U.S. CNN often has more commercials than programming. At times there are several minutes of commercials, then a half-minute announcement, then another several minutes of commercials.
International CNN has virtually no commercials, other than programming plugs. Why is this? Is the international channel subsidized by the domestic channel?
Anecdotal answer here, CNN International here is only available via paid cable service. So perhaps the viewer has to pay for CNN International via a subscription fee or local stations have to ‘buy’ the ‘airtime’.
On some Sats there are Free to Air CNN Int’l feeds, Hotbird I think is one.
Yes, it’s free here in the UK.
WAG: Most advertising is local in scope. Very few goods/services are available worldwide, so there’s not much reason for US advertisers to buy time on an international channel if a US equivalent is available.
On a slightly different tangent. Recently on Euronews I have noticed that there are now more UK-specific commercials, for such things as Norwich Union Insurance and the AA. Up till recently this channel only seems to have broadcast adverts aimed at a European-wide audience, especially as this station has several different language “soundtracks”.
That is, at best, a terribly myopic guess. Now of course, American firms do tend to be terribly parochial, but one finds a good amount of international advertising on the various Free to Air international channels. There is, in fact, quite a large amount of goods and services that one can advertise without specific market focus (other than implied by the language / identity of the station). One sees all the big international consumer goods adverted in various languages, certain international services such as tourism destinations and packages, etc.
Of course US advertisers aiming at local US markets would indeed be rather stupid to buy time on CNN Int’l which would be aimed at the international business traveller market I would say, but there are certainly products that can be rationally advertised - why even US products if US mfgs remember there is a wider world out there.
I have no idea how it works either. But for an additional data point, Fox News does the same thing on its international version.
Whenever a commercial would normally interrupt the show, they cut to a 90 second “Special report” or “A Fox news Extra”. These are fluff items with a little bit of newsy content. (for example, a high school cafeteria that serves only health food, or an item about obedience training for dogs),
Right, I have never done an actual comparison, but as Euronews not only has several language soundtracks, but several different feeds (with different default primary soundtracks), I believe that they line up different primary advertisers. Due to the wife, I tend to watch a Continental track, and only see those adverts (on that particular feed) - some adverts seem to have synced language tracks as well, but I am not sure if my impression is right on that, having never been motivated enough to test Euronews advert sophistication.
Now here’s a question, is the domestic version more deranged and prone to TALKING REALLY LOUD like some Sky TV footballer about every political event as its Int’l version?
I watch Euronews via Hotbird on 28 degrees East (ie the Sky set-up). So, thinking about it, I image the majority of people watching it on that particular “platform” do live in the UK.
Nitpick: The satellite carrying Euronews on 28E is Eurobird 1. The Hotbird satellites are on 13E.
Having traveled a good bit where the only English language stations available are BBC and CNN Int’l, I have to disagree with the premise that there is little advertising on CNNI. It seems like every few minutes you have adds for locales (the annoying “Incredible India” theme music is still ingrained a week later) or a few large insurance or financial companies. They are different kinds of adds than the consumer products that show up on US CNN, but they seem about the same in frequency.
Sorry, my mistake.