Infomercial

Infomercials are long-format television commercials, typically five minutes or longer. Infomercials are also known as paid programming. Originally, they were a phenomenon that started in the United States where they were typically shown overnight outside of peak hours.

Some television stations chose to air such programming as an alternative to the former practice of sign-off. While the term infomercial was originally applied only to television advertising used to refer to any presentation which presents a significant amount of information in an actual, to persuade to a point of view.

Often, it is unclear whether the actual presentation fits this definition because the term is used hoping to disc-credit the presentation. In this way, political speeches may be derogatorily referred to as infomercials for a specific point of view.

Many traditional Infomercial producers make use of flashy catchphrases, repeat basic ideas, and/or employ scientist-like characters or celebrities as guests or hosts in their ad During the early days of television, created by sponsors with the main goal of selling their product, with the entertainment value secondary.