How Do Infomercials 'fullfill the public interest'?

[azumanga]

WALA-TV quietly replaced the talk show titled "The Karen DeKay Show" after only a few months on the air with another hour of paid programming on Sundays at 9:00 AM.

What was Karen DeKay -- never heard of her.

Broadcast TV, I can perhaps understand the need for them to pay the power bill after hours - WAY LATE, totally after hours.

If they were concerned about power, why not just go off the air late at night, like what some PBS stations are doing? On that point, by showing infomercials at night just to pay for the electricity during late-night hours, all the stations are doing is whoring themselves to the infomercial companies. A little strong language, but they're selling themselves out to the lowest common denominator companies.

ALL infomercial broadcast TV channels should have their licenses revoked.

Agreed -- it seems that the only purpose of the infomercial channels being there is to offer viewers more of the same infomercials that they see everywhere else. As I mentioned before, I don't mind infomercials, but there should be a limit on how much infomercials should be seen in a given day, and there should be standards imposed to keep rip off artists off the air.

Cable TV channels we PAY for as far as I'm concerned should NEVER have the right to run infomercials (ESPECIALLY on the high end digital grid.)

Once upon a time, cable was the next best thing to sliced bread. Today, they all show generally the same stuff, with a bunch of commercials squeezed in. And of course, many of them show infomercials during late-night -- lessening the choices available to night-owl viewers. Other than for internet and maybe phone service, cable is no longer worth the money, as opposed to 20 or even 10 years ago.







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[Mario500]

What was Karen DeKay -- never heard of her.

Karen DeKay is the owner of the Couture Brides and Belles store in Fairhope, Alabama and her talk show began late in the fall of 2008. I had no idea who she was initially, but her TV program's theme song had the lyrics "welcome back, Karen". The weekly "TV Preview" booklet from the Mobile Press-Register still lists "Karen DeKay" long after it was replaced by WALA-TV, which did not produce the program.

 

[BRNout]

Karen DeKay: not a great name for someone to break into media with!

 

[azumanga]

Karen DeKay is the owner of the Couture Brides and Belles store in Fairhope, Alabama and her talk show began late in the fall of 2008. I had no idea who she was initially, but her TV program's theme song had the lyrics "welcome back, Karen". The weekly "TV Preview" booklet from the Mobile Press-Register still lists "Karen DeKay" long after it was replaced by WALA-TV, which did not produce the program.

Maybe she bought the time on WALA; no doubt when the money ran out, the station replaced it with infomercials -- and neglected to tell the press about the schedule change.

 

[TheRover]

This Sunday, at the Noon hour, not one, but two of the major stations in the DFW Metroplex were showing infomercials.

Gather round family...... let's see what our ABC or NBC affilate is showing today a t Noon, instead of news, talk shows, and soap operas......

Licenses in the "Public Interest".....

THE REIGN OF CORPORATISM

 

[gr8oldies]

Did the FCC ever say that every minute of every day has to be some "public interest" programming talking about the potholes on Main Street. You mean there were no other choices on the dial at noon on Sunday? If you want beauracrats traveling the country analyzing every licensee minute by minute, who is going to pay for that? Are you telling mke some mom and pop TV station wouldn't be running infomercials?

 

[BRNout]

Did the FCC ever say that every minute of every day has to be some "public interest" programming talking about the potholes on Main Street. You mean there were no other choices on the dial at noon on Sunday? If you want beauracrats traveling the country analyzing every licensee minute by minute, who is going to pay for that? Are you telling mke some mom and pop TV station wouldn't be running infomercials?

Well, this is probably why no action has been taken to this point. Because the line between where a station is 'fulfilling the public interest' and when it's not isn't well defined. The examples you listed above aren't what is necessary to be serving the public. However, it's a bit like that old pornography ruling: you pretty much "know it when you see it." Stations which program pretty much ONLY infomercials and shopping 24/7 are pretty good candidates for the 'not' category. Licensed stations that are run off of nothing aside from a satellite dish and a hard drive are also in the 'not' category.

On the other hand, as hackey, bush-league and unprofessional as it is, a local network affiliate who elects to dump an episode of Wheel of Fortune for an infomercial at 7:30 - well that really doesn't mean he's not programming in the public interest.

So, yeah, at times it can be a pretty contentious argument.

 

[TexasTom]

We're essentially living now under Corporatism.

What's good for business .... is by definition ... good for the "public interest".

What used to be really in the public interest, when those statutes were written, has now been subverted to business concerns.

Anything that increases credit card debt is really really good for some someone's..... and they really spread their lobby money around to many many lawmakers.

Unfortunately, it's hard to argue with this. It seems that sometime in the nineties, the new regulatory standard became "maximimizing economic efficiency", which was really just a euphemism for maximizing profits. And while profits certainly are important, that shouldn't be the primary focus for regulations and legislation.

 

[imhomerjay]

When it comes to judging TV programming, the better basis for regulation is...as little as possible. Let a few pencil pushers at the FCC serve as signal traffic cops, but here in the 21st century, it's time to stop trying to decide what a poorly defined (to be charitable) standard for early-to-mid 20th century regulation should mean today. The world has changed in ways unimaginable back then, and it's time to start accepting reality.

The public is capable of deciding what's in its interest, not the government. I may not like what others decide is in their interest, nor will they like what's in mine. Washington cannot, and should not, be deciding either one.

 

[landtuna]

Licensed stations that are run off of nothing aside from a satellite dish and a hard drive are also in the 'not' category.

I disagree and I think you have to consider my earlier post on evaluation of the market and not just a specific station.

A local station (all stations are local, right?) programming a national service may fulfill the public interest depending upon the content of the national program. I think it is safe to say virtually all network affiliates would have an issue if they got called out because they air a good percentage of identical national programming.

 

[BRNout]

Licensed stations that are run off of nothing aside from a satellite dish and a hard drive are also in the 'not' category.

I disagree and I think you have to consider my earlier post on evaluation of the market and not just a specific station.

A local station (all stations are local, right?) programming a national service may fulfill the public interest depending upon the content of the national program. I think it is safe to say virtually all network affiliates would have an issue if they got called out because they air a good percentage of identical national programming.

I was referring to stations which air NO local content. That goes well beyond what a network affiliate's programming provides; I was thinking of those extreme cases. I doubt that any present-day network affiliates meet that definition. If nothing else, they serve the public by providing ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox or PBS programming (programming that is in public demand) to their area of license. But they also all generally have some local content as well. Yes, I realize that my post didn't make that clear.

But I am talking about OTA stations which show nothing different than their satellite feed and nothing of local interest. We can probably all think of a station here or there for which this is the case.

 

[gr8oldies]

If we're again talking a certain company providing anational Contemporary Christian feed, I say again, if this format's listeners are opening their own checkbooks to suport this format, like the fact that they can travel and still hear this format and those personalities, how is that not in the public interest? Do we say "sorry folks, we have decided that what you like isn't in the publc interest, that station needs to talk about potholes".

 

[EricStein]

Interesting argument, that infomercials in small doses allow stations to serve the public.

But I don't see how a station broadcasting all infomercials (except for mandatory E/I programming) serves the public interest.

Despite the best intentions of the legislators and the "children's advocacy" groups, E/I doesn't serve the public interest either. Stations aren't willing to buy or produce their own programming, so stations go to mom-and-pop syndicators and grab low-budget shows for next to nothing (barter) and still air them at a loss (no viewers, no advertisers).

 

[azumanga]

Despite the best intentions of the legislators and the "children's advocacy" groups, E/I doesn't serve the public interest either. Stations aren't willing to buy or produce their own programming, so stations go to mom-and-pop syndicators and grab low-budget shows for next to nothing (barter) and still air them at a loss (no viewers, no advertisers).

And in the case of commercial stations not affiliated with ABC, NBC and CBS, some of the others tend to put E/I programming where they can't be seen. One of the stations in my area (WMOR-TV) shows "Degrassi TNG" to satisfy their E/I requirement -- at 10AM on weekdays, when its target audience is at school.

If we're again talking a certain company providing anational Contemporary Christian feed, I say again, if this format's listeners are opening their own checkbooks to suport this format, like the fact that they can travel and still hear this format and those personalities, how is that not in the public interest? Do we say "sorry folks, we have decided that what you like isn't in the publc interest, that station needs to talk about potholes".

The main trouble is that there are so many Christian stations -- some of them carrying the same programming. It seems that even in the smallest markets you can get several Christian stations on the radio.

 

[gr8oldies]

There are plenty of Christian stations, but the case in my market is they are all talk/teaching with some soft inspo music between preacher shows. It took a national network to bring a format that the locals, who have very good signals, wouldn't touch.