![]() ![]() "Some shows would be adaptable to this," he said some, like "Masterpiece," "would not work at all." Another underwriting break at 45 minutes into a show would be followed by "substantive material" until the top of the hour, with perhaps a credit rollover continuing content leading into a "hot switch" into the next show. A show like "Nova" would start with five or six minutes of content, during which viewers "would get hooked on the program and know it's something they'd want to watch," followed by local and underwriting credits. I think I can say that with confidence."īut there is agreement that the issue needs to be addressed, "and there's been dialogue in the system" toward that end.īromberg floated a logical compromise. The response to plans to interrupt programming for underwriting messages by PBS station managers "was mixed and lukewarm," and network officials heard it "loud and clear," said Bromberg.Īnd Bromberg said the proposal has since been withdrawn pending "more discussion. "There are things we cannot do" and products you do not see, like car dealerships, "because we can't give any price information on any of our spots," Bromberg said. "We've been saying for 40 years we don't interrupt programming."įederal law prohibits public broadcasters from airing commercials, although you wouldn't know it from the often elaborate underwriter spots. "It would change the character of what we're doing," said Bromberg. It is a radical idea, and one that seems contrary to the heritage and mission of PBS. "The plan is to use it in programs that are easily segmented.or have chapters in them," like "Antiques Roadshow" or "History Detectives," "so as not to interrupt the flow of content," Bromberg said. "We lose an audience, and we have to build it up during the next hour."Īnd so heads were turned and feathers ruffled last month at the annual PBS meeting in Orlando, Fla., by a proposal to allow four sponsor or underwriter breaks within shows to allow for a "hot switch" between programs. ![]() Most regular programs on the PBS schedule, like "American Experience," "Nature," "Masterpiece" and "Nova," are 52 minutes long, causing the network and stations to fill eight minutes of airtime at the end of a show with promos and underwriting credits before the next show airs.Īnd during that time, "research indicates, there's a big drop-off in audience," said Ellis Bromberg, general manager of Milwaukee Public Television, which owns WMVS-TV (Channel 10) and WMVT-TV (Channel 36). ![]() PBS does not air commercials, and its programs are underwritten by corporate sponsors who get credit for doing so at the start and end of each show. You know it when you see it, and you see it so often that viewers have come to accept it as an integral part of the architecture of commercial television.īut noncommercial television - public broadcasting - has its own set of rules. And it involves airing new content in the form of a coda, epilogue, kicker, teaser or preview at the end of a show - usually, alongside the credits - with the next show starting immediately. Its purpose is to keep you from changing channels. ![]() It's what occurs at the top or bottom of the hour, when one show is over and seamlessly slides into the next without interruption or commercial breaks. Today's lesson in TV jargon is "hot switch" - which, sadly, is not as sexy as it sounds. ![]()
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