Wenn Eigenwerbung zum Programm wird

In the battle for viewer ratings, television stations regularly broadcast their own spots about programs and companies. This so-called on-air promotion has gained increasing importance since the liberalization of the market. As a carrier of a distinctly recognizable image, it shapes the appearance of the broadcasters. Its short and complex announcements pose puzzles. In just a few seconds, they are meant to provide insight into entire shows and films. How do they achieve this? What do they convey, and what do they intentionally leave out? What structure do they follow? The transport of information occurs at a rapid pace across multiple levels (language, text, image, as well as music and sounds). To what extent does this create a coherent product, and how does it relate to the advertised format? This study examines on-air promotion for the first time from a primarily text-linguistic and narrative-theoretical perspective. Through a text analysis, it seeks answers to the aforementioned questions, presents various types of spots, and provides an overview of the current interdisciplinary state of research. The foundation is rich data material from both public and private broadcasting in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.