Infomercials - An Endangered Species??

[CTListener]

Today I saw one with a new tactic.. It was a commercial for felt pads that wrap around the bottom of your chair and table legs to help protect your floors from damage when you slide them. They were selling these things for $99 each, when they probably cost about a dime each to manufacture in Asia. At the end of the commercial the baritone-voiced announcer said "Stand by for an important announcement!" A red and yellow box flashed on the screen, proclaiming that these things would no longer be manufactured soon so you MUST CALL NOW before they're gone. The announcer explained that, due to rising costs of manufacturing and shipping they could no longer afford to offer these amazing floor saving devices.. And those that do order were limited to a maximum order of...Only 48! Lol. So they frightened older folks watching the commercial into buying now and ordering 48 of them at $99 each for a total of $50, when it cost less $5.00 max to actually manufacture them.

You mean $0.99 (99 cents) and not $99 (99 dollars), don't you?

 

[Mikey Radio]

You mean $0.99 (99 cents) and not $99 (99 dollars), don't you?

D'oh!! Corrected.

 

[only1moore]

In Honolulu the stations had inserted infomercials into their daily schedule, but has removed most of the programming over the past few years and downgraded to 1 hour in late nights and weekends. Even KBFD, the Korean-Language outlet, has reduced their morning’s intake of infos in favor of expanding its slate of K-Dramas.

 

[landtuna]

An infomercial will never darken my vision nor deafen my hearing. Instant bye-bye! 😤

Same goes for those worthless video/audio preachers.

 

[TVCOOL]

With Infomericals dying off then TV stations can sign off at 1 or 2am every night and sign on at 5 or 6 am.

 

[CTListener]

With Infomericals dying off then TV stations can sign off at 1 or 2am every night and sign on at 5 or 6 am.

It's unlikely that infomercials will completely die off. Even if long-form ads for products disappear, there will always be charities and religious outfits looking to put their collection plates out via TV.

 

[R.D.P.]

there will always be charities and religious outfits looking to put their collection plates out via TV.

The informercial channels Direct TV offers airs these types of programs:

The Late Dr. Arnold and his son Dennis Murray (One Channel devotes a huge slot of time to these people)
Dr. Melissa Scott (One Channel airs her Sermons for about one to two hours daily)
Dr. Ed Hinson (I think one Informercial channel still carries him)
Rev. Jim Baker (At one time an informercial channel carried him but I haven't seen him in quite a while)
Dr. Rodney Howard Browne (One channel airs two blocks of his crusades, on Sundays and at night rest of the week)
I've even seen Bill Gaither selling some of his DVD's on here too.​

Dan <><

 

[gr8oldies]

It's unlikely that infomercials will completely die off. Even if long-form ads for products disappear, there will always be charities and religious outfits looking to put their collection plates out via TV.

Those stations could air a few hours of HSN or JTV

 

[Mikey Radio]

The informercial channels Direct TV offers airs these types of programs:

The Late Dr. Arnold and his son Dennis Murray (One Channel devotes a huge slot of time to these people)
Dr. Melissa Scott (One Channel airs her Sermons for about one to two hours daily)
Dr. Ed Hinson (I think one Informercial channel still carries him)
Rev. Jim Baker (At one time an informercial channel carried him but I haven't seen him in quite a while)
Dr. Rodney Howard Browne (One channel airs two blocks of his crusades, on Sundays and at night rest of the week)
I've even seen Bill Gaither selling some of his DVD's on here too.​

Dan <><

So are these infomercial channels or religious programming?
Is Bill Gaither still actively hawking DVDs and touring? He's 86 so I figured he'd be slowing down by now; I thought his offerings reached their pinnacle in the late 1990s/early-mid 2000s.

 

[gr8oldies]

So are these infomercial channels or religious programming?
Is Bill Gaither still actively hawking DVDs and touring? He's 86 so I figured he'd be slowing down by now; I thought his offerings reached their pinnacle in the late 1990s/early-mid 2000s.

I would imagine the Gaither Vocal Band will survive Gaither himself.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I've noticed that Ion Television is down to 2 hours of informercials a day now. They are only showing them between 2-4AM CT (3-5AM ET). I remember when, back in the mid-2000's, what was then i - Independent Television was running about 18 & 1/2 hours of informercials a day.

My TiVo listings are showing informercials a lot on the My TV station on weekends during the day.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

"You're going to love my nuts."

 

[Mikey Radio]

"You're going to love my nuts."

I personally always preferred the DJ Steve Porter remix...

 

[anotherguyTN]

I've ranted about it before about how WREG CBS 3 in Memphis fills non-sports times on weekends with 5 to 6 hours of infomercials on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. It's definitely a reason to be thankful for football season.🤪

 

[spunker88]

The late Billy Fuccillo of the Fuccillo Automotive Group would air 30-minute paid spots titled "Huge TV" in markets where his dealerships were located. They ended shortly before his health declined.

Nowadays instead of Billy Fuccillo informercials in central NY we get crazy informercials from Bridgeland Auto like this