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MEDIA

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