I have commented before how often the Detroit PBS station beats on people for money: every quarter. We see two months of scheduled programming, then 3 weeks, or more, of pledge drive '“programming”, which is concerts that have been in the can for years, mixed with infomertials by quacks selling self-help books.
In May, the station started showing a 6 part documentary. They showed 5 segments in May, with the 5th part on May 30th, then went into pledge drive. The 6th part was not shown until June 20th.
Wondering what was on PBS tomorrow evening, I looked at the listings: concerts and quacks. Only 7 weeks since the last pledge drive. They are rapidly closing in on a third of their air time being pledge drives, instead of a quarter. At what point do viewers get so tired of the lame programming, and being dunned for money, that they lose their audience?
“All Creatures Great And Small” usually runs 7 episodes per year. Will they manage to squeeze all 7 in, between pledge drives, or will they break the series after 4 eps, for another month of pledge drive, before we see the rest?….or will the station still be on the air by January?
I love PBS, NPR, and the like. It is sometimes annoying that they fund their programming through pledge drives. But, would I rather listen to pledge drives, or to some other commercial advertisements? For me, the choice is clear.
We get the advertising too. Have you watched “This Old House”? Close to 5 minutes of adverts in a half hour program, and that is on top of all the product placements during the program. About 5 minutes of adverts in “Masterpiece” too. Of course, since St Reagan “deregulated” prime time adverts, ad time on commercial networks has gone from 10 minutes per hour to about 17.
lessee, if we go 3 weeks of advertising, for every 7 weeks of programming, instead of the previous 9 or 10 weeks of programming for 3 weeks of adverts, that is 30% advertising. The current commercial networks run about 17 minutes/out of 60 for adverts, or 28%, so PBS is now exceeding the amount of advertising commercial networks run, before you start adding in the adverts packaged with each PBS show.
I remember when it first came out, mostly music. Rarely realized there was a DJ. Now, depending on the channel, almost like local radio with “personalities”. Beginning to remind me of MTV and when they used to play music videos.
I have sent PBS $12 a month for years. (What @intercst would probably call “skim” but I think $3 per week is a fair price to pay for my favorite programs.)
I’m not sure whether to keep paying them or stop when I know they need every penny.
I’ve donated too, both $ and a vehicle. I like their programming a lot and don’t mind paying for it. It’s no different than the other subscriptions I pay for.
The real losers in the defunding debacle are the people who can’t afford to pay for information. Rural communities will certainly be impacted. Public media is often the only source of local news, including emergency alerts, in those communities. It was providing a much needed service to millions.
The $1.1 billion that was cut, will be spent on retrofitting a 747 gifted to one man. Let that sink in…
I actually upped my monthly donation. You’re right in your implication that it “is a fair price to pay”, a bargain even for the enjoyment and information I get daily.
I just timed the opening of “This Old House”, there was one minute of “On this episode” (called the “tease” in the industry) and there was 1 minute 20 seconds of sponsor IDs. There is occasional product placement, but that mostly helps the homeowner who gets the furnace or window or whatever free. It’s possible the show also gets something, but that would make it not such a great deal for the sponsor. In any event, I’ve never found it interruptive or annoying.
Your Detroit PBS stations has pledge drives 75 days a year, with non-pledge drives 290 days. But you can’t really count all the pledge drive period as “commercial”, since they have long stretches of programming material between the (annoying) calls for donations. In a typical 2 hour program they’ll interrupt 3 times, the rest is “programming”. So it’s far less than your mythical 30%.
In case anyone wonders, they do the kinds of programming that attract dollars during pledge drives, which is why you find so many “oldies” and “folk music” and other fare geared to older audiences. No reason to wonder why - “olders” is where the money is. “Sesame Street” parents are young, just getting started and probably aren’t big contributors, even though they make great use of the commercial free zone.
PS: 75 days divided by 290 would be 25%, and that would only be true if for those 75 days they ran nothing but commercials and pledge drives. Do they have a medicine for cynicism? If so, look into it.
Or maybe stuff that has been in the can for ten or twenty years is cheaper? And the concerts are interspersed with informertials from quacks like Daniel Amen.
This infomertial has been in the can for over two years.
