How to Get PAID for Watching TV
Earning money while viewing your favorite shows!
BEING SELF-MOTIVATED!
This booklet is intended to introduce you to a variety of ideas that can give you the opportunity to
earn money while sitting in front of your television. While it may sound like a gimmick, there are
very real possibilities to generate dollars— if you are willing to give it a try!
It’s not necessarily easy work. There’s a lot of effort required to get your operation up and
running. But dedication to the task and motivation towards the end goal of being in business for
yourself should provide substantial impetus for you to launch this project.
It often comes down to using time wisely and if you like to watch television, why not look for
ways to do what you enjoy and make money at the same time? There are numerous chances in
this world to work in a field you enjoy— and be successful at it! All it takes is a bit of
determination, organization and a belief in yourself.
Most people have the ability to make a business of their own work. But for various reasons they
don’t try or they make the attempt, but believe they are going to fail. Very often, they fulfill their
own self-prophecy. They choose to listen to the negative influences— all the reasons why the
business would fail— instead of listening to all the arguments as to why it can succeed.
There’s no reason why any business you try shouldn’t be successful. But the belief in yourself
must overshadow the things that can and will go wrong. By focusing on the things you do right
and building on them, your business can provide you with the kind of income you want while
letting you maintain the freedom of being your own boss.
It all comes down to having the right attitude. If you truly feel your business can be a smashing
success, it will be! This is because you’ll look for the ideas that work well for the business,
discard the ones that aren’t working and essentially try to understand the formula for success.
Many of us are afraid to fail and thus never attempt the jobs we really would like to perform. It
often seems too unbelievable to be able to work and make a living at something we enjoy. Work
isn’t supposed to be enjoyable, is it? We’re meant to toil and labor for a few hours a day and then
take home a paycheck to spend on the things we enjoy. Isn’t that right?
Well, if it were, there would be a lot more miserable people out in the world today. But the truth
is a lot of Americans are doing something they love and earning a living at it. Why not you?
You think that it’s too late? That you can’t really leave your regular job because you need the
paycheck to pay your bills? That’s okay— for now. You can start your own business part-time
and work at it, try to perfect it, seeing if it earns enough money before making the decision to go
full-time with it.
All you have to do is determine how many hours you want to work at your new “side” business to
start and plan accordingly. Don’t try and overdo it. Simply work hard and smart in the few hours
you’ve allotted. This way you can test it out and see if the business has the kind of potential you
believe. If it does, you can gradually work more hours in your business until your income is well
beyond what you made before.
The difference is— now you’re doing something you love.
Change is difficult for most— don’t feel bad! But if you’d really like to work at something you
enjoy, if you really want to be your own boss and run your own business, if you really want to
make money and feel like work is fun again, then don’t hesitate any longer! Change is necessary,
but it’s only you that can effect the change.
It will mean altering your routine, changing your habits and working long hours initially. But if it
has the power to change your life for the better, this work will be worth all the time, sweat and
effort you put in to make it work. And it will work! You have to believe in that— and believe in
yourself before you start.
How many times have you watched sports and heard an announcer say, “this team controls its
own destiny”? What they mean, of course, is that the team can produce the results it wants simply
by doing the job itself. They don’t need to depend on anyone else for help. The entire outcome is
in their hands— to win or lose.
So it is with you. The ultimate success and the final destiny of your business rides with your
ability and talent and, more importantly, motivation to succeed. You control it, no one else, and
it’s you who will benefit directly from your efforts.
So, start believing in yourself and read on. A chance to make money while watching television
awaits.
OVERVIEW OF THE TELEVISION SCENE
Television pounced upon the scene during one of the worst economic periods in our country’s
history— the Great Depression. As a result, TV’s introduction to a potential viewing public went
largely unnoticed. People had more than enough to do trying to provide for their families.
Despite that timing, a few people had a chance to view the future. That’s exactly what they
thought TV was, but even they could not have dreamed of the successful industry television has
become. With the advent of cable television, there are dozens of stations now competing for the
viewer and showing an extraordinary range of programming from week to week.
Early on, there was only one station. NBC (The National Broadcasting Company) was the first to
broadcast programs a few hours a week on the television set. It’s hard to imagine TV today on
such a limited basis, but every industry has to start somewhere. Within a couple of years, there
were a number of stations joined NBC and programming was expanded.
World War II provided a minor interruption to service since the government had to place a
restriction on broadcasting. But this only had the industry working hard behind the scenes, getting
ready for the day when the moratorium was lifted. After the war ended in 1945, the restrictions
were repealed and the dawn of a new media era was beginning.
Television flourished in the fifties and new programming was the rage of the industry. Each year
many of us looked forward to the introduction of new shows to watch along with our favorites
held over from the previous programming year. Family gatherings around the TV set were
common as more and more households obtained its own set.
Today, nearly 100 million households have a television set or two, not to mention a video cassette
recorder (VCR), all to keep up with the latest offerings from a seemingly infinite number of
channels. Satellite dishes have expanded viewing capability well past our normal limits.
What does this mean to you? Simply put, here are your dollar-making opportunities. The
television industry is already large, yet it is experiencing its most dramatic growth ever, thanks to
the expanding cable television market. With growth comes needs— needs you could fulfill. If you
watch TV a lot, and enjoy it, this chance is for you.
These opportunities are unlimited and it doesn’t matter where you reside or how far you
progressed in school. No matter where you live, there is a cable television company with the
ability to hook a television up to its service. Cable is ready, willing and expanding — and its
profits show it. The government has recently focused on this industry simply because of the
outrageous amounts of money it seems to be making. With cable advertising income closing in on
the $4 billion dollar mark, this is an industry that hides no longer.
In fact, it has been shown that cable TV watchers tend to buy more goods and services than non-
cable TV subscribers. Thus, companies are clamoring to get their advertising pitch out to these
viewers, hoping for the best. It’s not just the Home Shopping Network that’s doing well, but
advertisers on all shows who are benefiting from this marketing boom. People who can afford
cable television monthly rates are the ones who tend to consume more products anyway— and
businesses know this.
This booklet will introduce you to several opportunities in the expanding television market. But it
will be important for you to understand what you’re seeing on television. Watch the commercials
on any network. See if there is any pattern, any trend to what’s being sold— and how. Take notes
and see what you’ve learned from this viewing. Who are the ads directed at? Are they visual?
Talky? Funny? Serious? What are the products being sold most often? Does it vary by time slot?
You can make a reference chart for yourself as you digest and interpret this information.
Your understanding of what’s going on can mean the difference between success— and failure.
Your ability to understand viewing patterns and what works for advertisers will help you establish
yourself as someone with credentials to give advice on television advertising.
Television is a very innovative medium. Those in the industry are always on the watch for
individuals who possess this trait of coming up with new ideas and concepts for those that push
their wares on television. And all it takes is the time to watch your television— all channels,
different times, different days (weekend vs. weekday) and then analyzing your data to make
inferences about what works well and what doesn’t work well.
The remainder of this booklet shows you where some of the opportunities are in this exciting
medium. Good luck!
WORKING IN ADVERTISING -- WITH LOCAL BUSINESSES
Your job now is to watch TV!
That’s right— turn on the set and get to work! It’s time to get your new business off the ground.
Starting with local companies may be a good way to begin your career in the television industry.
More specifically, your first job will be to watch commercials. Perhaps you’ll want to listen to
your local radio stations to monitor their advertising, too.
Begin by making a list. When you see or hear a commercial, write down the local company doing
the advertising. Radio stations with commercials are easy to find. So are television stations.
Concentrate on your local TV stations for now. That’s where you’ll find much of the local
advertising. However, don’t overlook some of the cable channels which may also introduce local
advertising, especially during the day.
It will become clear early on that the local television advertising market will be dominated by just
a few companies. List them.
Then begin to watch their commercials more carefully. What time of day are they running? How
long are the ads? What age audience are they aiming at? Do you like the commercial? Are there
any mistakes in it? Record all of this information.
Begin to draw up a large notebook of your impressions along with specific data about when the
ad ran and for how long. Amazingly, local companies contract for a certain number of ads running
for a certain length, at a particular time of day, yet they are unable to monitor whether the ad ran
or not. You may also notice that the ads are time-sensitive, such as advertising a sale for a certain
time period. If the ad is run after the sale is over, it’s a waste of time and money for the company,
yet they may never hear about it from anyone.
What if there was something wrong with the sound or with the information, such as a wrong
address typed on the screen? Any mistake will likely cost the advertiser and more than one or two
errors will severely affect the company’s credibility.
Advertising is not cheap, and if not done right, can cost a local business hundreds, (even
thousands) of hard-earned dollars. Most companies can’t afford that and no company wants to see
valuable marketing dollars thrown away. The whole purpose of advertising is to reach a specific
market at a specific time with a specific message. Anything other than that is unacceptable.
Now, you’ve been at this for two or three weeks and have a pretty full log built up. You’ve
specifically monitored several businesses, and made notes as to any errors, patterns and potential
results you think the local business will realize. Now what do you do with the information?
It’s very simple! Call the companies for whom you’ve been tracking this information. If the
business is small enough, you’ll probably want to contact the owner. For larger firms, ask for the
person in charge of advertising. When you reach your contact, identify yourself as the owner of a
local advertising monitoring service and you’d like to share some information concerning a recent
set of ads the company ran.
Then recite any errors, mistakes, mis-broadcasts or viewing problems and give the exact dates and
times for any of the above. Not every company will give you an open reception, but some are
going to be impressed with the quality and accuracy of your information. It will also mean
bottom-line revenue for the company, since a station will refund some or all of the advertising
money spent because the advertisements did not run as planned or promised.
This will enable you to pointedly demonstrate what your service can mean to the company in
actual dollars. You are important because very often the television station doesn’t realize anything
is wrong, either. The stations need the advertising revenue, so they aren’t intentionally fouling
anything up. But because mistakes are frequently made, and because more and more new stations
are seeking advertising revenue, you can carve out a nice niche for yourself by simply monitoring
commercials in between your favorite shows.
You never thought watching the commercials could be so rewarding, did you?
Once you’ve passed this information along, offer them a formal, written report that you’d like to
hand-deliver to the company contact. Point out that this service is available to the local business
to specifically track their advertising results in terms of actual broadcast.
A written report is very professional and may give the impression that you’ve been doing this for
a number of years. They may also be more inclined to try you out for a couple of months to see if
your service continues to help them. It will certainly give them much more information than they
currently have.
You can decide how to charge them, by hour or on a monthly fee basis. Don’t set your price too
high. Your ultimate goal is to obtain several clients for whom you can track advertising, since you
can watch the same amount of television and record data for a number of area businesses.
Don’t limit yourself to only area businesses, either. State-wide or national firms have even less
ability to monitor local broadcasts, so they could be a large source of monthly fee revenue for
you, too. You now have a rapidly growing list of prospects to contact about your monitoring
service, don’t you?
After contracting with a client, it will be important to you to know when their advertising is
supposed to be broadcast. When you started, your viewing was pot-luck, but now that you have
one client or more, you need to specifically monitor the showing and not leave it to blind luck. In
order to monitor properly, obtain all the details including length of advertisement, number of
times it is supposed to be shown, time frames during which it is supposed to run, etc. Without this
specific information, you cannot do a proper job of determining whether things are going
according to the company’s contract with the television station. A copy of the contract itself
would be ideal for you to have.
Once you have this information, you can record it in your log book and stand watch. This will
give you the comparison information you need to do your work. The company will no doubt feel
that your nominal charge for this service is well worth it.
As you increase confidence in your ability to do this work, you can try for even larger accounts.
While nationwide advertisers often have an ad agency that does tracking for them, it is quite often
limited to big cities. No one is likely keeping track of small-town broadcasts, yet these can be of
importance to the company advertising. Several large firms sell many of their products to the
small-town customers and your monitoring service can tell them if they are reaching people in
your area.
The longer you work in this service, the more successful you’ll be. As time goes on, obtain client
referral letters and testimonials from your existing customers. These will come in handy when you
begin pursuing the larger companies who advertise in every state. They are more likely to pay fees
to a monitoring service to be sure they are getting the most for their money.
Companies can spend a large portion of their marketing budget on advertising. Your service is
designed to advise them if they are getting the best bang for their buck!
NATIONAL MANUFACTURERS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Okay, now you’re into commercials! It’s time to expand on the business of watching television!
All of the products you see advertised had some planning and objectives behind them, whether the
company is large or small. Some of the companies may have started small and, through a clever
advertising route, expanded their products and services dramatically.
You can now expand your ability to assist companies with their advertising because you’ve been
tracking what does and does not work on your television set. You must adjust your sights
somewhat to the beginning process of marketing a product. You’ve watched some of the end
result on TV, but these products find a market through the visual medium by purposeful design.
Your job under this portion of your at-home business is to identify potentially good company
ideas for products and demonstrate how a good television ad can help them realize sales they
previously would not have believed possible.
Start with the companies whose advertising you are monitoring and expand from there. For your
current customers, ask them about new products in the developmental stages. Since your
customers are already doing television advertising, you won’t have to convince them of the
benefits of pursuing this media outlet for sales results. You might wish to read and study a few
books about television advertising in preparation for this phase of your business. Get familiar with
all of the quirks of this business.
However, your best learning tool is to watch advertisements that you know are successful. Why?
Try and determine if they’ve hit on a formula for success. Compare successful ad campaigns and
look for a unifying theme— audience, message, comedy, visual, talky? What makes these
campaigns successful, and others— who have perfectly good products to sell— not successful?
Not all of this will have a logical answer. People often buy on emotional impulse, not practical
reasoning, and this sometimes defies answers. Who would have predicted the success of Mutant
Ninja Turtles?
Maybe a friend has come up with a great product or a small business with little or no capital for
an advertising budget. Should this discourage you? Absolutely not!
In almost any media today, space trading is commonplace. Hotels trade rooms for advertising
time. Retail stores may give gift certificates to a station in exchange for running a couple of ads. It
happens all the time.
If you have found a product that could be the next big fad, you can very likely trade advertising
time for a couple of these products gratis to station executives. You should call the local stations
and ask about their trading policy. Find out the specifics. Then, when you’re approaching
companies about helping to promote their products on TV, you’ll know what you can and cannot
do based on the company’s budget.
Tradeouts aren’t going to put you ahead of the game. You’ll trade out more product than you’ll
receive advertising time in return. But that’s a small price to pay if the product needs exposure
and your company’s budget is limited. It’s not completely unfair. TV stations know that you have
a wholesale price for the product and that’s likely to be closer to the value of advertising time you
receive in return.
Stations know that if the product does well, you’ll be advertising your future business there. And
why not? The station was willing to try the product and take it in exchange for ad time. They
should receive your future business. You also start to build up relationships with client stations.
This will be very important in your future business efforts.
Now, how will you get paid in all of this? You’ve identified the product, contacted the station and
made the trade deal. So the station is going to get some needed advertising to get the word out
about the product. What about you?
Depending on the size of the business, you may want to get in on the ground floor of potential
profits. If it’s a friend, you can help form the company and be a partner in it. If it’s a small
business, you should consider working out a deal in which you earn a percentage of sales profits.
Under eight scenario, if the product does well, your potential payday is incredible.
Look at the two individuals who put together “Trivial Pursuit”. That involved coming up with
some challenging trivia questions. Production costs were very low, but it caught on big with the
general public and a small fortune was earned on that one idea.
The next “Trivial Pursuit” or “Mutant Ninja Turtles” is out there waiting to happen. You could be
on to something big.
How do you construct a marketing campaign for this product? This will vary, but the following
suggestions will help you lay the groundwork for what you and your partner/client wish to
accomplish.
First, get some samples of the product and head down to your local shopping mall. Try it out on a
few passers-by. You could go to any area where people are gathered in a large number to do this.
Prepare a questionnaire and then hand out the sample. Identify it, if necessary, and ask if the
person has a few moments to answer some quick questions. Once done, the product is his or hers
to keep.
What you really want to know is whether the people knew what the product was, whether they
liked it, if they would buy it, if the price you’ve established initially is fair or not, whether they’d
buy it as a gift or promotion, whether they’d tell friends about it and, if so, what would they say.
This is going to give you a lot of useful information, especially if you are working with a number
of samples. Try and get different age groups involved, using more people from the age group that
you’ve targeted in your mind for this product. This kind of feedback should be invaluable in
knowing whether you’re ready to go and whether the price you’ve set is fair and reasonable. In
addition, hearing what people say about the product and how they’d tell friends about it will help
you script a television advertisement. If it’s appropriate as a gift and many indicate they would
consider it when shopping for gifts, that can be another theme, especially around a specific
holiday.
Handle the questionnaire yourself. It will help you if you get direct feedback. If you’re
uncomfortable doing this, it’s okay to get some help, but try to be there yourself so you can gauge
consumer reaction. There is no substitute for real-world testing.
At this point, you should certainly have a contract between you and your client. You’re starting to
put a lot of time into this and there needs to be an ironclad guarantee that if the product takes off,
so will your income in terms of a share of the profits. Standard contracts can usually be found at
the library or at large office supply retail outlets and these can be used to spell out the
arrangement between the two of you.
This feedback has given you the basis for a television and/or radio script, which can now be
written once you and your partner have evaluated the information. It may require some product
modification, but it’s better to find out early before too many are made. The script will be based
on what people liked best about the product. Emphasize it! Their reactions will likely be no
different than those that will be on the listening end of your advertisement. Don’t worry if you’ve
never written one before. You’ve now heard hundreds of them on television through your
monitoring service. The script will practically write itself.
People buy for hundreds of different reasons and not all of them will make sense to you. Don’t
discard people’s reactions to or comments about your product because you think they’re “dumb”
or “hokey”. Just because you wouldn’t respond to a product that way doesn’t mean the rest of
America won’t respond. Keep an open mind.
There are thousands of manufacturers who are potential clients for you. As you’ll soon realize,
having a piece of the action by making a percentage of the profits is potentially a fast way to make
a fortune in earnings. Put together a few of these deals and you’ll wonder why you didn’t get into
business for yourself first. And this all started because you began watching commercials on TV!
STARTING YOUR OWN RATING SERVICE
You are probably familiar with the Nielson ratings. Every major broadcast company prepares for
the “sweeps”: that time of year when the Nielson watchers are glued to their television sets. These
results dictate advertising rates and revenue for the following period. The more the show is
viewed, the higher the station can charge an advertiser to run a commercial.
Many careers hang in the balance as a result of the Nielson ratings. Shows are kept or canceled as
a result of who’s watching, and these ratings are the only measurement used. The Nielson
company uses only about 2,000 homes in the country to monitor their ratings, which is a small,
but apparently statistically valid sample.
This is not much different than the theory behind Gallup polls and other similar surveys taken.
Once a certain number of people are polled, the results are statistically close to representative for
the entire country.
About 90 million households have television sets. If a Nielson rating of 20 appears next to a
program’s name, that means approximately 20 percent of the nation’s households (or 18 million
homes) have tuned into this show. This will dictate the amount a station can charge for revenue,
based on the number of people expected to tune into the show.
Nielson uses little black boxes that go on every set in the house (and VCR, too). Information is
recorded regularly about what is being watched. The homes are also designated by type with all of
the basic census information such as age, gender, income, occupation, etc., being used to identify
a composite viewer of a program. This also helps an advertiser target a particular show if the
people watching are the target audience for the specific product to be marketed. This information
is calculated and published for all to see.
Nielson chooses the homes to participate by random and automatically eliminates anyone who
wants to volunteer. Most of the larger metropolitan areas are selected for these tests and your
chances of participating are very low. You might have better odds of hitting your state lottery!
Since large corporations spend millions each year on television advertising, it stands to reason
they’d like to be well-informed as to who is viewing particular shows and at what time of day.
They’ve likely identified a target audience and would very much like the extra input as to the
specifics about how best to reach that target group through the television set.
Another major rating service is Arbitron, which does much the same thing and uses the
approximate sampling figure of 2000 that Nielson does, although with different households, of
course. They also compile data that is used to set advertising rates for television.
Ratings research, based on this background information, is definitely a market that is open to
opportunity. Only 4, 000 homes in the country are being utilized for this critical research, most of
those in large population centers. What about the small-town buyer? What about all of the other
TV viewers whose program choice goes unrecorded and remains unknown to the companies
trying to position themselves to market a product?
Local business people would love to identify a target audience. They don’t advertise nationally.
They can’t afford to have their product shown on “Home Improvement” or the “Super Bowl”.
But they are going to advertise and the more they know about their viewing audience, the more
likely they will select the right combination to maximize their television advertising dollar.
You don’t need to put a black box in 2,000 homes to handle this assignment. All you need to do
is develop a proper survey and start calling people to ask if they’d participate in your local survey.
You can identify potential watchers who would write down their viewing choices every day for
two to three weeks. You’ve got the opportunity to compile more valuable data than anything else
done locally in the TV market. You’ll have information that even the stations themselves probably
won’t have.
The first thing to do is construct your survey form. Here are some of the items you should
include:
First, get an overall perspective of the individual who will do the survey for you. Here is the basic
data you need:
_ Name, address, phone number
_ Number of people in household with names and ages
_ Occupation and approximate income level for entire household
_ Number of television sets, VCRs and radios
The next step is to have the members of the household record their viewing and listening choices
for the next month on your ratings form. Four weeks should give you a great idea of what this
household’s radio, TV and VCR habits are. Every member of the house should record his or her
choices by day, listing the show and the approximate viewing time.
Next, they should provide information about their commercial watching habits, including the ones
they recall the best, the ones they think were terrible and why, the last three commercials they
remember, or, whether they bother to watch the commercial at all.
Finally have them list their favorite and least favorite show, favorite and least favorite commercial.
You now have enough information to compile your study.
The difficult part will be getting enough individuals to cooperate and accurately do the study. But
your circle of people as well as your friends’ and family’s circle can start to add up. Ask the
people you personally do business with to help participate. Canvass your area well and you will
find approximately 100 people to do the survey. Set up a database on your computer or compile
the statistics by hand. However, this is obviously a much slower process. You should have a
viewing pattern which will list valuable information for many people.
Now, you need to contact these people to buy your survey results. Make a flyer that indicates the
basis for the study and the type of results that were achieved. You can price your report for $40-
75, depending on your area. Many businesses and every television and radio station should be
interested. If you picked up 30 clients at $40 each, that’s $1,200/month just to compile ratings
surveys. That’s probably a conservative estimate as to the number of clients you should obtain,
given this data.
Continue to update your viewers and pay them approximately $5-10 per month once you start to
get this rolling. This monthly survey form is valuable due to their input. You will have to arrange
to collect the surveys, probably using a self-addressed, stamped envelope to make it easy for
them. Since you will know some of the people, you can make other arrangements, as well.
While prime time hours (8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.) are the times national companies will be most
interested in, the other times are less expensive for advertisers and more open to local businesses.
They will be interested in who’s watching what at ten in the morning and four in the afternoon
rather than strictly prime time news, so all of your data is significant.
This is an easy and quick way to make a lot of money watching television. You can then use this
information and your expert advice as an advertising monitor to assist companies with their ad
campaigns centered on the time slots most favorable to their products.
FINDING CLIENTS FOR VIDEO PRODUCTION GROUPS
One way to use the information you’ve already obtained is by referring businesses to video
production companies to film the advertisements. Many video production groups need the
business and appreciate the referral and will pay you a percentage of the filming fee for referring
business to them.
Many video companies do not have a staff salesperson, so your ability to refer clients is a needed
plus. In addition, they don’t have to pay you anything unless you bring a client and they avoid
paying all the employee benefits costs such as FICA, unemployment taxes, workers’
compensation premium and similar expenditures. You’re a bargain at the price.
Some of the companies you work with may have a need for video production to satisfy needs
other than advertising, such as training tapes or new product tapes for salespeople. These are
almost like infomercials describing the product and how the management team thinks it should be
sold. Sales people find these tapes to be of tremendous benefit in planning their own sales
campaigns.
Again, you can negotiate a fee arrangement with the video production group. You’re simply
maximizing the potential media dollar value of any one client. Even if you refer only a few
businesses, the money adds up (especially in addition to all of the other income sources you now
have coming in).
Check the yellow pages for the video production companies in your area and contact them. Even
if someone else already has this idea, the production company would rather have a multiple
number of people on the lookout for new business for them. Make your arrangements in advance
and then start thinking about the clients you could assist by introducing them to the production
companies you decide to work with. Companies will begin to see you as an all-purpose individual
who can work on virtually every aspect of their video and radio advertising. That’s exactly the
position you want to be in. The more versatile and knowledgeable you are, the more valuable you
are as a resource for these businesses. And, better yet, you are your own boss!
CABLE TELEVISION AND YOU
As mentioned earlier, cable television provides you with numerous opportunities in exploring
advertising options for your client businesses. A little more homework is necessary..
Contact the major cable networks (listing to follow) and request information regarding their
advertising rates and guidelines. You can eventually pass this information on to the client. In
addition, get the name of the advertising contact person for yourself.
Then, when you are watching these channels, you can record the same advertising information
you were noting earlier for your businesses. Now, in addition to reporting to local businesses, you
can offer the information to the cable channel as well. They may consider hiring you to monitor
their advertising in your region.
There’s no real cost to you. This is information that you are already compiling for businesses
anyway. There’s no trouble to have additional logs in which you record the information about
their advertising record. Not every cable channel will pay, but a few may buy into the advertising
program you’re doing along with the monthly ratings report for your area. You won’t know
unless you ask!
You have enough information to get yourself started. The following listings will give you the
contacts at the major stations you will need for part of your start-up. Good luck and good
watching!
LISTINGS
NETWORKS:
ABC CBS
77 W. 66th Street 51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10023 New York, NY 10019
(212) 456-7777 (212) 975-5633
NBC FOX
30 Rockefeller Plaza PO Box 900
New York, NY 10112 Beverly Hills, CA 90213
(212) 664-4444 (310) 277-2211
CABLE CHANNELS
American Movie Classics Arts & Entertainment
100 Crossway Park West 235 E 45th Street
Woodbury, NY 11797 New York, NY 10017
(516) 365-2222 (212) 661-4500
Black Entertainment Television CNBC
1232 31st Street, NW 220 Fletcher Avenue
Washington, DC 20007 Fort Lee, NJ 07024
(202) 636-2400 (201) 585-2622
CNN (Cable News) Comedy Central
Turner Broadcasting 1775 Broadway
1 CNN Center New York, NY 10019
Box 105336 (212) 767-8600
Atlanta, GA 30348
(404) 827-1700
The Discovery Channel ESPN
7700 Wisconsin Avenue ESPN Plaza
Bethesda, MD 20814 935 Middle Street
(301) 986-1999 Bristol, CT 06010
(203) 585-2000
The Family Channel The Learning Channel
P.O. Box 64549 770 Wisconsin Avenue
Virginia Beach, VA 23467 Bethesda, MD 20814
(804) 523-7301 (301) 986-1999
Lifetime Channel MTV
309 W. 49th Street 1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10019 New York, NY 10036
(212) 424-7000 (212) 258-8000
Nashville Network Nickleodeon
2806 Opryland Drive 1000 Universal Studio Plaza
Nashville, TN 37214 Orlando, FL 32819
883-7000 (407) 827-1700
TBS TNT
1050 Techwood Avenue NW One CNN Center
Box 105264 Box 105366
Atlanta, GA 30318 Atlanta, GA 30348
(404) 423-5200 (404) 827-1700
USA Network VH-1 Video Hits
1230 Avenue of the Americas 1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10020 New York, NJ 10036
(212) 408-9100 (212) 258-8000