What Are the Disadvantages of Advertising on Cable Vs. Radio?

by Craig Berman, studioD

Advertising on cable TV and radio both offer attractive scenarios to small businesses. Getting your commercial on cable lets a large audience view your product and see how it works, while radio advertisements are limited to words and sound effects. However, for some small businesses, that advantage is outweighed by other factors that favor radio, whether it’s the cost and convenience or the increased opportunities to reach customers throughout the day.


Both cable TV and radio are fragmented venues in which there are few dominant players but many successful niche stations and programs that attract specific market segments. When an advertisement appears on either TV or radio, a viewer can change the channel. However, TV viewers also might stop watching to get a snack, go to the bathroom or even fast-forward through the commercial breaks if they are watching on a recording device -- thus missing that ad you so carefully placed. Radio offers a more captive audience, given the amount of people who listen at work or in their vehicles.


Radio is traditionally cheaper than cable TV as an advertising platform, making it easier to repeat commercials with enough frequency to be noticed. Advertising on cable requires you to hire a team to make the commercial, in addition to the costs of running the advertisements. Radio stations are often willing to produce the commercial for you as long as the copy is straightforward. Even if that’s not part of the deal when you sign your contract, the cost to produce the advertisement is lower than the costs to produce a similar television commercial.


It’s hard to adapt your advertisements quickly on cable television, absent a large marketing budget. They’re expensive to produce, so small businesses are usually limited in how often they can change their message. That also means that if you guess wrong about how much your cable TV commercial will appeal to your target audience, it’s a more expensive mistake and a harder one to correct. Use radio advertisements instead for time-sensitive calls to action, to react to a sudden opportunity, or to test several marketing pitches and see which one draws a greater response.


Critics say radio doesn’t engage the audience, and that passive listeners won’t pay attention to the commercials. While that might be true, they’re still more likely to be exposed to them. Many potential customers listen to the radio when their alarm goes off in the morning, in their cars, at their offices or stores they shop at, or when they’re outside performing other tasks. Cable TV is less available outside of the home, and thus the opportunities for people to see your ads are limited to the hours that your customers are there.

About the Author

Craig Berman has been on the reality TV beat since Carrie Underwood was an unknown country singer from Oklahoma, and writing about sports and business for even longer. He writes about "American Idol" for Today.com, and his work has appeared in outlets from USATODAY.com to McSweeney's to NBCnews.com.

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