Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Sponsorship

Re: Sponsorship
Larry J — (archived)

<You imply that listeners pay for commercial radio. They don't.

Corporate and foundation sponsors do.

In the case of corporate sponsorship, we the consumers support the programming underwritten by the sponsors. Many corporations own many brands, and have no brand name associated with the corporated name that appears on the sponsorship list. Hence it's more difficult to trace precisely who is supporting what, what the agenda of the sponsorship pattern might be, how that might influence the broadcaster's editorial policy, and (if one is well and truly pissed off) what products to boycott in protest.



You're leaving out something - when a corporation (or small business) buys advertising time on a radio or TV program, that becomes a business expense. It gets passed on to the consumers just the same as all other business expenses.

The amount they pay to advertise is based on ratings. If a program is unpopular, then the broadcasting station can't charge as much for advertising. People can boycott the programming just as easily as they can the advertisers for the programming.

For a program with a small audience such as in smaller markets or most MSNBC programs (sorry, couldn't resist), you can buy a 30 second TV commercial spot for a few hundred dollars. Conversely, for a highly rated program like the Super Bowl, a 30 second spot can cost upwards of $2 million. Either way, that cost gets passed on to the consumers.

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