Section 5 of 7
Broadcast
Television as a direct-response channel — the DRTV spot, the infomercial after 1984 deregulation, and Nielsen as the broadcast ledger.
The keyed number told the advertiser which station and which daypart had produced the call.
- Call Now While Operators Are Standing ByBroadcastThe direct-response television spot as a genre — the toll-free number on screen, the time-limited offer, the keyed phone number that told the advertiser which channel had delivered the call.
- Thirty Minutes After DeregulationBroadcastThe FCC's 1984 deregulation of broadcast advertising time limits created the infomercial as a commercial form — a half-hour programme structured as salesmanship, with the toll-free number as its closing argument.
- Nielsen's Ledger for the AirBroadcastThe Nielsen ratings as the broadcast equivalent of the response rate — an audience estimate used to price airtime rather than count returns, and the ways DRTV buyers used keyed numbers and cost-per-call to impose their own measurement on top of it.
Elsewhere on the ledger