Media Buying
Makegood
Free commercial time provided to an advertiser by a broadcaster to strictly compensate for a missed spot, a technical error, or severely under-delivered ratings.
What is Makegood?
Makegoods are the station's apology currency. When a spot doesn't air, airs at the wrong time, airs with audio problems, or the station fails to deliver the contracted rating points, the advertiser is entitled to makegood spots — free inventory that compensates for the shortfall. Makegood contracts are formally specified in the insertion order and governed by industry-standard rules about what qualifies and at what valuation.
Makegoods are a quality signal. A station running frequent makegoods is signalling operational issues — poor scheduling, technical instability, or over-selling against available rating points. Sales-intelligence platforms flag high-makegood stations as vulnerability signals, because advertisers running out of patience are open to competitor pitches.
Why it matters
Ensuring precise technical delivery is critical to avoiding makegoods, which consume valuable future inventory that could otherwise be sold for net-new profit.
Related terms
- Avail (Availability)— Unsold units of commercial time available for broadcasters to sell to prospective advertisers.
- Direct Sales— Advertising inventory sold by the station's internal account executives directly to local business owners, completely bypassing advertising agencies.
- OES (Optimum Effective Scheduling)— A mathematical scheduling strategy explicitly designed to reach a majority of a station's audience three or more times within a single week.
- Remnant Inventory— Unsold advertising space that is typically sold at a steep discount at the last minute to avoid broadcasting dead air.