TV Commercials

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Art/ Entertainment Summaries

TV Commercial Footprints

I have always wanted to see the footprints of TV commercials on various TV programs. Since I couldn't find any TV commercial profiles online, I decided to present data here that I have compiled. By identifying when commercials are shown on each program, it may be possible to reduce commercial intake.





Each program exhibits a TV commercial footprint profile. It is not possible to predict the commercial footprint for any given program. The commercial footprint must be observed for each program. Variations of TV commercial footprints on a given program are not addressed, except for Curb Your Enthusiasm.

.
TV Commercial Footprint Summary - Sample TV Shows
Number of Commercial Minutes per Half-Hour

Minute

TV Program

0
30
1
31
2
32
3
33
4
34
5
35
6
36
7
37
8
38
9
39

10
40

11
41

12
42

13
43

14
44

15
45

16
46

17
47

18
48

19
49

20
50

21
51

22
52

23
53

24
54

25
55

26
56

27
57

26
58

29
59

Com.
Min.
per
Half
Hour
Typ.
# of
Com.
per
Half
Hour

CNN

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

10
25

Cops

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

cr

11
28

Curb Your Enth. (1)

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

cr

8
20

Curb Your Enth. (2)

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

cr

10
25

Family Guy

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

10
25

Hardball

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

8
20

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

12
30

People's Court

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

cr

C

11
28

mmmmmmmmmm

Notes:
1. C = A minute during which more than 30 seconds of commercials are shown
2. CMPHH = Commercial Minutes Per Half-Hour - the number of minutes having more than 30 seconds of commercials
3. Most TV commercials are either 16 or 32 seconds long, as revealed by Youtube.
4. Most "normal" commercial breaks show 6-8 commercials - 2 1/2 minutes of varying length commercials.

220 - 800

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

50

50



.
TV Commercial SET Footprint Summary -
Ad-Length Combinations per 3-Minute Set

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45

50

55

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

Set 1

C

C

C

Set 2

C

C

C

C

C

Set 3

C

C

C

C

C

C

Set 4

C

C

C

C

Set 5

C

C

C

C

C

C

Set 6

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

- - - -

Notes:
1. Set 1 = 3-min.set - 3 one-minute ads
2. Set 2 = 3-min set - mixed length ads
3. Set 3 = 3-min set - 6 30-second ads
4. Set 4 = 4-min set - 4 one-minute ads
5. Set 5 = 4-min set - mixed length ads
6. Set 6 = 4-min set - 8 30-second ads

Typical number of commercials per minute = 2

80 - 800

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16

16


.
TV Commercial Length
Results of Google Web Searches
Search Term
.
Web Results

"5-second tv commercial"

8,260

"10-second tv commercial"

33,200

"15-second tv commercial"

86,100

"20-second tv commercial"

28,100

"30-second tv commercial"

1,010,000

"45-second tv commercial"

19,800

"60-second tv commercial"

243,000

"90-second tv commercial"

32,600

"2-minute tv commercial"

11,100

"3-minute tv commercial"

5,330

According to Google web search results, the popularity of commercial length is -
1. the 30-second commercial length is the most popular,
2. the 60-second length comes in second,
3. the 15-second length comes in third.
There are far lower numbers for the other commercial lengths.

200

100



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©2011 Vaughn Aubuchon ... All Rights Reserved
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This Vaughns TV Commercial Footprint Profile Summary web page was updated on 2011-08-08.