Infomercials

Infomercials (or informercials) are television commercials that run for one minute or for as long as a typical television program. Infomercials are also known as paid programming (or teleshopping in Europe). Originally, they were typically shown overnight (usually 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.) --- outside of peak hours. Some television stations chose to air such programming as an alternative to the former practice of sign-off. By 2008, most infomercial spending is during early morning, daytime, and evening hours.

While the term "infomercial" is loosely used to refer to any direct response television advertisement (DRTV), in the US it is typically used to describe program length advertisements which are 28 minutes and 30 seconds in length. In the US, DRTV advertisements of :30 seconds to 2 minutes in length are typically called "short form" and not included in the advertising industry's use of the term "infomercial". Note that in the US market, a small amount of media can be purchased for 5 minute length advertisements however this time is quite limited.

While the term "infomercial" was originally applied only to television advertising, it is now sometimes used to refer to any presentation (often on video) which presents a significant amount of information in an actual, or perceived, attempt 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 dis-credit the presentation. In this way, political speeches may be derogatorily referred to as "infomercials" for a specific point of view.