Self-study
Television executives recently announced that advertising time on television will cost 10 to 15 percent more next fall than it cost last fall. ███ ██████████ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████ █████████ ███████████ ████ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████████ ████████████ ███ ██ ███████████ ████ ████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████ █████
Summarize Argument
The executives conclude that advertising time will be no harder to sell next fall than last fall. This is because, despite the increased cost of advertising time, advertisers will still profit from TV advertising.
Notable Assumptions
The executives assume that advertisements, despite the price increase, will remain profitable enough to encourage advertisers to purchase TV advertising time as much as before, rather than looking to some other form of advertising that might produce higher profits.
5.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███████████ █████████
a
Most costs of ██████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ █ ██ █ ███████ ██ ███ ████ █████
This weakens the TV executives’ argument. Since production and distribution are getting more expensive, companies might try to cut costs on advertising to save money.
b
The system for ██████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ███ █████ ██████████ █████████████ ████ ██████ ████ █████
It would be useful to know if the actual size of the audience was changing, to determine how beneficial TV ads would be for companies. But just knowing about the system for audience ratings doesn't give us that information. This doesn't strengthen the argument.
c
Next fall advertising ████ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ██ ████████
This would weaken the argument. If the minimum block of time available for purchase is longer, and advertising time is also increasing in price, then it seems like advertising time will be harder to sell overall.
d
The amount of ██████████ ███████████ ████ █████████ ██ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████ █████████ ██ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████████
This doesn't strengthen the argument. Whether the buyers of advertising time sell products or services doesn't help us determine how difficult it will be to sell advertising time next fall.
e
A recent survey ███ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ ██████ █████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █ ███████ █████ ███ ███████
This tells us that in the next 12 months, viewership will be 12% higher than it is now. So even though the cost of advertising time is increasing, the number of viewers is also increasing by a similar percentage, which might offset the price increase and explain why advertising time will be no harder to sell next year.