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 History of Infomercials

In this article, we will be discussing the history of Infomercials, what they are and what their beginnings were. The article will focus on the origins of infomercials. Infomercials came into existence as a result of great change in consumer behaviors in response to new technologies over time. In this article we are going to discuss these changes and how infomercials have been effective for reaching consumers with information about products and services that previously had not been accessible. Additionally, some information during this discussion will be provided about the prevalence of infomercials today in order to help give people a better understanding of how widespread trends may affect you personally if you decide to live through them or watch on TV at home.

THE EARLY YEARS

The very first infomercials came into existence in the United States but they did not start appearing at that time. Instead, television was still at an experimental stage and the first television stations where not broadcasting until after World War II. Prior to these first television stations being in use, all television broadcasts took place over radio waves. Even though these channels did exist, they could only broadcast short advertisements with no more than a few minutes of advertising per hour. Unlike today, by the 1930's this was a major industry thanks to radio commercials and it was one of most important industries in that time period.

By 1941, producers of radio commercials had already started to be concerned about the amount of their time running advertisements on air. In fact, the Radio Advertising Bureau decided to limit the number of advertising minutes per hour on each radio station in order to give additional time for entertainment. In this same year, a research group called the Ohio State Bar Association's Radio Law Committee was formed and found that commercials were taking almost 25% of airtime on radio at that time. They believed that this was far too much considering there were only 4 minutes total in a half-hour show. As a result, they produced a magazine with over 50 different articles criticizing how much advertising there was on radio at the time.

By the 1940's, television had not yet started to broadcast because it was still in its developmental stages. Because of this, radio broadcasting became the most prevalent technology that people used to hear news and entertainment. The majority of consumers at this time were already accustomed to listening to advertisements over the radio. Because of this transition, it was only natural for television broadcasters to also incorporate advertisements into their new medium since many people were already accustomed to hearing them. Once commercials began appearing on TV, producers of these commercials realized that there was far more potential for profit than any other advertising medium at that time.

Even though these commercials were initially seen on television, they did not take place in the form that people are familiar with today. Ads at this time were still relatively short and they did not have a call to action. However, by the late 1960's a lot of people started to become bored with watching TV and the number of advertisements being played on TV started to decrease. In response to this event, television producers began deciding to create infomercials in order to help fill their time slots and increase the number of advertisements that people would be willing to watch.

By 1970, some producers had already begun using infomercials as a new means for advertising products and services. In fact, the very first infomercial was a commercial produced by Ron Popeil which used this new method to advertise his rotisserie grills. This was to become one of the earliest examples of an infomercial. Even though this advertisement was only 30-60 seconds long, it still provided a great deal of information about the product and it allowed viewers to call in to order the grill by dialing a number that appeared at the end of the ad.

By 1985, infomercials had already been on television for 20 years but they had already become highly popular among consumers and producers alike. Approximately 25% of all households in the United States had cable television at this time. By 1990, there were over 3 million television households that came to have cable service because they were fed up with watching the obnoxious amount of commercials that they were forced to watch on broadcast TV. The broadcast industry realized how much money infomercials could offer to broadcasters if they would stop airing as many commercials and instead begin showing infomercials.

Infomercials quickly became a tremendous hit for consumers in part because you could now get products without actually having to travel down to a store in person. However, they received a great deal of attention as well since people now knew that they did not have to leave their homes in order to buy the products that had been featured on these types of programs. This was an incredible change from how things were before infomercials were introduced.

Today there are more than 3,000 hours of infomercials aired per year in the United States alone. This is a lot more based on those alone than there are hours each day that you can watch television. As a result, many people are affected by the trends related to infomercials because this is often the type of programming that many Americans rely on for information about new products and services.

THE CURRENT YEARS OF INFORMERIALS

The move towards infomercials was natural for the broadcast industry because it enabled them to make a lot of extra profits without having to run the same number of advertisements that they were used to showing in between shows. However, this also meant that viewers would now have to watch a lot more commercials each time they watched television. In fact, you can find several infomercials on each channel during an entire day of television. This is because there are many different companies who pay network channels a large amount of money to air their ads on their channels instead of advertising elsewhere like they did in the past. The current explosion of infomercials in the broadcast industry has also caused a lot of dissatisfaction from consumers over the fact that they have to watch so many commercials.

As a result, they have begun lobbying various government agencies to try and limit the amount of commercials that are aired on television. Because people are so against watching the amount of advertisements that they do now, networks have even started running fewer commercials during shows in order to appeal to viewers and increase their viewership numbers. However, because people dislike commercials so much at this time and because companies have seen how profitable having them makes them, there are still very specific times when you will see many ads on a given episode of television.

Conclusion

The advent of infomercials on television has had a profound impact on society at large. Many people do not like the fact that they have to watch so many advertisements and feel as though they are being sold to every time they watch a TV show. However, this has also led to the popularity of new products that are advertised during these programs which has resulted in a positive change for many people as well. If you would like more information about infomercials and how they could be used in your product or service, then check out our website today.