Halifax Radio Station Advertising

Can someone explain to me the logistics and economics of Halifax radio station advertising that’s inserted into selected cable channels – CNN and Peachtree seem to have it the most – in place of ads from the networks themselves?

Comments

Daniel Von Fange's picture
Daniel Von Fange on April 3, 2010 - 19:06 Permalink

I believe they do that when they haven’t sold those ad spots.

CharlesP's picture
CharlesP on April 3, 2010 - 21:10 Permalink

I’ve often wondered that too. It usually happens over top of Snuggie and Mighty Putty style ads.

Maybe those type of “phone in and get something cheap” type commercials aren’t available to Canadians?

Ritchie Simpson's picture
Ritchie Simpson on April 4, 2010 - 14:45 Permalink

I would pose the question to the CRTC, they allow/encourage CTV to do it over signal from US networks that run at the same time as on CTV, so my guess would be Eastlink is selling the slots.

David's picture
David on April 6, 2010 - 11:53 Permalink

I always assumed that it was piggybacked onto the local cable provider’s stream; the majority of ads run on those stations aren’t paid for in Canada and are left there because there’s nothing left to run. The sheer number of channels on the dial vs. the number of advertisers locally and nationally who would pay for the spots has got to be staggeringly different; as a result, I would assume it’s “by request only.”

JP's picture
JP on May 12, 2010 - 18:40 Permalink

Most US cable channels have spots that cable companies can sell to local advertisers (usually the cheap “Jim Bob’s Used Car Emporium” type ads.) A local ad break is triggered by some sort of tone in the network signal. In case the cable co didn’t sell an ad, the network runs those cheap “as seen on TV” ads just to make sure viewers don’t see a black screen.

In Canada, the CRTC won’t let cable companies sell local ads (for the most part), but do encourage them to use these breaks to promote their own channels or other media outlets. Sounds like Eastlink is filling them with promos for Halifax radio stations. Which is slightly more useful than the ads for 680 News and Toronto’s Cable 10 that Rogers seems to always give us in New Brunswick.