Unit 4 Advertising and Television

TV is important for advertisers, but advertising is equally important for TV. The ITV companies depend on the money they obtain from advertising. Without it, they cannot commission or produce their own programmes. Yet in order to recruit sufficient advertising they are forced to provide the sort of programmes advertisers want – the programmes which will draw the audiences who will become the consumers of the products advertisers want to sell. Indeed, one media analyst has said, “TV exists to deliver audiences to advertisers.”

Here are some statements which have been made about the complicated relationship between TV and advertising. In your group, read and discuss the statements, and see how far you agree or disagree with each point.

Advertisers have a powerful role in shaping what sort of programmes we get to see.

The advertising industry certainly works very closely with broadcasters and TV programmers. Look at the ad from Campaign for TV-am, the breakfast programme which preceded GMTV.

When TV-am was launched in 1983, its success hinged on whether or not it would recruit enough advertising. It launched a massive campaign targeting advertisers, both through promotional material and through its high-profile star presenters such as Michael Parkinson, David Frost and Angela Rippon.

This is what Michael Parkinson promised advertisers on a promotional video at the time:

“Whether you sell shower attachments, toilet paper, toothpaste, hairdryers, razor-blades, corn-plasters or cosmetics, toasters or kettles, porridge, waffles or cornflakes, orange juice, tea or coffee, the chances are that our audience will be using them, spraying them, shaving with them, brushing with them, eating them, drinking them or running out of them around the time they are watching our programme”.

However, during the first weeks of transmission, advertisers were wary of investing in TV-am. Most TV advertising is for domestic products like the ones listed by Parkinson, which are aimed at a mass audience; the advertisers felt that TV AM was too upmarket and news-oriented for the markets they wanted to reach. After several months, the TV-am format changed: less hard news, more celebrity gossip, cartoons and show-biz trivia – and more revenue from advertisers. Will GMTV go the same way?

Advertisers can limit the style and format of programmes on offer.

In the USA, the demands of advertisers have often killed off unprofitable programmes or been instrumental in changing the formula of unconventional or minority shows. For example, Hill Street Blues was nearly axed after its first series because its ratings were so low; but because it was watched by affluent professional viewers who were useful to the advertising industry, a second series was allowed – on condition that the series’ unconventional formula was changed to make it more popular with the audiences.

Advertisers have a powerful role in shaping TV schedules.

It has been argued that the need to please the advertisers has led to the “sameness” of many TV genres – and influences how TV programmes are scheduled. If a series is a safe bet and likely to reach huge audiences, advertisers will be happy; if it is less conventional, takes risks, offends viewers, it will either lose advertisers, and never make it to the second series, or it will be scheduled outside peak times as minority viewing.

Advertising benefits TV companies and audiences.

Many people believe that advertising is enormously beneficial to TV viewers, because it finances bigger and better programmes. And in some ways you as an audience get to call the shots; if you don’t like the programme and don’t watch it, advertisers will respond by refusing to buy space, and will thus force the hand of the TV companies on your behalf.

Advertising techniques are influencing the style of some TV programmes.

In Britain TV advertising is restricted to 6 minutes per hour. Many other countries are allowed to show ads in batches of 10 minutes or more. The American frequency of advertising is particularly important for us, since we import so many American programmes.

American programmes are made in units of 22.5 minutes or 48.5 minutes specifically to allow for advertising breaks. Try spotting the breaks in a US soap or sitcom; you can usually identify them by still shots, short blank spaces, or two similar scenes following one from another. Some people have commented that the programme’s structure – continuity, storyline and development – is organized around the commercial breaks. Because the programme segments are so frequently interrupted, US programmes try to maintain audiences’ interest with short sharp action and lots of “technical events” – i.e. changes of shot, changes of scene, visual or sound effects which break up the rhythm of the programme – a rapid visual style rather like what we have become used to in commercials. On average, in US TV programmes a typical scene lasts just 45 seconds, which is fantastically short.