On Wed, Dec 25, 2002 at 12:33:00AM -0500, Bryan D Caplan wrote: > A question inspired by working the Caplan twin night shift: > > How come almost all of the paid programming is on late at night? Yes, > rates are lower, but viewership is lower too. Are late-night viewers > unusually impressionable, or what?
Apparently, before 1984, when FCC rescinded regulations limiting the number of minutes of commercials per hour that could be broadcasted, TV stations broadcasted test patterns rather than programming late at night. So probably infomercials earn less revenue for the station per viewer compared with regular programming at all hours of the day, but has a lower overhead cost associated with selling the time and the actual broadcast, so it becomes more profitable when viewership is sufficiently low.
