@nightshadea (nightshadea) posted a new topic, subject "does this constitute a conflict of interest for the history channel". It read:

   Ok as I speak the his channel is having shipwreck day No biggie mostly intresting
    
    Until the last program before the one I'm watching that was about the ship called the central america
    
    It was a gallant voyage that ran into a storm people were saved the capatain went down like he was supposed to ect a touching storry about a newlywed couple that survied
    
    It carried a lot of the gold from ca goldfields to the east and cuased a huge bank panic when it went
    
    and then it turned to how people found it years later
    
    But what got me was every commerical break it had commericals advertising the auction that was selling the gold and artifacts fround on the ship
    
    And I was distracted on how the timing of the show alligned with the commericals wondering if i was now watching a paid commerical announcement
    
    So did the his channel pimp its self out or am i just being too picky ?

After which, @Redsland (Redsland) added

    If the History Channel is in possession of the artifacts from the ship, then you're essentially watching an infomercial. Or maybe a telethon.
    
    If the History Channel is not in possession of the artifacts, then the History Channel simply sold advertising time to a businessman savvy enough to realize that the people most likely to be interested in his wares would be watching that particular program.

@Otto (Otto) replied

    Every channel with paid advertising solicits advertisers which match up with the show. There are very few tampon ads during professional wrestling, to offer a cliched example, because the market demographic most likely to be watching wrestling on TV is not the one that buys the tampons. So when the History Channel decided to produce a show on this wreck, it was natural for the sales folk to think that the people auctioning off the finds from the wreck would be interested in advertising. Is it a conflict of interest? Not IMHO, unless the History Channel changed the contnt of the program at the behest of the advertiser as a condition of sale. Is it pimping? No more so than when anyone else does it.
    
    Is it possible that the program _was_ a joint production or a paid program and you just didn't see the disclosure of it?


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