subject: About Infomercial Airtime [print this page] About Infomercial Airtime About Infomercial Airtime
In the past, infomercials were only very late at night or in the very early morning hours. Infomercial programming was simply taking up space so the television station stayed on air instead of signing off until the next day's programming. However, something happened and infomercials really began to become popular and actually perform well as far as sales were concerned. Over the years infomercial programming has changed when they are aired and now appear on many stations during peak hours. In fact, during the morning hours, mid-afternoon, and peak hours it is common to find infomercials. They may appear during the middle of the week as well as on weekends.
An example of infomercial and airtime can be seen with CNBC. For example, during the five-day work week there is only one hour of infomercials scheduled during the week. However, on the weekends this number jumps to 28 hours of infomercial airtime! That's a pretty high percentage of infomercial airtime on the weekends. In the past, for example during the 1980s, mostly reruns and movies took up the space that infomercials occupy today. However, two decades later instead of running reruns television stations are occupying that time with infomercials.
Interestingly enough, things are changing when it comes to paid programming and the way it is viewed by both television stations and viewers. In the past, you wouldn't find anything other than a listing for "paid programming" at the time of day the infomercials were to air. There was no way to know what infomercials and products would be shown and if you would be interested in seeing those. Today, the standards are relaxing a bit and television stations are becoming more inclined to list the infomercial that will be aired rather than a generic "paid programming."
Changes are continuing and infomercial programming has even replaced the entire Saturday morning lineup of cartoons on Fox. Fox was the first major network to schedule paid programming. Of course, local stations have long been showing infomercials and paid programming on weekend mornings.
When infomercial advertisements are aired depends on many different things and the networks and television stations can change the lineup in the future. For now, infomercials have really made their way into mainstream television.
One of the largest media buying agencies for anyinfomercial and DRTV spot is A. Eicoff & Co. of Chicago
