By Nicole Lewis

Broadcast and cable networks donate 17 seconds an hour, on average, to airing free public-service advertisements, according to a new study sponsored by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, in Menlo Park, Calif. The donated time represents one half of 1 percent of all television programming.

The results, from data gathered in 2005, are virtually unchanged from a similar study the foundation conducted in 2000, which found that the advertisements received 15 seconds of airtime per hour.

Both studies reviewed ads produced by charities, government agencies, for-profit organizations, and television stations that seek attention for a variety of issues intended to benefit society, such as the value of education and preventing domestic violence.

The studies were conducted by researchers at Indiana University, in Bloomington, and analyzed a week of programming in seven cities on affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC as well as cable stations CNN, ESPN, MTV, Nickelodeon, TNT, and Univision.

Among the key findings:

Thirteen percent of public-service announcements for which stations donate time appear during prime time, 8 to 11 p.m., an increase of 4 percent from 2000. Forty-six percent air between midnight and 6 a.m., an increase of 3 percent from 2000. Nearly 40 percent of all public-service announcements are paid for by the sponsors of the advertisements, roughly the same as in the 2000 study. However, the number of for-profit groups paying for ads increased substantially, from 23 percent in 2000 to 51 percent in 2005 while the number with nonprofit sponsors dropped from 64 percent to 38 percent. Issues that affect children, including their health and education, garnered the most donated airtime for public-service announcements (38 percent), followed by health-related topics including cancer and alcohol and drug abuse (26 percent), fund-raising ads (23 percent), which urge viewers to donate products or money to local, national or international groups, and family and social concerns (12 percent), which include messages about adopting foster children and information about the skills needed to be a successful parent.

While over all, the amount of time devoted to public-service announcements did not increase significantly among all television stations from 2000 to 2005, cable stations more than doubled the donated ad time, to 15 seconds an hour, in 2005.

However, local charities are finding it harder to get their messages aired. From 2000 to 2005, ads for such groups decreased on broadcast stations from 33 percent to 26 percent and on cable stations from 20 percent to 6 percent.

“That is something that is going to be discouraging to a lot of smaller groups,” says Vicky Rideout, vice president and director of the Kaiser Foundation’s Program for the Study of Entertainment Media and Health. “It leaves local organizations with fewer resources for getting messages out there.” Eighty percent of donated public-service ads have a national focus.

Growing Competition

Despite the limited television time available for public-service announcements, more and more charities are attempting to gain exposure. The number of nonprofit groups, including the American Red Cross and the American Cancer Society, sponsoring donated ads rose from 64 percent in 2000 to 71 percent in 2005 while government agencies decreased their sponsorship from 20 percent to 15 percent.

With thousands of charities and very limited airtime on television, charities should think hard about spending resources crafting advertisements that may air at 3 a.m., says Ms. Rideout. “If you don’t have a good plan for how your television ad is going to be seen by your target audience enough to make a difference, then you shouldn’t spend the money on such a campaign,” she says.

Free copies of “Shouting to Be Heard (2): Public Service Advertising in a Changing Television World” are available on the foundation’s Web site or by sending an e-mail message to the foundation at orders@kff.org and requesting report 7715.