Broadcast advertising is radio and television commercials. Broadcast media reaches a broad audience. Radio and television broadcast advertising is sometimes known as mass marketing since state or even worldwide audiences can be reached. Advertising is among the elements of marketing. Marketing promotes services, products and concepts through categorical channels. Broadcast advertising convinces patrons of the advantages of advertisers ' brands.

Organizations such as Federal Trade Commission (FTC) monitor television and radio commercials to be sure advertisers and broadcasters are not making fake claims that may mislead clients into purchasing their products. Radio and television stations must guarantee commercials meet FTC standards before broadcasting them. Advertisers pay broadcasters for a spot. An advertising spot is usually thirty seconds on both radio and television, though on occasion it may run up to 1 minute. Though most broadcast advertising is paid, free public service reports are characteristic broadcasting fare on television and radio.

Broadcasters permit nonprofit groups and the govt a controlled number of free spots to push messages and info for the general safety of the general public. Public service headlines may include anti-drug messages or info about what to do in a flu outbreak. The far-reaching use of broadcast advertising goes back to the 1920s. Radio shows and then television programs started to be well-liked. Firms that sold products started to sponsor the programs by paying broadcasters to spread their promotional messages to customers.

Early on, the advertiser's name was sometimes used with the show's title to suggest the broadcast time they'd bought for their promotion like the 1920s and 1930s radio show, "The Champ Spark Plug Hour." Today, broadcast advertising agencies create and produce radio and / or television ads for broadcast. Their customers are firms with goods to market. Generally, bigger instead of smaller businesses have a tendency to publicize on television or radio. This changes for local channels however.
Broadcast advertising agencies check with clients to recommend them if local or state broadcasting would be the best marketing methodology for the client's product and budget.