1. Sponsorship, 2.Participation, 3.Booming, 4.Worries

1. Sponsorship

Advertisers were released from radio's limitations and from the 'frozen' character of print advertising. Advertising agencies and their clients were struggled with the new medium, TV, learning how to turn it into a selling medium. Made its debut in June, 1948 on CBS, and became one of the TV's longest-running and most successful variety series sponsored by Lincoln-Mercury, "The Ed Sullivan Show" spurred the advancement of scores of show business careers. In 1971, 933 sponsors brought TV time, a rise of 515% over 1947" (The History of Film & Television). US Department of Commerce confirmed that TV's selling power on its report in May, 1949 : "TV's combination of moving pictures, sound and immediacy produces an impact that extends TV as an advertising medium into the realm of personal sales solicitation" (The History of Film & Television).

2. Participation

As TV costs escalated, the old days of sponsor-produced and -controlled programming were on their way out. An increasing number of programs were licensed to the networks. In order words, a program series was contracted to the network, not to the sponsor, as was previously the case. The network scheduled the program and sold their sponsorships or participations to interested advertisers. Since this new responsibility brought with it greater financial risks, the networks began to share the cost of pilots with the show's producers. If a pilot show was accepted for network scheduling, the network retained its financial interest in the series. When the time came to syndicate it domestically or internationally, further profits could be realized. The changing trend from program sponsorship to participation satisfied most major advertisers. Cost had risen so dramatically that sponsorships were considered high risks. By purchasing a variety of participation, advertisers could distribute their budget across the several networks in many programs on a constantly fluctuating scheduled. Thus, it provided the opportunity to reach large audience more frequently (Heighton and Cunningham, 1984).