The Canadian Public ®The Canadian Public ® will revolutionize the sale of television advertising time by exploring new ways to purchase airtime which will not only be broadcast on traditional television, but also simultaneously on the Internet.
As the channel approaches its launch date (tentatively scheduled for the end of 2009), more information will be made available on how you can purchase advertising time on national television and on the Internet for as little as the cost of a single classified ad in your local newspaper. In the meantime, this page will explain many of the details already planned for this new advertising business model.
Who will I have to call to purchase advertising time?
Most likely no one. All of the channel’s advertising space will be sold via an on-line private auction site. You’ll be bidding against other advertisers for the choice advertising spots.
How much?
The opening bid for a 30 second spot will be $10. Payment can be made by major credit card which will be charged 24 hours before the ad is scheduled to air on the channel. Major corporations, advertising firms, and regular clients will be given the opportunity to open a business account as well as purchase blocks of advertising time.
Can I choose the show and the specific time slot for my ad?
Not only will you have those choices, you will also be presented with a brief synopsis of the show’s episode to help you determine if you truly want to support that particular show with your advertising dollar.
Can I advertise just about anything on the air?
Not quite. There will be a few rules.
- All advertising material must be received and cleared by the channel before you can start bidding for advertising spots on the private on-line auction site.
- The advertising must comply with all existing Canadian regulations and broadcast standards.
- All submissions for products regulated by Health Canada must include the transcript of the advertisement as required by law.
- Our CRTC license restricts us to national paid advertisement, meaning the ad must be targeted to a national audience for a product or service available and sold across the country. Our license does not allow us to carry local or regional paid advertisement. For example, we can accept advertising from automobile manufacturers, but we can’t accept advertising from the individual dealerships.
I have a retail shop, but I also sell my products and services across the country via the Internet. Does that qualify as national paid advertisement?
The CRTC has never encountered such a scenario, so there’s no precedent. If we do air this type of advertisement, the CRTC won’t intervene unless an official complaint is made against the channel. So until the CRTC orders us to stop carrying such advertisement, we’ll accept them.
My ad is for a sexually related product.
Such advertisement will be evaluated on a case by case basis. Not only must the ad not be sexually explicit on its own, the ad can’t be included in any television show broadcast at a time when very young children may be watching.
A note to manufacturers of birth control devices: we will accept your advertisements during shows dealing with teenage health and life issues.
What’s an “ad bug?”
The ad bug is a new concept in on-screen advertising which we plan to test out for permanent inclusion in our advertising options.
Just about every television channel in the world includes an on-screen element during the broadcast of a show: the channel’s station ID logo. We plan to swap this static image with a revenue generating paid advertisement in the form of a corporate logo, a product symbol, or anything else that may be suitable.
This new form of advertising has many benefits over traditional 30 second advertising:
- Ad bugs are inexpensive to produce.
- Ad bugs are always in the viewer’s field of vision.
- Ad bugs will be included in shows distributed over the Internet, reaching an international audience.
- Ad bugs can’t be bypassed, muted or skipped over.
We’ll include more information on how ad bug space can be purchased and will be incorporated in television shows once we’ve worked out the details on how to properly exploit this new advertising medium. In the meantime, please watch the following demonstration presented by Mark Pesce for a better understanding on how the ad bug can work for you.
SPECIAL PRE-LAUNCH OFFER
If your firm makes an advanced payment before the launch of the new channel, you’ll receive a 10% bonus applicable to all advertising time purchased on the channel. This will give you an advantage over advertising firms who wait until after the channel’s launch date to bid for advertising time.
You may reach us through our Contacts page.