I am surprised at how many infomercials are run even in daytime. I would have thought that playing any rerun junk and selling regular ads would be a better deal for the TV station.
Does anyone have a rough idea of what a station would make from airing a 30-minute infomercial versus selling regular ads for the same time?
I don’t know the numbers you are seeking, but also keep this in mind: In addition to the difference in ad revenue, the station also doesn’t have to pay for the programming that would otherwise run in that slot. So, it’s not only a matter of 30 minutes of ad revenue vs. say, 8 minutes, but also LESS the amount of money paid to run 22 minutes of programming.
I too am curious about what the numbers actually are.
But as regards the yes/no question of the OP (“Is there money in airing infomercials?”) it is pretty obvious to me that the answer must be, “Yes, there is profit for both the advertiser and the broadcaster,” because if there wasn’t any money in it, they would have stopped doing it.
The local station only gets to sell about 2 minutes of commercial time in a half-hour program – the rest of the commercials are sold by the company that synidcates the program. The local station gets the program for free, but they have to give up 3/4 of the commercial time in exchange for it.
So, especially during the parts of the day when no one is watching anyway, it makes more sense for the local station just to sell off the entire 30 minutes for whatever it can get rather than taking its lousy two minutes of commercials that it would have to sell at a bargain price anyway.
In fact, our local NBC station two weeks ago caught a lot of heat for pre-empting I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here and running a Time-Life records infomercial in its place. In prime time, no less.
Infomercials are a cash cow.
First of all you don’t have to buy programming. Now this isn’t as great as it seems as many shows are aired on a barter basis anyway, so the TV station doesn’t pay anyway.
But more importantly the TV station doesn’t pay staff. They don’t have to worry about will the programs bring in ratings, (whether they are bought or not). Then they don’t pay sales people to sell those programs they bought or bartered for.
Nielsen which tracks ratings also becomes less a factor. TV stations pay for Nielsen. Nielsen is NOT a scientific survey. (In their defense Nielsen never claims to be). The don’t rate total American viewers, their ratings are based on what advertisers want. This is why the ratings are often slammed as inaccurate, which they are, but again, Nielsen never claimed their ratings are accurate for total views, but merely what viewers the advertisers want.
Some (but not all) infomercials give a station a percentage of the call in following the shows that air.
The biggest thing is infomercials are so well reserached. The companies that produce them know, through a lot of consumer questions what should air when.
If an infomerical isn’t working the company can tell before the show is over and it then runs a new infomercial in its next spot. In a sense the infomerical company is programming.
So lets say “Acme Infomericals,” runs “RoadRunner High Speed” and the informerical does well. And it’s scheduled for 6 airings on WWWB-TV. The first four airings do well but the fifth dies. Well on the sixth Acme Infomericals pulls the infomercial for RoadRunner High Speed and replaces it with Coyote Ugly Beauty Products.
From a station viewpoint, there is no programming, no marketing, no sales people, no scheduling, there is nothing to do but provide the signal and if they make the cost of the electricity back (plus a few overnight salaries) it’s $$$$$$$$.
Now that digital is here it’s even more profitable as the station that doesn’t do high def programs can split its signal into SIX channels where before it had one.
Maybe I should start the Infommercial Channel?! I see money in my eyes!
Check out the new Discovery Channel show Pitchmen starring none other than Andrew Sullivan and BILLY MAYS HERE!!!
As annoying as they are hawking their crap, this show is actually really interesting and entertaining. They give a lot of facts & figures in regards to costs and profits.
Also fun to see how much they really don’t get along (even Sullivan thinks Billy is annoying!)