A What-If Question: How would TV be different if there were few/no infomercials?

[Tim from Springfield IL]

This should be an interesting discussion.

How do you think both OTA and cable/satellite TV would be different today (and would have been since they were first made "legal" around 1984) had there been NO infomercials on the airwaves or very few of them (or even perhaps FCC-imposed limits of the amount of them shown per day)? I'm not trying to advocate support or opposition to the presence of "program-length commercials" on TV--just wanted to see what the pros and cons would be.

My thoughts (or more like educated guesses):

--Perhaps fewer "emerging" (e.g., CW, My, etc.) or subchannel networks in existence (which may also mean fewer OTA stations)--and we all know Ion may have to shut down without infomercials. ;D Same with cable networks, but with perhaps higher costs per subscriber for a smaller channel lineup. Perhaps the subchannel networks may be more like ala carte programming services a la Program Exchange back in the '80s?

--More commercial time during regular programs (perhaps at least an additional 1-2 minutes per half-hour).

--Fewer 24/7 stations

Thoughts?

--

 

[BMR]

--More commercial time during regular programs (perhaps at least an additional 1-2 minutes per half-hour).

Hmm, not sure on this one. Surely in the absence of FCC limits, stations will show as many commercials as they can get away with, regardless of whether teleshopping segments are allowed.

--Fewer 24/7 stations

More likely. In the UK we've only had teleshopping on programme channels quite recently. Many of the new crop of British sub channels couldn't survive on regular advertising alone.

 

[cd637299]

Agreed on the fewer 24/7's. It would make the TV DXing hobby certainly more interesting.

Also agreed that the commercial time allotments wouldn't really change, IMO.

Also, IMO programmers at local TV stations would have a harder job to do, filling the schedule, knowing what shows are best "leading in" to others, and also I think that more movies would likely fill the sked.

And WACP in Atlantic City wouldn't even be a thought , not to mention much less subchannels in total across the good ol' U S of A.

cd

 

[crainbebo]

A lot more "This concludes our broadcast day" than commercials...

-crainbebo

 

[Morgan Wick]

What would weekend midday be like outside sports coverage?

 

[michael hagerty]

You absolutely would have seen a return to overnight signoffs...first among the weaker stations, but when the economy went bad in '08, I think you would have seen some network affiliates and possibly even O&Os decide that there was no reason to be on the air after 1:00 or 1:30 AM. I think you would have seen a lot of indies go dark or sell and go either a language other than English, if viable in their market, or religion.

Weekend middays outside sports would be a wasteland, just of a different kind. Movies in the public domain, barter syndication of truly fringe-appeal shows with low production values. It would not be a return to movies and off-network comedies and dramas.

 

[dave73]

You absolutely would have seen a return to overnight signoffs...first among the weaker stations, but when the economy went bad in '08, I think you would have seen some network affiliates and possibly even O&Os decide that there was no reason to be on the air after 1:00 or 1:30 AM. I think you would have seen a lot of indies go dark or sell and go either a language other than English, if viable in their market, or religion.

Weekend middays outside sports would be a wasteland, just of a different kind. Movies in the public domain, barter syndication of truly fringe-appeal shows with low production values. It would not be a return to movies and off-network comedies and dramas.

If it weren't for pledge drive programming for PBS, some PBS stations would be signing off at night or go dark. WYIN became the last TV station in the Chicago market to go 24/7 back in 2008. Pledge drive programming is all that airs in the overnight hours, or they'd still sign off between 12:30 & 2am every night. When they carried Create back in 2006, the main channel would sign off, while they'd keep Create on after the main channel's broadcast day ended. Their locally programmed PBS Kids channel is the only channel that has 24 hour programming.

WCIU would likely sign off at night, if it weren't for infomercials or other paid programming, but not go dark.

WYCC & WTTW might sign off at night.

WGN-TV has been 24 hours for more than 35 years that wouldn't sign off at night. They've carried some kind of programming at night, even if it's programming that almost no one else will carry.

ABC, CBS, NBC, & Fox would likely sign off at night, if it weren't for the network feed airing some kind of news in the overnight hours (excluding Fox, which leaves it up the O&O & affiliates to fill the timeslots outside of primetime).

With Fox now owning WPWR-TV, I doubt they'd be able to program the station properly with programming night owls will watch, & get revenue. When it was owned by Newsweb, it was a well programmed independent, & even when it became a UPN affiliate, still well programmed. WPWR-TV might either sign off at night, or go dark, if it weren't for infomercials, or other paid programming.

Without infomercials, WJYS would go dark, as all timeslots are brokered, & I know they don't earn enough off of select religious programming (especially the locally produced religious programs) to go without infomercials. They've acquired some of the clients that WCIU used to have for their former FBT subchannel. I'm not sure how much money that brings in for WJYS.

Since I know little about Spanish language networks, I'm not sure if WSNS (Telemundo), WGBO-DT (Univision), or WXFT-DT (Uni Más) could continue as 24 hour stations, or any of them could stay on the air.

Without infomercials, Ion would likely go dark on all their stations, or have a severely limited broadcast schedule. If WCFC hadn't been sold & calls changed to WCPX, I believe they could have still on the air 24 hours without any infomercials, as they depended on donations, as well as commercials that the station deemed family friendly.

I know most LPTV stations in Chicago would go dark without infomercials, as most are minority owned, & probably don't earn enough to support the station without them. Weigel's 2 LPTV stations: WWME-LD (MeTV) & WMEU-CD (MeToo) would likely still be on the air, but sign off at night.

 

[BMR]

And WACP in Atlantic City wouldn't even be a thought
cd

From what I have read, I'm sure the good folk of Atlantic City would have been able to get over the disappointment!

Even after digital switchover, the broadcast spectrum is still a finite commodity, so I'm surprised broadcast regulators both over here and in the USA don't seriously restrict the amount of this sort of stuff OTA broadcasters are allowed to show.....

 

[MarcB]

and we all know Ion may have to shut down without infomercials. ;D

Excuse you? ION shows more regular programs than infomercials these days. They're programming the network 11AM-3AM Monday-Friday and 1PM-3AM on Saturdays and Sundays. If you don't count the religious shows as infomercials you're down to less than 3 1/2 hours of Infomercials during the week. And a little bit more on Saturdays and Sundays.

 

[cd637299]

And WACP in Atlantic City wouldn't even be a thought
cd

From what I have read, I'm sure the good folk of Atlantic City would have been able to get over the disappointment!

Even after digital switchover, the broadcast spectrum is still a finite commodity, so I'm surprised broadcast regulators both over here and in the USA don't seriously restrict the amount of this sort of stuff OTA broadcasters are allowed to show.....

The silver lining for me for WACP is that it gave me the opportunity to catch their signal from 980 miles away:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvVekGsWhdY

But that's about *all* it's for ......

cd

 

[arnoldevns]

Infomercials have been the backbone of many cable networks and broadcast stations for years.
Without them, many of those stations and networks would not exist or would not be on 24/7
I think the broadcast stations would just air more reruns. I think there would be fewer cable networks.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

I think in large cities, the ABC/CBS/NBC stations would still be on the air 24 hours a day since there is overnight programming fed to them by the networks.

But there would be fewer stations. Without infomercials, or 24/7 home shopping (which does air on a few over-the-air TV stations), we in Boston would probably have four fewer over-the-air TV stations. Likely, we wouldn't have WWDP-46, WBIN-50, WMFP-62 nor WBPX-68.

I suspect that in most major markets, we would have between three and five fewer over-the-air TV outlets without infomercials.

 

[FredLeonard]

Under the old rules, stations still ran direct response or per inquiry commercials. Ron Popeil and others hawked their wares but they did it in two-minutes.

Cable channels and OTA channels would have found cheap programming to fill time between direct response spots. Old re-runs. Old movies. Foreign shows. Talk shows (maybe even TV simulcasts of radio shows). Overnight news. PR films.

Many forget that early TV also had what we now call infomercials. When the rules were changed to require a minimum amount of non-commercial content, TV adapted. When the rules were relaxed again to allow infomercials, it just made things easier for sales departments.

 

[michael hagerty]

I think in large cities, the ABC/CBS/NBC stations would still be on the air 24 hours a day since there is overnight programming fed to them by the networks.

What you're overlooking is that infomercials in other dayparts bring in money for the overall bottom line. If the loss of that revenue were significant enough, even affiliates would look at saving the cost of overnight operation despite the existence of programming.

 

[cd637299]

I think in large cities, the ABC/CBS/NBC stations would still be on the air 24 hours a day since there is overnight programming fed to them by the networks.

What you're overlooking is that infomercials in other dayparts bring in money for the overall bottom line. If the loss of that revenue were significant enough, even affiliates would look at saving the cost of overnight operation despite the existence of programming.

I just looked at my local future listings via zap2it (May 14), and CBS' "Up to the Minute" starts at 2:05 am on WPEC 12, and not until 3:35 am on WFOR 4 (after running 90 min of infomercials)---and the latter is a CBS O&O!

Such is the state of TV today.

cd

 

[mjlarochelle]

There has been an hour-long infomercial advertising many products in the same hour on the air since the 1970s. For most of its history, it was hosted by Bob Barker.

 

[anotherguyTN]

I agree that more stations would probably sign off overnight if it weren't for infomercials, but I can live with it. I'd take dead air over infomercials any time. And if a station can't do any better than all infomercials they shouldn't be on the air.

Now if we could just do something about trash talk and courtroom shows... :

 

[sdwulfdawg]

I agree that more stations would probably sign off overnight if it weren't for infomercials, but I can live with it. I'd take dead air over infomercials any time. And if a station can't do any better than all infomercials they shouldn't be on the air.

Now if we could just do something about trash talk and courtroom shows... :

There HAS to be an element of diminishing returns and I guess that's why certain informercials tend to disappear over time. I believe the 800 numbers are pegged to a certain station or network and they only get a percentage of the revenue from the airing pegged to the 800 number.

Who are the agencies who place the infomercials?

 

[SixtiesGuy]

Probably shorter broadcast days, even longer commercial breaks, and/or some stations/channels going dark. As to the last possibility, if it's a station or channel that has to rely on infomercials to remain in existence, it would probably be no big loss. On local stations there might also be greater product placement and/or sponsorship of programming: "Now, it's time for the Randy's Taxidermy Sports Report" and a big "Trojan Condoms" logo hanging over the news desk.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Answer: 100 percent better.

But the truth is without infomericals cable companies would lose revenue.