Commercial broadcasting
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Commercial broadcasting is the practice of broadcasting for profit. This is normally achieved by interrupting normal programming to air advertisements, also commonly called "commercials" in this context. This is the dominant type of broadcasting in the United States and a handful of other countries such as most of Latin America. It is also common elsewhere, but usually exists alongside public broadcasting where programming is largely funded by broadcast receiver licences, public donations, or government grants.
In an hour of broadcast time on a commercial broadcast outlet, typically ten to twenty minutes are devoted to advertising. Advertisers pay a certain amount of money to air their commercials, usually based upon the popularity or ratings of a station or network. This effectively makes commercial broadcasters more answerable to advertisers than the public, which is a major criticism of commercial radio and television. Programming on commercial stations is often more sensationalistic—particularly during ratings periods such as sweeps in the U.S.
Commercial broadcasting also has considerable overlap with pay services such as cable television, cable radio, satellite television and satellite radio; though such services are generally partially or wholly paid for by local subscribers, much of the programming, particularly on cable television, is produced by companies operating in much the same manner as commercial broadcasters, and both they and often the local cable provider will sell commercial time in the same manner. There does exist, however, completely advertisement-free commercial television and radio; premium cable services such as HBO and Showtime generally operate solely on subscriber fees with no need to sell ad space, as do the parts of the two major satellite radio systems that are produced in-house (mostly music material).
Commercial broadcasting (especially over-the-air) is often controversial for a great many reasons. Chief among them is a perceived lack of quality and risk in the programming (to which more conservative elements respond that it is too risque much of the time), an excessively high ratio of advertising to program time (especially on children's television), and a perceived failure to serve the local interest due to media consolidation. Commercial radio in particular is often attacked for perceived homogeneity in programming, covert politicized censorship of content, and a desire to cut costs at the expense of giving the station an identifiable personality. Politics is a major force in media criticism, with an ongoing battle (especially in the United States) as to what moral standards, if any, are to be applied to the airwaves.
In much of the world, analog broadcasting is giving way to digital, a process effectively complete some time ago for many satellite television providers and some cable systems. Standards such as DVB and ATSC promise to provide vastly enhanced picture quality and bandwidth usage, allowing the practical use of HDTV (which did not catch on anywhere until the arrival of digital technology) and multiple channels from the same broadcaster. The same transition is happening with radio transmissions but is unlikely to be complete for some time if ever; Digital Audio Broadcasting, HD Radio, and Digital Radio Mondiale are all rising formats for radio broadcasts.
Perhaps the best known commercial broadcasters are the venerable ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC television networks, as well as radio giant Clear Channel Communications, based in the United States. Major US commercial cable operators include Comcast, Adelphia, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications; satellite services include DirecTV, Dish Network, the UK's BSkyB, and the radio services Sirius, WorldSpace, and XM. In Asia the best known Commercial Service was with the oldest radio station in the region, Radio Ceylon.
