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| Key concepts |
| Product marketing · Pricing Distribution · Service · Retail Brand management Account-based marketing Ethics · Effectiveness · Research Segmentation · Strategy · Activation Management · Dominance Marketing operations |
| Promotional contents |
| Advertising · Branding · Underwriting Direct marketing · Personal sales Product placement · Publicity Sales promotion · Sex in advertising Loyalty marketing · SMS marketing Premiums · Prizes |
| Promotional media |
| Printing · Publication · Broadcasting Out-of-home advertising · Internet Point of sale · Merchandise Digital marketing · In-game advertising In-store demonstration · Word-of-mouth Brand ambassador · Drip marketing · Visual merchandising |
An underwriting spot is an announcement made on public broadcasting outlets, especially in the United States, in exchange for funding. These spots usually mention the name of the sponsor, and can resemble traditional television advertisements in commercial broadcasting. However, there are legal restrictions, such as a prohibition of making product claims, announcing prices, or providing an incentive to buy a product or service. In the U.S., these restrictions apply to all non-commercial educational (NCE) stations, and even for non-sponsoring companies and products.
Donors who contribute funding can include corporations, small businesses, philanthropic organizations, charitable trusts, and individuals.
Criticism has emerged that these underwriting spots are a corrupting influence on the operations of public broadcasting, and introduce the same biases into non-commercial radio and television that allegedly exist on for-profit outlets. These include inhibiting influences on public affairs programs (even self-censorship) where investigative journalism is featured and tendencies toward the use of non-artistic criteria in determining the selection of programs, such as symphony broadcasts on radio and theatrical productions on television.
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) defines its "Program Underwriting Policy" in its PBS Redbook. As of 2007[update] its provisions include the following:[1]
Sponsorship underwriting and advertising are essentially the same thing when linked by the exchange of something of value such as cash, goods or services. The underwriter receives a number of informational messages about their business which are broadcast in exchange for a dollar amount. Individuals, Foundations, and non-profit donors may underwrite programming without the need for an underwriting informational advertising contract. PBS and CPB rules permit underwriting commercial use for broadcast stations with certain speech limits that are only available to broadcast stations because of the nature of the non-profit license. Cable television does not mention or permit this underwriting use as there are no speech restrictions permitted by cable law. Title 47. U.S.C.. Cable television is a pay for play subscription business model purchased by the cable subscriber. Underwriting is found on cable "must-carry" PBS stations. Only Public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable channels have commercial use restrictions and are created to be free from all underwriting informational messages permitted for PBS channels. Commercial underwriting considerations have limited First Amendment protections as the paid underwriting message is necessarily biased in nature.