11 Minutes Per Hour

DV8 · Post by **DV8** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 8:09 pm

In the Netherlands there's a legal limit of 11 minutes per hour of commercial airtime, per channel. (I'm sure that there are special rules regarding infomercials, but they play at economically barren times with less than 0.1 grps anyway. Also, there are special rules on the amount of sponsoring in a program, etc.) I'm wondering about the United States, are there any rules as to the amount of time spent on commercial time vs regular programming?

Raygun · Post by **Raygun** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 8:37 pm

Yeah, it's like 16 minutes per hour on commercial TV.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 8:37 pm

Good question, and one I don't know off the top of my head. Let's see what I can dig up. With out any prior knowledge my guess is yes there are some limits, but not as firm on that. I'll look it up and come back to this.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 8:43 pm

Hmmm after a brief look it looks like I may be wrong, as it seems commercial time seems to have grown exponentially since the 1960's. But I will continue to look, and maybe even make a few calls. It's local for me!

By the by, DV8 one of these days I owe you some drinks sir. I never forget a good deed.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 12:48 am

I'd honestly never considered the possibility of limiting ad time by legislation. I wonder what the argument is in favor of it?

Salvation122 · Post by **Salvation122** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 1:35 am

3278 wrote:I'd honestly never considered the possibility of limiting ad time by legislation. I wonder what the argument is in favor of it?

Well, the airwaves are a public good, so it promotes the use of the medium for artistic expression (or whatever) rather than pure commercial ad time.

To the best of my knowledge there's no legislation regarding the amount of ad time you can have. Even if there was it would only apply to broadcast, cable's its own beast.

In practice, everyone typically adheres to roughly 16 minutes.

WillyGilligan · Post by **WillyGilligan** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 2:29 am

Except for children's programming in the eighties/nineties, of course.

Raygun · Post by **Raygun** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 3:40 am

Salvation122 wrote:To the best of my knowledge there's no legislation regarding the amount of ad time you can have. Even if there was it would only apply to broadcast, cable's its own beast.

In practice, everyone typically adheres to roughly 16 minutes.

Yeah, I don't think it's actually legislated (I don't know that it's not), but I can't imagine it not being at least some kind of FCC rule. Everyone sticks awfully close to that 16 minutes/hour for it not to have some consequences if they go over that time, at least during normal waking hours.

Salvation122 · Post by **Salvation122** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 5:33 am

Raygun wrote:
Salvation122 wrote:To the best of my knowledge there's no legislation regarding the amount of ad time you can have. Even if there was it would only apply to broadcast, cable's its own beast.

In practice, everyone typically adheres to roughly 16 minutes.
Yeah, I don't think it's actually legislated (I don't know that it's not), but I can't imagine it not being at least some kind of FCC rule. Everyone sticks awfully close to that 16 minutes/hour for it not to have some consequences if they go over that time, at least during normal waking hours.

Well, not necessarily. It may well be that some marketing psychologists did a study or three and found that if you go much over sixteen minutes of ads, people get pissed and change the channel.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 3:33 pm

Salvation122 wrote:
3278 wrote:I'd honestly never considered the possibility of limiting ad time by legislation. I wonder what the argument is in favor of it?
Well, the airwaves are a public good, so it promotes the use of the medium for artistic expression (or whatever) rather than pure commercial ad time.

That would certainly seem like the likely argument, it's just awful.

Or I should say, not compatible with US attitudes toward the role of government, while being fully compatible with, say, Dutch attitudes. For them - and for those people who would prefer to change the US model - it's perfectly reasonable.