WNET's membership and underwriting revenues are flat. Bouton and others also say that their acceptance of longer spots reflects the realities of the media environment. Most underwriters no longer back public TV programs for philanthropic reasons, and those that only want to reach PBS's demographic can buy time on any of the cable clone channels that accept full advertising, Bouton notes. They want something for their money. Baker contends the debate over 30-second spots is misplaced.
Length is more of a red herring than content.
Just because an underwriter's message is 15 seconds long doesn't make it acceptable. There's so much squeezed into 15 seconds, it makes it seem commercial, even if it isn't. He spoke with 11 licensees about their experiences with looser rules. Morgese found wide variations in the stations' underwriting practices. Many have special policies for children's and daytime programming.