‘The Simpsons’ Gets a High Price Tag Online

The internet is starting to appear more and more common in our lives these days. If you need the show times for a new movie, you can turn to the internet for a list of times. If a plant of yours is being eaten by a mysterious bug, you can turn to the internet for a remedy. Even if you missed your favorite TV program and didn’t TiVo it, you can go to Hulu or TV.com to watch the episode at your convenience. But would it be surprising to find out that it costs more to advertise on The Simpsons online than on regularly broadcasted television? Well, that statement is true. A difference of $20 to $40 per one thousand viewers is found between an online broadcast versus a television broadcast.

Online advertisements run for about $60 per thousand viewers on average. As opposed to the $20 to $40 charge per thousand viewers on a television broadcast, this seems a little ridiculous. However, online ads are more expensive because of less allowed advertising time and guaranteed viewing. The average advertising time for an online show is about 37 seconds. That is nothing compared to the 9 minute average for television. Also, once a viewer has clicked on an online episode, that viewer is guaranteed to watch the episode. Now I know that some people may get bored in the middle of the particular episode, but when you want to watch something online you typically know what it is that you want to watch and you seek it out. This process gives some assurance that you will watch the show and the ads embedded in it, instead of changing the channel while the commercials are on.

If all these numbers hold true, why don’t advertisers switch over altogether? This hasn’t happened yet because the internet still isn’t the most used source of show viewing. With other resources like TiVo, DVR, and even timers on TVs, online viewing is a long way from being the most popular form of viewing. March Madness, for example, attracted about 7.5 million viewers online over the entire tournament. Compared to the 17.6 million viewers of the championship game alone on regular TV, the internet was a small opponent.

It may be possible for online viewing to be the default way to watch shows one day. But that day is still very far in the future.