Time consuming production: Production is to be planned. The flexibility of the press and radio could not be availed. If the production is shoddy, the commercial looks crude.
Transient: The commercial lasts for a few seconds, and goes off air. The jingles are repeated. They become insistent. The sales messages remain the same. The whole commercial is repeated frequently. TV ads alone are not enough. They need supportive ads in other media. The viewing is passive. It leads to inattentiveness and multi-tasking by the audience. The remote enables the audience to surf channels.
Immobile: Radio can be listened to on the move. Newspaper can be read at home or outside. TV is watched only at home. It requires a captive audience. This is an advantage as well as a disadvantage.
Time constraint: In a few seconds, we can put forward only one selling proposition.
High production costs: As compared to print production, the production cost of a TV commercial is very high.
Fragmentation: There are 500 plus channels. All channels have a diversity of programmes to attract viewers. This leads to fragmentation of audiences. It is difficult to convey a message in such a situation. The relationship with TV is extremely flirtatious.
Clutter: A number of commercials accompany a programme. The viewership of commercials is less than the viewership of the programme. There is further erosion of viewship on account of passive viewing. The clutter leads to poor ad recall. Due to clutter, when the message is repeated, it leads to higher costs.
Waning interest: A commercial packs too much, in too short a time. At first, it may be interesting. But later, the repetitions become montonous. Different versions of commercials can be put on air to overcome this problem.
High total costs: Due to fragmentation, a commercial must be aired on a bouquet of channels. It involves high costs.
Inventory issues: The amount of air time for advertising is capped. The inventory issues, therefore, arise. Some ads are bumped off by the channel. It affects the overall media plan.