Its worth it for them to lose a few days of advertising for the ratings that they will bring it. It totally inflates their ratings average, thus making them look more attractive to advertisers in the future.
It's also really tacky to run commercials during a tragedy like this. But I will be glad when we get normal programming back and baseball resumes. The more we sit in front of the news watching the planes crash over and over again the more hopeless I feel.
------------------ These chicks know how to party! - MoJo JoJo
MTV and some other channels will show their regular programming and then show news coverage so they still make some money.
If its really that big of a deal for the news channels, then they will probably ask for money from the advertisers or charge more for spots. They could also increase commercial times during regular broadcasts.
In the TV business, advertisers buy commercial time for specific shows. If those shows don't run, then the commercials don't run. Also, during depressing events like this, advertisers will ask that their commercials not be aired.
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--Wayne Bundrick
I think it was on Entertainment Tonight, they reported how much the Networks were losing daily to cover the attack. I forget what the number was, but it was pretty big.
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Wayne has the idea right. The money being lost by the networks now is nothing compared to the money that will be lost over the next 2-4 weeks. Companies like Coca-Cola, McDonalds, etc. have already pulled their ads from TV networks in case they might be perceived as in "poor taste."
There will also be a fortune lost by movie studios and TV studios alike as they scramble to re-arrange their fall schedules and remove any hint of poor taste.
On the night of the 11th, Brit TV channels had, amongst other things, to remove two programmes called 'Murder Rooms' and 'Death in the Air'. Neither was connected with terrorism, but both were presumably deemed to be in dubious taste.
As far as I can recall, Brit commercial TV continued to show adverts, but I think it's worth noting that there are far fewer adverts on Brit commercial TV and they are longer intervals apart (I think it's circa 1.5-2 mins of adverts every 20 minutes, or thereabouts) and they are clearly delineated from the programmes by programme idents, etc. Plus, each segment between adverts tended to concentrate on a separate theme (live in USA for one section, reaction in Britain for another, etc). I seriously doubt if they would have caused offence.