In the United States, the Nielsen ratings system measures audience viewership of television programs, and provides a way for television broadcasters to determine how popular their television shows are, so that they can decide what rates to charge advertisers for air time.
For each hour in a broadcast day, advertisements take up a fairly consistent proportion of the time. Commercial breaks have become longer. In the 1960s a typical hour-long American show would run for 51 minutes excluding advertisements. Today, a similar program would only be 42 minutes long; a typical 30-minute block of time now includes 22 minutes of programming and eight minutes of advertisements - six minutes for national advertising and two minutes for local.[7] A television broadcast of the 101-minute film The Wizard of Oz (1939) for instance, could, in the early to mid-1960s, take two hours even with advertisements. Today, a telecast of the same film would last approximately two hours and 15 minutes including advertisements, if the film were not edited to fit within the time allotted, as is common practice.
In other words, over the course of 10 hours, American viewers will be shown approximately three hours of advertisements, twice what they would have seen in the 1960s. If a 1960s show is reruntoday, the content may be edited by nine minutes to make room for the extra advertisements.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the average advertisement's length was one minute. As the years passed, the average length shrank to 30 seconds (and sometimes 10 seconds), but more advertisements are now shown during the break.
TV advertisements are coded for identification by broadcasters via an ISCI code.
Popularity
In the United States, the TV advertisement is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising format, and this is reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for commercial broadcasting airtime during popular TV events. The annual Super Bowl American football game is known as much for its commercial advertisements as for the game itself, and the average cost of a single 30-second TV spot during this game (seen by 90 million viewers) has reached US$3 million (as of February 2011).
It has been suggested that, in general, television executives believe that advertisers covet the 18-49 age demographic and that older viewers are of almost no interest to most advertisers due to their unwillingness to change their buying habits.[8] Products intended for older consumers, such as certain health products and insurance, are advertised regularly on television, generally during programming that appeals to older adults.
The number of viewers within the target demographic is more important to ad revenues than total viewers. According to Advertising Age, during the 2007-08 season, Grey's Anatomy was able to charge $419,000 per advertisement, compared to only $248,000 for an advertisement during CSI, despite CSI having almost five million more viewers on average.[9] Due to its demographic strength, Friends was able to charge almost three times as much for an advertisement as Murder, She Wrote, even though the two series had similar total viewer numbers during the seasons they were on the air together.[8] Broadcast networks are concerned by the increasing use of DVRs by young viewers, resulting in aging of the live viewing audience and consequently, lower ad rates.[10]Also TV advertisers may also target certain audiences of the population such as certain races, income level, and gender.In recent years, shows that tend to target young women tend to be more profitable for advertisements than shows targeted to younger men. This is due to the fact that younger men are watching TV less than their female counterparts.
In the United Kingdom, television advertising is considerably cheaper than in the United States of America. The current record for an advertising slot on British terrestrial television is quoted at being £250,000 for a 30-second slot during the 2010 series of Britain's Got Talent. It should be noted however that while British TV advertising is cheaper, this is only to be expected as the United Kingdom has a much lower population (63 million) compared to the US (310 million). So if you adjusted the £250,000 figure into American terms, the population being 5 times bigger and the exchange rate, this figure would become $2 million, much closer to the US Super Bowl figure.[12]
Because a single television advertisement can be broadcast repeatedly over the course of weeks, months, and even years (the Tootsie Roll company has been broadcasting a famous advertisement that asks "How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie center of a Tootsie Pop?" for over three decades), television advertisement production studios often spend enormous sums of money in the production of one single thirty-second television spot. This vast expenditure has resulted in a number of high-quality advertisements with high production values, the latest inspecial effects technology, the most popular personalities, and the best music. A number of television advertisements are so elaborately produced that they can be considered miniature thirty-second movies; indeed, many film directors have directed television advertisements both as a way to gain exposure and to earn a paycheck. One of film director Ridley Scott's most famous cinematic moments was a television advertisement he directed for the Apple Macintosh computer, that was broadcast in 1984. Even though this advertisement was broadcast only once (aside from occasional appearances in television advertisement compilation specials and one 1 a.m. airing a month before the Super Bowl so that the advertisement could be submitted to award ceremonies for that year), it has become famous and well-known, to the point where it is considered a classic television moment.
Despite the popularity of some advertisements, many consider them to be an annoyance for a number of reasons. The main reason may be that the sound volume of advertisements tends to be higher (and in some cases much higher) than that of regular programming. The United States Congress passed a bill on September 30, 2010, called the CALM Act, to reduce the sound volume of advertisements, and loudness rules set by the FCC are effective as of December 13, 2012. In the UK, the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice has a similar regulation. The increasing number of advertisements, as well as overplaying of the same advertisement, are secondary annoyance factors. A third might be that television is currently the main medium to advertise, prompting ad campaigns by everyone from cell-phone companies, political campaigns, fast food restaurants, to local businesses, and small businesses, prompting longer commercial breaks. Finally, another reason is that advertisements often cut into certain parts in the regular programming that are either climaxes of the plot or a major turning point in the show, which many people find exciting or entertaining to watch.
From a cognitive standpoint, the core reason people find advertisements annoying is that the advertisement's offer is not of interest at that moment, or the presentation is unclear. A typical viewer has seen enough advertisements to anticipate that most advertisements will be bothersome, prompting the viewer to be mercilessly[editorializing] selective in their viewing. Conversely, if an advertisement strikes a chord with the viewer (such as an ad for debt relief shown to a viewer who has received a late notice in the mail), or has entertainment value beyond the basic message (such as the classic humorous spots for Wendy's "Where's the beef?" campaign), then viewers tend to stay with the advertisement, perhaps even looking forward to viewing it again.
Restrictions
Beginning on January 2, 1971, advertisements featuring cigarettes were banned from American TV. Advertisements for alcohol products are allowed, but the consumption of any alcohol product is not allowed in a television advertisement. The Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission have laid out regulations for television advertising, outlining restrictions on certain products, content, and claims, in addition to mandating minimum technical standards. Additional content standards are set by individual television broadcast entities to accommodate local laws, community standards, and their particular audience demographic; these broadcast outlets examine each incoming advertisement through a process known as "clearance."
Are advertisements also programming?
Since the 1960s, media critics have claimed that the boundaries between "programming" and "advertisements" have been eroded to the point where the line is blurred nearly as much as it was during the beginnings of the medium, when almost all individual television shows were sponsored entirely by a single corporation (the model which was carried over from old-time network radio). For much of the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, the FCC imposed a rule requiring networks that broadcast programming on Saturday morning and Sunday nights at 7 PM/6 PM Central to air bumpers ("We'll return after these messages...", "...now back to our programming" and variations thereof) to help younger audiences distinguish programs from advertisements. The only programs that were exempt from this rule were news shows and information shows relating to news (such as 60 Minutes). Conditions on children's programming have eased a bit since the period of the 1970s and 1980.
Europe
In many European countries television advertisements appear in longer, but less frequent advertising breaks. For example, instead of 3 minutes every 8 minutes, there might be around 6 minutes every half hour. European Union legislation limits the time taken by commercial breaks to 12 minutes per hour (20%), with a minimum segment length of 20 or 30 minutes, depending on the program content. However, these are maximum limits and so specific regulations differ widely from both within and outside the EU, and indeed from network to network. Unlike in the United States, in Europe the advertising agency name may appear at the beginning or at the end of the advert.
United Kingdom
In the UK, the BBC is funded by a licence fee and does not screen adverts apart from the promotion of its own future programming (either 'coming soon' or the day's later programming features). On the commercial channels, the amount of airtime allowed by the UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom for advertising is an overall average of 7 minutes per hour, with limits of 12 minutes for any particular clock hour (8 minutes per hour between 6pm and 11pm). With 42-minute American exports to Britain, such as Lost, being given a one-hour slot, nearly one third of the slot is taken up by adverts or trailers for other programs. Live imported television programs such as WWE Raw show promotional material that is shown in place of U.S. advert breaks. Infomercials (known as "admags") were originally a feature of the regional commercial ITV stations from launch in 1955 but were banned in 1963.
The first advert to be shown in the UK was an advert for S.R. Toothpaste on September 22, 1955 on the ITV network (its first day).
On 1 July 2000, TV broadcasters began requiring commercials to be delivered to them in widescreen, an event referred to as C-Day in industry promotion of the change.
In 2008, Ofcom announced a Review of television advertising and teleshopping regulation, with a view to possibly changing their code, Rules on the Amount and Distribution of Advertising(RADA), which regulates the duration, frequency and restriction of adverts on television.
Television advertising specialist, Nick Illston, of advertising-buying agency Pace Media, states that ITV's £250,000 asking price for a 30-second slot during the 2010 series of Britain's Got Talent is currently the most expensive advertising slot on television.
Germany
As in Britain, in Germany, public television stations own a major share of the market. Their programming is funded by a licence fee as well as advertisements on specific hours of the day (20 minutes per day; not after 8 p.m.), except on Sundays and holidays. Private stations are allowed to show up to 12 minutes of ads per hour with a minimum of 20 minutes of programming in between interruptions.
France
The Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel allows up to 9 minutes of advertising per hour on average in a day. Private channels can only broadcast one commercial break if the show is less than an hour and two commercial breaks if the show is more than an hour. For public channels, advertising is forbidden after 8 p.m and disappeared completely in 2012.
Ireland
Up to 2010 Commercial broadcasters where permitted a maximum of 15% advertising time vs. overall broadcast time. In 2010 TV3 asked for an increase in advertising minutes due to the high level of competition from advertising opt-outs coming into Ireland via satellite and cable pay providers and also the number of live ITV programmes carried by TV3 (such as The X Factor). The BAI agreed to increasing the number of ads on commercial TV broadcasts bring Irish commercial TV channels in line with UK commercial TV channels,[however the BAI refused to extend the limit of commercial radio operators stating that it did not face the same competition from non-indigenous radio stations.
Commercial Broadcasters may not exceed 18% of their broadcast day on advertising and they may only have a maximum of 12 minutes of adverts per hour, except for children's programming where advertising may not exceed 10 minutes per hour. (Commercial TV broadcasters include TV3, City Channel and Setanta). Irish community TV channels rarely show advertising, however they are permitted to show 6 minutes of advertising per hour.
RTÉ cannot carry advertising on RTÉ News Now and RTÉjr, other RTÉ channels carry a maximum of 9 minutes per hour of advertising but only an average of 6 minutes of advertising per hour, these same rules apply to TG4. This amounts to 10% of total broadcast time.
Finland
In Finland, there are two mainstream non-commercial channels run by the state owned broadcasting company Yle, that run advertisements only on very infrequent occasions, such as important sport events. The three main commercial channels MTV3, Sub (a subsidiary of MTV3), and Nelonen, all run their advertisements during breaks approximately every 15 minutes. Since digital TV has been introduced, the number of TV channels has grown, with Yle and the main broadcasters all adding new channels (including some subscription channels). Analogue broadcasts ceased in August 2007 and the nation's TV services are now exclusively digital. A typical break lasts about 4 minutes. The length of individual advertisements can vary from a few seconds (7, 10 and 15 are common), but nowadays they are rarely over one minute in length. Many advertisements of supranational companies are commonly dubbed from English language advertisements. AlthoughSwedish is the other official language of Finland, the advertisements do not feature Swedish subtitles nor are any Swedish language advertisements shown with the infrequent exception of some political advertisements at the time of elections.
Russia
The Russian advertising break consists of 2 parts: federal adverts and regional adverts. The duration for each is 4 minutes and 15 minutes per hour respectively.
Denmark
The Danish DR-channels are funded by a television licence, so they do not show any advertisements at all. The other Danish television network, TV2 shows advertisements only in blocks between the programs. These can take from 2 minutes to 10 minutes depending on the time to the next show. In Denmark, commercial breaks are strictly prohibited and advertising targeted to children is restricted. Channels like Kanal 5 and TV3 are allowed to interrupt programs, as these channels are being broadcast via satellite from the United Kingdom.
Norway
Television advertising is regulated by the Broadcasting Act. Public service broadcaster NRK is licence funded, and can not carry advertising, however sponsorship of programs is allowed. Commercial channels may interrupt television program with ads, but certain conditions apply. Maximum amount of advertising is 20% per hour (12 min). The nation's second-most popular channel - TV2 - is funded by television advertisements. Norwegian-language programs broadcast from abroad - such as TV3 Norway broadcasting from London in the Norwegian language - must comply to British regulation. Political TV advertisements are strictly prohibited. TV advertisements are monitored by the Norwegian Media Authority (Medietilsynet).
Asia-Pacific
India
In India, the Code for Self-Regulation of Advertising in India, established by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), is applicable on Television Commercials (TVCs). If consumers see an advertisement, which they consider misleading or offensive, they can write to ASCI.
Malaysia
All television stations and channels, whether government-owned or private, broadcast advertisements, with television channel logos removed before the start of the commercial break.
In Malaysia, the duration of a typical break differs between local and foreign programs, while RTM, the nation's state broadcaster, usually has shorter commercial break. There are usually two commercial breaks in a half-hour program and three commercial breaks in an hour-long program, with the exception of news programs. Terrestrial television can only broadcast advertisements during the program that was currently aired except before announcing the breaking of fast in the month of Ramadan.
In 1999, Malaysian television stations broadcast only around 15 minutes of television advertisements per hour. Now it had been increase to around 20 minutes with 10 - 15 advertisement per commercial break.
Malaysian television advertisements were at first identified by KP/YYYY/XXXX, which was first introduced in circa 1995. The KP is the abbreviation of the Ministry of Information while the YYYY is the year the advertisement produced and the XXXX is the number of the advert permit, and it was earlier was shown at the beginning or end of the advert, and some of the shorter advertisements (less than 15 seconds) show this code for the whole duration of the advertisement. As of 2010, advertisements that use this code (which was broadcast prior to mid-late 2009) is still broadcasting on television. Other advertising permits includes the KKLIU (Ministry of Health, the Medicine Advertising Authority) for medicinal advertisements, which was has been used before 1995 and the JIRP (Pesticide Advertising Department) for pesticide advertisements. All pesticide advertisement must show the word "INI ADALAH IKLAN RACUN PEROSAK" (This is a pesticide advertisement) and JIRP advertising code at the beginning of the advertisement and the word "BACALAH LABEL KELUARAN SEBELUM MENGGUNAKANNYA" (Read the label before use) at the end of the advertisement. It was also used in advertisements on newspapers and magazines.
Since mid-late 2009, advertisements are shown with the KPKK/XXXX/YYYY, in which the KPKK is the abbreviation of the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture and it was shown in the beginning of the advertisement. It is common for advertisements shown on RTM and also common for some advertisements shown on Astro satellite television service and Media Prima-owned television stations, such as TV3, ntv7, 8TV and TV9.
Astro is also known to delay incoming satellite feeds by two to five minutes from the actual time of the start and the end of program (for example program aired at 1:30 pm will be started at 1:33 pm) with broadcasting advertisements during in-between programs for its purpose of commercial replacement, as government laws forbid advertisements produced from overseas, except those recognizing Malaysia's brands, such as Sony, Panasonic, Nokia and LG, as well as produced from within the country itself.
Liquor advertisements shown after 10:00 pm during non-Malay programs have been banned in the country since 1995, while cigarette advertisements have been banned from showing cigarette packaging since 1995, and complete ban since 2003. Fast-food advertisements during children's programs are also banned in 2007. There are also restrictions on Malaysian television advertisements such as advertisement for 18-rated films, feminine care products and unhealthy foods, is not allowed to be broadcast during children's programs, and lottery advertising, which is prohibited during Malay programs. Lingerie advertisements are prohibited in Malaysian television, but allowed in non-Malay magazines published in Malaysia.
The Philippines
In the Philippines, advertising is self-regulated by individual broadcasters. The Association of Broadcasters of the Philippines, a self-regulatory organization representing most television and radio broadcasters in the country, limit advertising to 18 minutes per hour, a move taken to help "promote public interest."
Since television was introduced to the Philippines in 1953, they used imported TV Ads until 1960, the same way with how they used in billboard advertisements during the American period. In the 1960, P&G paved their way to start the first local TV Ad.
Television advertising (production cost) before in the Philippines was not so expensive. The materials needed for the TV Ad to be broadcast (just like in some countries) are: Film degradation, the styles of the music score (arrangement), film angles, B&W or colored, hair styles, the manner the advertisement was presented and the scriptwriting.
In 1994, cigarette advertisements on TV had a warning at the end of the advertisement. It says, "Government Warning: Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous To Your Health". In 2007, cigarette TV ads, including radio and print ads/sponsorships, were banned from the Philippine government meetings.
Arab World
Since television was introduced to the Arab World in 1955, Since mid-late 2009, advertisements are shown with the KPKK/XXXX/YYYY, in which the KPKK. Indonesian commercial television is restricted.
Australia
Similar to the European Union, advertising on Australian commercial television is restricted to a certain amount in a 24-hour period, but there are no restrictions on how much advertising may appear in any particular hour.[23] Australian television has one of the highest advertising content in the world. Prime-time can see 18 minutes or more of ads per hour. Furthermore, product ads wrapped up in informational content are labeled "public service announcements" and not included in the time restrictions; similarly with "this program brought to you by..." announcements, andstation identifications. Consequently Australian viewers might see less than 40 minutes of actual program time per hour. Foreign, older television programs and movies are noticeably shortened; comedy shows often return from an ad break into laughter, for instance. Australia is also one of the few countries in the world where advertisements may appear prior to, and over the top of, the closing credits of a program. There are some restrictions on television advertising in Australia, such as a complete ban on advertising for cigarettes, as well as advertising during programs intended for young children. The ABC, the nation's public broadcaster, broadcasts no external advertisements, but between programs will broadcast promotions for its own programs and merchandise, but is restricted to approximately five minutes per hour. SBS had similar restrictions on advertising until 2005 when it began airing external advertisements between programs, and later, during programs, as per the commercial networks, though still limited to 5 minutes per hour. But they are thinking of changing the rules
New Zealand
All major New Zealand television channels, whether state-owned or private, screen advertisements, with adverts on average taking up 15 minutes of each hour. There are usually two advert breaks in a half-hour program, and four advert breaks in an hour-long program.
Television adverts are banned on Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and also on Sunday mornings before midday (although TV3 did broadcast adverts on Sunday mornings during the2007 Rugby World Cup). Also, advertising of certain products is restricted (e.g. alcohol, unhealthy foods) or banned (e.g. tobacco).
The Advertising Standards Authorit is responsible for advertisement compliance, and deals with advertisement complaints (except for election advertising, in which the Broadcasting Standards Authority is responsible).
South Korea
Under the current rules, terrestrial channels cannot take in-program commercial breaks. So, the advertisements are usually put between the intro and the start of a program, and between the end credits and the end of the program. Terrestrial channels often divide some longer-length films like The Ten Commandments into parts and consider each part as an individual program. Terrestrial channels can take commercial breaks during breaks in action during sporting events.
Pay-television channels can take in-program commercial breaks, although some pay TV channels schedule advertisement in the same way that terrestrial channels do. Regulations for advertisements on terrestrial channels are more strict than those for pay channels. Non-South Korean channels are not subject to these regulations. Tobacco advertisements are prohibited.
Latin America
Argentina
Since late 2010, all Argentine television channels (including cable channels operated from the country itself), are forced to separate advertising from the rest of the programming using bumpers with the text "Espacio publicitario" ("Advertising space"). Commercial advertising is limited to 12 minutes per hour. In-program advertising is allowed, but counted toward the 12-minute quota. That means that if a 60-minute show has 2 minutes of in-program advertising, the commercial breaks have to be limited to 10 minutes for that specific hour. Otherwise the station might face a fine.
