sustaining program

noun

1. a radio or television program without a commercial sponsor.

sustaining program

noun

1. a television or radio programme promoted by the broadcasting network or station itself and not by a commercial sponsor

Word History and Origins

Origin of sustaining program¹

An Americanism dating back to 1930–35

Example Sentences

Developed by NBC as a sustaining program, Information Please long attracted no sponsor because agencies thought it appealed to an intellectual, and therefore limited, audience.

From Time Magazine Archive

Invitation to Learning is the only network sustaining program that has successfully brought out the drama that exists in the disinterested play of ideas.

From Time Magazine Archive

Successful with rustic Seth Parker on an NBC sustaining program, Author Lord last year wrote a script concerning "The Stebbins Boys," two elderly bachelors of Bucksport, Maine.

From Time Magazine Archive

Five months after they introduced their feature as a sustaining program at $100 a week apiece, Impersonators Gosden and Correll signed up with Pepsodent toothpaste to broadcast over a national NBC hookup six nights a week for $100,000 a year.

From Time Magazine Archive

Columbia, putting it on as a sustaining program, will spend about three times as much.

From Time Magazine Archive