fair amount of infomercials about flipping houses or making money on real estate back when, but so many of those hosts such as Don Lupree got into hot water and in some cases lawsuits due to misleading claims they'd made or shady business dealings. At least the car wax ones and the infomercials from people like Mike Levey could be somewhat entertaining. The ones that got monotonous were the ones for cosmetics (sometimes parodied brutally by shows like SNL, MadTV and In Living Color), vitamin, supplement and snake oil sales, and gimmicky crap like speed reading courses and the like. Amazing sometimes the crap people will fall for and buy.
Most TV ads now seem to be overly repetitive standard-length commercials that run during regular spot breaks (the guy who cuts open a boat and fixes it with Flex Seal before speeding across a lake in it, for instance). Obviously since most music is downloaded these days, most all the Time Life Music infomercials and even spots for record and CD sales are long gone.
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Thought of another one. Though technologies and apps like WhatsApp have nearly made it obsolete, there for a while there were lots of infomercials for Majic Jack. One of my buddies who traveled internationally for work back then bought one and swore by it.
I remember that those cosmetic ads with Ali MacGraw were mostly about the host complimenting her on how great she looked at 60 or however old she was then, with the product being hawked being almost an afterthought. (And she DID look great.) My favorite Don Lapre ads were the ones that promised a fortune by placing "tiny ads" in newspapers.
There was another infomercial scammer named Kevin Trudeau. He'd pose as the always-fascinated host of a talk show, big microphone on his desk, nice chair for the guest, dark backdrop sort of like the Charlie Rose Show. Very realistic-looking presentation, but the products and services sold were usually far short of what they were being represented as being. Trudeau, like Lapre, also got into legal trouble.
I've been seeing more infomercials on You Tube as well, with the main one being a 5+ minute one for some kind of hair growth treatment that thankfully has the Skip Ads button to bail out. There are also other things like PragerU videos that run like an ad at the beginning of other videos. Thankfully these also have the Skip Ads button.
All the legal troubles of former 'infomercial kings' have certainly contributed to the downsizing. As far as what will eventually replace them, Shop HQ recently broke out the checkbook to LMA a station cluster of former 24/7 infomercial stations in major markets including WRNN in New York and KSCI in Los Angeles, mostly for better channel placement on Cable Systems and Cord Cutters. More Sports Betting shows by companies like Draft Kings may be on the horizon. Casinos themselves may directly invest in 30 or even 60 minute shows. I've also seen in some places local Car Dealerships with long form shows, spotlighting cars and deals.
There's a car dealer in Kennewick WA, Excalibur Auto Sales, that sells a half-hour slot on KVEW/KAPP every weekend. 30 minutes of some guy selling you cars with little or no credit.
Yep, I used to see lots of those stupid Trudeau infomercials before he went into prison. In my opinion, those infomercials are a natural sleep aid. Five minutes in, you're already falling asleep. Ten minutes in, you *are* asleep.
Peter Tomarken even did infomercials at one point, long after Press Your Luck went off the air. I have one of those on tape. Similar format with the desk and microphone.
I still see Time-Life infomercials occasionally. They were selling the Best of Robin Williams DVD set recently. Very few record/CD offers, with all the music you can just stream on Spotify and YouTube. Ask a current 3rd grader what a DVD or CD is. Kids aren't growing up on those anymore. They use their Smart TV remote to find SpongeBob on Paramount+ and listen to music through YouTube.
Give me Mick & Mimi's Magic Bullet any day, and chain-smoker Hazel, who complains about stinky and nasty garlic. Most entertaining infomercial in history! Or Chef Tony and his Miracle Blade that could perfectly slice a tomato. In fact, I have a Magic Bullet and plan on using it for occasional smoothies, but I haven't got around to it.
Yep, I used to see lots of those stupid Trudeau infomercials before he went into prison. In my opinion, those infomercials are a natural sleep aid. Five minutes in, you're already falling asleep. Ten minutes in, you *are* asleep.
Peter Tomarken even did infomercials at one point, long after Press Your Luck went off the air. I have one of those on tape. Similar format with the desk and microphone.
I still see Time-Life infomercials occasionally. They were selling the Best of Robin Williams DVD set recently. Very few record/CD offers, with all the music you can just stream on Spotify and YouTube. Ask a current 3rd grader what a DVD or CD is. Kids aren't growing up on those anymore. They use their Smart TV remote to find SpongeBob on Paramount+ and listen to music through YouTube.
Give me Mick & Mimi's Magic Bullet any day, and chain-smoker Hazel, who complains about stinky and nasty garlic. Most entertaining infomercial in history! Or Chef Tony and his Miracle Blade that could perfectly slice a tomato. In fact, I have a Magic Bullet and plan on using it for occasional smoothies, but I haven't got around to it.
Yeah, lots of the people pushing money making or supposed "get rich quick" schemes found themselves in trouble either with lawsuits from people who bought the product and realized they were duped, or when the Federal Trade Commission went after them for things like misrepresenting their products or evading taxes. Let's face it, if one could make hundreds of thousands by placing tiny ads in newspapers as Lupree suggested, or get tons of "free money" as Trudeau was hawking, many more people would be wealthy (also remember the fast talking guy in bright suits with large question marks all over them, selling books about free stuff, government programs and money available just for the asking?). I also remember a device being sold which you'd press into your wrists or other joints with pain, repeatedly press a button until it clicked, and magically, your pain would be gone. That company ended up in legal trouble when it was proven that the device was basically the same technology the push to ignite buttons used to create the tiny spark on many propane grills and some cigarette lighters back then, with little to no research or science to explain how it'd have any effect at all on joint pain.
Kind of reminds me of a story one of my dad's buddies once told: Back before internet and when the world was a much smaller place, when chain letters and pyramid clubs and schemes were still making their rounds, there was a guy who supposedly placed a classified ad in several newspapers, that basically said "I'll tell you how to get rich, quick! Send $5 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to XYZ address". When people sent him their money, they basically got a letter back, explaining how to make money quick..The answer was to place classified ads in as many newspapers as possible, telling people to send you $5 and a SASE, to ask you how to get rich quick!
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I also remember seeing infomercials pop up before I see the main content I wanted to watch that I clicked on YouTube.
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There are infomercials showing up on YouTube and one of them is 4Patriots. This group has been airing infomercials in the past year since the Pandemic became widespread.
I've also seen a 5+ minute epic about how my intestines are full of poop, and a similar one that begins with video of a little girl playing basketball while her mother starts telling me that she got really, really sick. I exit those ads long before the sales pitch starts, so I have no idea what the products being sold are. And just recently, the infamous "save these Third World kids with cleft palates" video has resurfaced!
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