FACT: The average cost of a half hour of Television Time on any NBC, ABC, CBS or FOX TV station costs from $5 to $200. A successful infomercial can gross from $20 million to $300 million in one year from TV sales alone.
The sale of all TV time is regulated by the federal government through an auction process and you must bid on TV time and it is sold to the highest bidder. The fact that I have always found most interesting is that it is actually a felony under the Rico Racketeering Act to issue a rate card for television or radio time and several mnagers at TV stations have actually been prosecuted under this act.
Under federal law television and radio time are called negotiated price products. This means that TV and radio time must be sold through an auction process. It was only in the last five years that the FCC really cracked down on stations, especially the cable systems.
Let's begin with some important definitions:
· Infomercial. An infomercial is a TV commercial that is at least 28 minutes and 25 seconds in length.
· Spot. A spot is a TV commercial that is 2 minutes or less in length.
· High Power Broadcast Stations. There are 1,493 broadcast TV stations with "high power" transmitters. These are mostly the NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX affiliates and large independent stations. They have a broadcast radius of about 200 miles and a coverage of about 4 million. The average cost of a half hour of Television Time on any NBC, ABC, CBS or FOX TV station costs from $5 to $200.
· National Cable Networks. There are cable systems like SyFy, USA, BET, Discovery, LMN, etc. they can be seen in all 50 states and in Canada. They have a coverage of about 90 mmillion viewers. A half hour of TV time on these national cable networks sells for an average of $900 to $8,000. Of course if you are dumb enough to call one of these networks and ask how "How Much?" then you will probably be told by a sharp salesperson that they might be able to get you a half hour for $250,000 and then you will be the high bidder for that half hour. I have bought a few national half hour for $5....
A 30-secomd spot on a national cable network will sell for $25,000 to $500,000 and the half hour that this spot airs in will sell for $900 to $8,000. This is something that most people at first can't understand--why does 30 seconds cost up to100 time smore than a half hour of time on the same station at the same time. The reason is that when the station sells you 30 seconds they must fill the half hour that the 30-second spot airs in with a program whereas when you buy a half hour you will fill the half hour with a show at your expense--this is the business of TV syndication.
If you call a TV station and ask how much for a 30-spot or a half hour of infomercial time they will most likely ask you what is your budget and by a strange coincidence, the amount of your budget will be the cost for the spot or half hour. What the station will not tell you is that the time is up for bid and you can bid whatever you like. If they tell you the 30-second spot is $5,000 and you pay that much, then you will unwittingly be the highest bidder. The station is not required to inform you that their time must be sold through an auction and many stations don't even tell their sales people that federal law requires all sales through an auction process.
TV stations are NOT allowed to set any minimum bid on any TV time but stations are allowed to suggest a starting bid on a half hour of time. If a station suggests a bid of $500 for Saturday morning at 11:00AM then I would bid $15 for that half hour if I am buying it for myself. An ad agency would bid $1,000 to $2,500 for that half hour--why? Because the agency gets a 15% commission and 15% of $1,000 or $2,500 is more money for them and the client will never know what the agency bid for the time.
Infomercial time on the NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX stations usually goes for $5 to $200 for any half hour. So you can produce an infomercial to sell your product or service or just to promote your singing career and and air a half hour infomercial every week in Los Angeles, CA for an average of $50 a week that can be seen by 4 MILLION people!
When a station suggests $500 I can usually get the time for $5 to $150 about 70% of the time. And on a national cable network that airs in 50 states, the whole country with 37 million viewers usually sells for a bid from $900 to a maximum of $8,000. Once an agency buys that time from the station or cable system it can then be re-sold for any amount of money and no auction process is required.
In my experience, many of the ad agencies I know will bid 2 to 3 times what the station suggests as a starting bid to make more money from their 15% commission. An agency would bid $2,500 for the same half hour I can buy for $50. In New York, the number one television market, the spread is so large that I won't even tell you for fear of losing credibility.
To air any non-infomercial entertainment show you buy the infomercial time and you sell the 30-second Spots or Product Placement in a show to advertisers.
Remember that 30 seconds costs 20 to 100 times MORE than a half hour because when the station sells 30 seconds they must supply the program to fill the half hour.
That's how people make hundreds of millions of dollars with TV syndication.
My company, GeminiGroup TV, Inc. (www.geminigrouptv.com), has a complete listing of what we bought half hours of TV time for in all 50 states and Canada on our website.
Look at thousands of buys a month and see that there is NO fixed price on TV time. You will notice that one day we might pay $15 for a half hour and the next ay pay $200 for the SAME half hour.
But you don't need to use my company or any company to shoot, edit and air your own infomercial. You need to simply understand the how the system works.
What can you do with an infomercial? When you buy a half hour of TV Time you can put anything you want in that half hour. For example, if you have a band or you are a singor or actor, you can promote yourself or band in Los Angeles, CA every week for an average of $50 a week. Just imagine, your own half hour TV show or talk show airing in Los Angeles every week for $50 that can reach 4 MILLION viewers--even if you work at Burger King you can afford that!
Suppose you have a website and you want to drive traffic to your website--create a half hour infomercial using your home video camera and you can put a half hour TV series featuring your website in a city as big as Los Angles for $50 a week. Smaller cities cost even less.
The only cost you won't be able to avoid is Closed captioning. All infomercials must be closed captioned and this will cost you a one-time fee of about $150 to get your master tape of an infomercial closed captioned.
Up until now I have only talked about Infomercial time or half hours of TV time. Spot Time which are those commercial that are 2 minutes or less.My advice is to stay away from spots because it is pretty worthless TV time and you won't be able to buy it at prices that will return a profit. TV stations and ad agencies sell people spot time referred to as "ROS" or "Run of Schedule" TV spots. ROS spots are completely worthless because teh station decides where to stick the spot you bought and it is always in places after shows that noby watches. The most important factor with any TV commercial is what came on the TV just before your commercial.
The ONLY way to buy TV spots profitable is from a Time BAnk Broker. A time bank brker trades TV stations movies in exchange for banks of spot time--fixed in the movies so NO ROS spots. That means you know exactly what the spot follows. The problem is that the cheapest Spot Banks cost a few million dollars each.... and remember that a half hour of TV tiem costs less than a 30-second spot. So who would waste their money buying worthless spot time!
My company, in addition to selling infomercial time, is now syndicating non-infomercial entertainment TV programming. We buy the infomercial time put in that time a half hour entertyainment show like wrestling, a talk show, a talent show, etc. and we sell of the 6 minutes of spot time inside the show. We do NOT sell the spot time to ad agencies because they already have deals with networks... we sell our spot time to the Director of Special Events at large companies. The director of special events only writes checks for $500,000 or more and the celebrity host or stars on our showmercials promote the advertiser's products so they are getting a lot more than just the spot time we sell off on our infomercials. A single half hour infomercial that we buy a $4,000 naltional cable half hour for can generate up to $6 MILLION of ad revenue for ONE half hour buy.
Now you understand why there are so many infomercial on television!
The sale of all TV time is regulated by the federal government through an auction process and you must bid on TV time and it is sold to the highest bidder. The fact that I have always found most interesting is that it is actually a felony under the Rico Racketeering Act to issue a rate card for television or radio time and several mnagers at TV stations have actually been prosecuted under this act.
Under federal law television and radio time are called negotiated price products. This means that TV and radio time must be sold through an auction process. It was only in the last five years that the FCC really cracked down on stations, especially the cable systems.
Let's begin with some important definitions:
· Infomercial. An infomercial is a TV commercial that is at least 28 minutes and 25 seconds in length.
· Spot. A spot is a TV commercial that is 2 minutes or less in length.
· High Power Broadcast Stations. There are 1,493 broadcast TV stations with "high power" transmitters. These are mostly the NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX affiliates and large independent stations. They have a broadcast radius of about 200 miles and a coverage of about 4 million. The average cost of a half hour of Television Time on any NBC, ABC, CBS or FOX TV station costs from $5 to $200.
· National Cable Networks. There are cable systems like SyFy, USA, BET, Discovery, LMN, etc. they can be seen in all 50 states and in Canada. They have a coverage of about 90 mmillion viewers. A half hour of TV time on these national cable networks sells for an average of $900 to $8,000. Of course if you are dumb enough to call one of these networks and ask how "How Much?" then you will probably be told by a sharp salesperson that they might be able to get you a half hour for $250,000 and then you will be the high bidder for that half hour. I have bought a few national half hour for $5....
A 30-secomd spot on a national cable network will sell for $25,000 to $500,000 and the half hour that this spot airs in will sell for $900 to $8,000. This is something that most people at first can't understand--why does 30 seconds cost up to100 time smore than a half hour of time on the same station at the same time. The reason is that when the station sells you 30 seconds they must fill the half hour that the 30-second spot airs in with a program whereas when you buy a half hour you will fill the half hour with a show at your expense--this is the business of TV syndication.
If you call a TV station and ask how much for a 30-spot or a half hour of infomercial time they will most likely ask you what is your budget and by a strange coincidence, the amount of your budget will be the cost for the spot or half hour. What the station will not tell you is that the time is up for bid and you can bid whatever you like. If they tell you the 30-second spot is $5,000 and you pay that much, then you will unwittingly be the highest bidder. The station is not required to inform you that their time must be sold through an auction and many stations don't even tell their sales people that federal law requires all sales through an auction process.
TV stations are NOT allowed to set any minimum bid on any TV time but stations are allowed to suggest a starting bid on a half hour of time. If a station suggests a bid of $500 for Saturday morning at 11:00AM then I would bid $15 for that half hour if I am buying it for myself. An ad agency would bid $1,000 to $2,500 for that half hour--why? Because the agency gets a 15% commission and 15% of $1,000 or $2,500 is more money for them and the client will never know what the agency bid for the time.
Infomercial time on the NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX stations usually goes for $5 to $200 for any half hour. So you can produce an infomercial to sell your product or service or just to promote your singing career and and air a half hour infomercial every week in Los Angeles, CA for an average of $50 a week that can be seen by 4 MILLION people!
When a station suggests $500 I can usually get the time for $5 to $150 about 70% of the time. And on a national cable network that airs in 50 states, the whole country with 37 million viewers usually sells for a bid from $900 to a maximum of $8,000. Once an agency buys that time from the station or cable system it can then be re-sold for any amount of money and no auction process is required.
In my experience, many of the ad agencies I know will bid 2 to 3 times what the station suggests as a starting bid to make more money from their 15% commission. An agency would bid $2,500 for the same half hour I can buy for $50. In New York, the number one television market, the spread is so large that I won't even tell you for fear of losing credibility.
To air any non-infomercial entertainment show you buy the infomercial time and you sell the 30-second Spots or Product Placement in a show to advertisers.
Remember that 30 seconds costs 20 to 100 times MORE than a half hour because when the station sells 30 seconds they must supply the program to fill the half hour.
That's how people make hundreds of millions of dollars with TV syndication.
My company, GeminiGroup TV, Inc. (www.geminigrouptv.com), has a complete listing of what we bought half hours of TV time for in all 50 states and Canada on our website.
Look at thousands of buys a month and see that there is NO fixed price on TV time. You will notice that one day we might pay $15 for a half hour and the next ay pay $200 for the SAME half hour.
But you don't need to use my company or any company to shoot, edit and air your own infomercial. You need to simply understand the how the system works.
What can you do with an infomercial? When you buy a half hour of TV Time you can put anything you want in that half hour. For example, if you have a band or you are a singor or actor, you can promote yourself or band in Los Angeles, CA every week for an average of $50 a week. Just imagine, your own half hour TV show or talk show airing in Los Angeles every week for $50 that can reach 4 MILLION viewers--even if you work at Burger King you can afford that!
Suppose you have a website and you want to drive traffic to your website--create a half hour infomercial using your home video camera and you can put a half hour TV series featuring your website in a city as big as Los Angles for $50 a week. Smaller cities cost even less.
The only cost you won't be able to avoid is Closed captioning. All infomercials must be closed captioned and this will cost you a one-time fee of about $150 to get your master tape of an infomercial closed captioned.
Up until now I have only talked about Infomercial time or half hours of TV time. Spot Time which are those commercial that are 2 minutes or less.My advice is to stay away from spots because it is pretty worthless TV time and you won't be able to buy it at prices that will return a profit. TV stations and ad agencies sell people spot time referred to as "ROS" or "Run of Schedule" TV spots. ROS spots are completely worthless because teh station decides where to stick the spot you bought and it is always in places after shows that noby watches. The most important factor with any TV commercial is what came on the TV just before your commercial.
The ONLY way to buy TV spots profitable is from a Time BAnk Broker. A time bank brker trades TV stations movies in exchange for banks of spot time--fixed in the movies so NO ROS spots. That means you know exactly what the spot follows. The problem is that the cheapest Spot Banks cost a few million dollars each.... and remember that a half hour of TV tiem costs less than a 30-second spot. So who would waste their money buying worthless spot time!
My company, in addition to selling infomercial time, is now syndicating non-infomercial entertainment TV programming. We buy the infomercial time put in that time a half hour entertyainment show like wrestling, a talk show, a talent show, etc. and we sell of the 6 minutes of spot time inside the show. We do NOT sell the spot time to ad agencies because they already have deals with networks... we sell our spot time to the Director of Special Events at large companies. The director of special events only writes checks for $500,000 or more and the celebrity host or stars on our showmercials promote the advertiser's products so they are getting a lot more than just the spot time we sell off on our infomercials. A single half hour infomercial that we buy a $4,000 naltional cable half hour for can generate up to $6 MILLION of ad revenue for ONE half hour buy.
Now you understand why there are so many infomercial on television!
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