[richardjs]

PBS has underwriting spots that are only shown between programs and are subject to more restrictions than commercials: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwriting_spot

No programming is interrupted, and the only marketing content is typically something like "Brand Flakes is happy to support PBS".

[Uhhrrr]

In the Bay Area, at least, shows will have multiple supporter mentions which are basically brand endorsements, a la, "Brought to you by ADM, Supermarket to the World! And GE, bringing good things to life."

[jklinger410]

They are commercials.

[namuol]

I implore you to spend an hour consuming public media and then another hour consuming "regular" commercial broadcasting.

There's an unmistakable difference between the commercials employed in commercial broadcasts vs public broadcasts.

I'm sure you can find some reduction of the concept of "commercial" that fits both commercial broadcast advertisements and underwriting posts in public broadcasts, but you'd be missing the point.

Furthermore, the discussion here isn't merely about the ads themselves; it's about the _underlying business model_ of commercial network broadcasting vs public broadcasting. Commercial networks' incentives are squarely in line with the incentives of their advertisers, but publicly-funded broadcasters incentives are more in line with their users, because their funding is derived most directly from them.

[sushisource]

What? Care to back up your claim at all instead of just traipsing in and saying "no"? I watch PBS every day and they are most certainly not commercials as your parent comment says. They generally are 10 seconds at most, have maybe two sentences about the company, and show the logo. Usually one of those sentences is "Company xxx is proud to support PBS".

[massysett]

Dictionary.com says a commercial is "a paid advertisement or promotional announcement." Companies pay PBS, they get an announcement promoting the company. It's a commercial. If Company xxx just wanted to do great things, it could easily give money and seek no acknowledgement (the same way that, ahem, viewers give money and get no on-air acknowledgement, not even a flash in crawling text.) But Company xxx wants to be acknowledged. No problem. But it's a commercial.

[tasty_freeze]

You are missing the point and needlessly tripping yourself up on nitpicking. The point of the piece is that PBS delivers a lot of quality content to children (lots of other content too, but that isn't the author's focus). A couple minutes per hour of "Brought to you by XYZ Corporation" vs 20 cumulative minutes of animated bunnies selling breakfast marshmallows aimed at 2-7 year olds is not the same thing.

You can hide behind your dictionary definition and declare yourself the victor, but you must know there is a substantive difference between them and that is exactly the point that author was making.

[doktrin]

This honestly feels like unnecessary pedantry

[fullshark]

How is that not a commercial? Just because it's not actively annoying?

[koenigdavidmj]

We can deliberate over the meanings of terms all day, but there is a distinction. The PBS commercials are just "this company supports PBS"; it doesn't even mention the industry the company works in. Commercials elsewhere are "this company makes this product, which does this task that will make you happy and/or surround you with beautiful women".

[fullshark]

Do you think these companies would keep giving PBS money if they stopped reporting who was giving it before/after each show?

Also your claim isn't even true, I recall an ad for a European Boat Touring company before Rick Steve's Europe for example. The ad was clearly "this company sells this product."

It's all just another form of lifestyle ad / virtue signaling. "We support PBS and the things you care about, support us too."

[BeetleB]

>They generally are 10 seconds at most, have maybe two sentences about the company, and show the logo.

aka a commercial.

[enraged_camel]

ad·ver·tise·ment

ˈadvərˌtīzmənt,ədˈvərdizmənt/

noun

a notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service, or event or publicizing a job vacancy.

---

As long as said 10-second intervals don't promote a product, service or event, and they simply mention that Company X supports PBS, they aren't advertisements.

https://www.google.com/search?&rls=en&q=define:advertisement...

[maxerickson]

It's relatively tasteful advertisement:

https://vimeo.com/41440389