across-the-board

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Phrase indicating a program scheduled to be broadcast at the same time, on the same radio or television station, for five consecutive days every week (usually Monday through Friday)-for example, a television soap opera or the XYZ morning radio show. The name derives from the fact that the weekday program schedule is sometimes referred to as the board. Programs that are shown across-the-board generally appeal to the same audience every day and are therefore excellent vehicles for advertisers who wish to reach their current or prospective customers with this frequency in the belief that frequent repetition of commercials will best sell their product. Often, broadcast media representatives will offer special prices for commercial time that is scheduled in across-the-board programming, making the commercial package economically attractive. Across-the-board programming is also called strip programming, because the program fills in a strip in the broadcast schedule.

Encompassing everything in a certain class or group; movement in the stock market that affects almost all stocks in the same direction. For example, when the market moves up across the board, almost every stock gains in price. An across-the-board pay increase in a company is a raise of a fixed percentage or amount for all employees.

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Applying to all the individuals in a group, as in They promised us an across-the-board tax cut, that is, one applying to all taxpayers, regardless of income. This expression comes from horse racing, where it refers to a bet that covers all possible ways of winning money on a race: win (first), place (second), or show (third). The board here is the notice-board on which the races and betting odds are listed. Its figurative use dates from the mid-1900s.

A market-wide directional movement, or a market condition in which most stocks and sectors are moving in the same direction. These movements are usually caused by market-wide events.

Investopedia Says:
If you hear in the financial media that the "stock market is up across the board", it means that most of the stocks in the market are up on that day's trading. The term comes from the NYSE big board, a large board on which stock prices were once written; when the majority of prices were up or down, the movement was shown "across the board".

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For a list of words related to across-the-board, see:

• Television Programming and Institutions - across-the-board: scheduled daily at same time

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