Visibility is determined by a few factors. One is the size of the advertisement. A full-page image attracts more attention than a half-page image, so a full-page advertisement costs more. A one-minute commercial is more expensive than a 30-second commercial because it has greater visibility.
Another important factor is popularity. Popularity determines the rate for a specific amount of advertising space. If a lot of people read a particular magazine, then a full-page ad will be expensive. If only a few people read it, that same page will be much less expensive.
Expensive Advertising Slots
The Super Bowl regularly has the most expensive advertising on television. A 30-second commercial during Super Bowl XLI costs $2.4 million – that is $80,000 per second. Because of the high cost and high visibility of these ads, advertisers often use the Super Bowl to show innovative or unusual commercials or to launch new ad campaigns.
The Olympics is another sporting event with high visibility. Ad rates vary depending on the time of day, but the average cost of a 30-second commercial during the 2006 Olympics was $700,000. That is a lot less than a Super Bowl ad, but NBC made a total of $900 million selling ads during that Olympics.
Popular TV series also command high ad rates. American Idol, one of the top-rated shows in recent years, charges as much as $700,000 for a single 30-second commercial. The same 30-second ad on CSI costs only $465,000. Survivor and The Apprentice each get $350,000 for a 30-second spot. As ratings drop, ad rates drop, too. ER charged $440,000 for a 30-second commercial in 2004, but its ratings went down the following year, so the rates went down to $400,000.
Measuring the Audience
The cost of advertising depends on the size of the audience and the size of the advertisement. The bigger the audience, the more it will cost a business to advertise to that audience. Advertisers buy access to the audience’s attention, and more audience members means more sales, which means more money.
But how can advertisers know how big the audience is going to be?
What is the Medium?
The method of measurement of the audience size depends on the medium. It is easy to measure consumers on the Internet. A Web page can count the number of times a page has been viewed.
In other forms of media, the count needs to be estimated. For print sources, circulation counts the number of magazines or newspapers that are printed and distributed. Not every magazine or newspaper will actually get read by somebody, and some will get read more than once. However, circulation is still a pretty good measurement of the size of the potential audience. For TV and radio, audience size is measured by a ratings system.
Advertising Outlets
Media companies are not limited to a single way of selling advertisements. In fact, the more ways they can sell ads, the more money they can make. Most media companies use a variety of methods to advertise.
Magazines and newspapers, for instance, have traditionally sold advertising to raise revenues while also charging subscription fees to people who receive the publication in the mail. With the advent of the Internet, many magazines and newspapers have continued to enjoy advertising revenues but have struggled to find ways to charge subscription fees, because so many websites are available for free.
American Media
People get the information they need to make decisions primarily from the media. People watch TV, browse the Internet, read newspapers and magazines, and listen to the radio. What they see, read, and hear affects how they think and choose.
There are thousands of media sources for people to choose from, but a large number are owned by a few large companies. These companies are known as media conglomerates. Their dominance of the media industry creates a market structure that closely resembles an oligopoly because a few large companies control nearly all the media industry.
Global Media Giants
The centralized global media system is a very recent development. Until the 1980s, the basic broadcasting systems and newspaper industries were domestically owned and regulated. Starting in the 1980s, the U.S. government, along with its Federal Communications Commission (FCC), began to deregulate, or remove the legal restrictions that had been in place on media and communication systems.
With the rise of satellite and digital technologies, deregulation resulted in the success of global media giants. There are only a few global media giants today.
The Internet Media Revolution
The Internet operates differently from other forms of media. Because it is relatively easy and inexpensive to build an Internet site, it is easy for many different producers to have an Internet presence.
Millions of people contribute to the information available on the Internet. The popularity of blogging, instant messaging, and social media sites means that more and more people get their information and entertainment from sources that are not controlled by large media companies.
Despite the possibilities of the Internet, many of the most popular websites today belong to large media conglomerates. While it may always remain inexpensive to put information on the Internet, the most popular websites will likely come from large global corporations.
The Business of Media Review
Media companies are unique types of producers. They create content for people to consume, but these consumers are themselves something that is sold to other producers who buy advertisements.
Media companies play an important role in the game of economics. They provide information that affects the decisions of consumers, and they provide advertising services that nearly every producer needs to purchase.
People start new businesses every day. It requires a lot of planning and organizing, not to mention hard work and determination. It also takes money. Potential business owners can use their own money. They can borrow it from the bank, take on a business partner, or have a third party, sometimes called a venture capitalist, invest what it takes to open for business.
There are many kinds of businesses. Some businesses only have one owner. Others have multiple partners who own the company together. In the end, all businesses try to accomplish the same goals: providing goods and services to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers.
The first thing any aspiring business owner has to do is decide which goods or services to offer for sale. The variety of goods and services available from businesses is wide, and new entrepreneurs are always trying to come up with new ideas about what to sell and how to sell it.
Sole Proprietorships
One way to start a business is to operate alone, with little or no help from anyone else. This kind of business is called a sole proprietorship. The owner of a sole proprietorship is completely in charge of the operation of the business. If there are other employees, the owner is the boss. The owner receives all the profits but also bears all the financial risks (that is, the losses).
Many entrepreneurs prefer to open a new business as a sole proprietorship. It is the most common type of business, and it is also the easiest type to build. Almost all small businesses are sole proprietorships. Many medium-sized businesses and large businesses begin as sole proprietorships but grow with success and add partners and investors.
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