INFORMERCIAL - BUYING TV TIME
From an economic standpoint, media isthe most important stage in your
infomercial project because it involves the largest chunk of your budget.
How you buy your TV airtime dictates the profitablity of your diect response
campaign. If you buy wisely, you can make a fortune. Buy poorly, and you
can lose a fortune.
Our discussion of media buying will be based on half-hour infomercials.
Unless specified otherwise, figures, stats, and examples used in this
chapter will be for half-hour, sales generation infomercials.
Besides actual media buying, product fulfillment and other activities
generally associated withthe media stage of your infomercial campaign will
be considered.
STATE OF TELEVISION
When the American TV viewing market was being served by only three or four
stations - ABC, CBS, NBC, and in some cities, an independent station -
behavioural and social patterns were mainstream and demographic diversity
was not an issue. Viewing patterns were, therefore, quite similar everywhere.
Back then, media buying was relatively easy.
Now the reverse is true. With cable service, satellite programming, low-
power and full-power broadcasting, the route to today's TV audiences is
more complicated and difficult to follow. Today, the U.S. TV viewing public
is divided into over 200 markets, each with 20 to 30 channels to choose from.
Fortunately, television retailing pioneers have paved part of the way for us,
making it possible to identify certain media-buying styles that work well for
infomercials.
For example, those who cultivated DRTV have proven to us that buying late-
night TV time is cost effective. Since latenight airtime costs less, it
delivers one of the lowest cost per order, or CPO, figures obtained, enabling
marketers to break even with fewer orders.
There are three types of commercial TV stations, distinguished by how their
programming is delivered to the public.
BROADCAST
These TV stations use the airwaves to transmit their programs over a specific
geographic area. By design, all broadcast stations are local, to the extent
the power of their antennas transmit their signals to TV viewers. Some broad-
cast TV channels are also carried by the local cable service in the station's
primarily broadcast area.
Based on their transmitting power, there are two tyoes of broadcast TV
stations: (1) low power, usually operating on UHF frequencies, and (2)
full power, those you usually get as channels 2 through 13 if you don't
have cable. These depend on your antenna to pick up the TV signals.
Based on how they are owned, managed, or operated, TV stations can be either
independent or network affiliates - more often called network channels.
The four recognized broadcast TV networks in the U.S. are ABC, CBS, NBC, and
FOX. It is difficult, if not impossible to acquire TV airtime on any of
these networks. With the possible exception of Ross Perot's half-hour paid
announcements during his '92 presidential election bid, no half-hour paid
programs are aired on the broadcast network level. On a local level, however,
network affiliates have different policies regarding paid programming.
CABLE
These are TV stations whose programming is delivered exclusively through a
cable system, meaning homes without cable service have no way of watching
thses channels. Since these stations send their signals to different cable
service companies across the country, they are also referred to as networks.
The extent ofthe coverage of any cable network depends entirely on the number
of local cable service companies carrying its programming.
The following are the 10 most widely distributed basic cable networks.
Figures are as of March, 1993, represented in total million households.
Cable News Network CNN 66
Cable News & Business CNBC 65
USA Network USA 65
Video Hits VH1 64
Nickelodeon NIK 63
Lifetime LIFE 61
Headline News HLN 61
Entertainment Sports ESPN 61
Discovery DSC 61
Music Television MTV 61
SUPERSTATIONS
A superstation is a local broadcast station whose programming is being
received by cable markets outside its primary broadcast area. Without the
cable aspect of their coverage, they are nothing more that local broadcast
TV stations. Without the broadcast aspect of their coverage, they are
strictly a cable channel.
Superstations are either regional or national in their coverage.
A regional superstation has its programming carried by cable companies
within the same state or region where the superstation operates. Examples
include WPIX in Florida and KTVT in Texas.
A national superstation has its programming carried by cable companies in
more than one state. The three major national superstations are TNT, WOR,
and WGN.
Georgia-based TNT, part of the Turner Broadcasting Group, is know for
programming dominated by its extensive collection of old movies. TBS also
has strcit guidelines on direct response programming and rarely accepts paid
programs. WOR and WGN have a more enterprising position with regards to
their airtime. They have extensive market coverage and their rates are
extremely competitive.
SUPERSTATIONS SUBSCRIBERS
WWOR 35 million
WWGN 42 million
WPIX 12 million
KTVT 4 million
TOP TV MARKETS
Television, both broadcast and cable, reaches over 93 million homes in over
200 major U.S. markets. 63 million have cable service. The 10 largest TV
markets in the U.S., with a total of 26.6 million homes (28% of all viewing
homes), are:
TV MARKET TV HH %HOMES W/CABLE
New York 7.0 58
Los Angeles 5.0 57
Chicago 3.1 77
Philadelphia 2.7 70
San Francisco 2.2 64
Boston 2.1 71
Washington, D.C. 1.7 57
Dallas-Ft. Worth 1.7 47
Detroit 1.7 59
Houston 1.5 50
