Broadcast television advertising still has incredible reach but can be expensive - especially when you consider effective production costs. This medium is not for the faint of heart when it comes to ad spending to get effective reach and frequency. Broadcast TV also is dealing with pricing and value questions created by digital video recorders (DVRs) because of their ability to avoid commercials.


Advantages

• There is a 98.9% penetration rate among U.S. households, 83.0% of these homes are multi-set households. (Nielsen Media Research, 2009)
• Reach Vehicle: TV reaches 92% of the population on a daily basis. (Television Bureau of Advertising, 2009)
• TV has the ability to capture attention through sight, sound and motion.
• Broadcast has the ability to generate next-day conversation about nightly programming, especially popular programs.

Disadvantages

• Flipping of channels during commercial breaks.
• Fragmentation of audience - how much more can the TV pie be split?
• As many as 42% of all U.S. TV homes are now equipped with digital video recorders (DVRs). The commercial “zapping rate” when programs are seen on a delayed basis is 50-70%. This makes your media buy a lot less effective. (TV Dimensions, 2009)
• Time spent viewing Broadcast TV is being divided among Cable TV channels.
• Consumers' broadcast television time is being further diminished by Video On Demand (VOD), video games, Internet video downloads, and Internet browsing.