COMMERCIAL: TELEVISION

We all know that commercials pay for the 'free' television we watch everyday (and even basic cable that we PAY for now!), but do we really think about them and what goes into a tv ad these days? I'm talking dollars and sense here - pun intended.

Take your typical cable network primetime documentary program. Figure that 1-hour - make that 44 minutes - of television cost the producers in the neighborhood of $350,000 to create. But what of those other 16 minutes in that hour? Maybe a minute or two goes to network promotion which is fairly inexpensive to make, but what about the commercial advertisements that break up the show your supposedly watching?

Millions.

Yes, millions. Ad campaigns for products and brand name recognition spend millions of greenbacks to produce a 30-second commercial. At the end of the day, you might see over $10 million dollars worth of commercials during a 1-hour slot airing your favorite show. Imagine, a $350,000 documentary punctuated by $10 million commercials!

Or rather, $10 million commercials interrupted by a cheap documentary film!

God Bless America!