Commercial Television, Globalisation and the Public Interest: The History of Voice of Firestone

Wherever television is a commercial venture which earns a significant percentage of revenues from advertising, it tends to be transformed to better serve the needs of ad agencies and their clients. One oft raised complaint is that in an attempt to raise ratings and viewership, advertisers insist that shows cater to the “lowest common denominator” of society; as a result, quality programming is often compromised, eliminated, or banished to time periods when viewing is inconvenient. Programme diversity is also undermined. This paper suggests that the strategies of commercial television often restrict high quality programming even if the actual sponsors are committed to quality and diversity. This is done to create an environment which will best serve the majority of sponsors, and thus attract maximum advertising revenues. A history of Voice of Firestone (a long‐lived programme on U.S. Radio and TV) will be used as an example of this tendency. In an era when Europe is becoming more involved with commercial television, the lesson of such examples is especially significant.