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RACE TO
RICHES
Local TV stations are stepping up
efforts to attract political dollars
as unrestricted PAC cash floods the airwaves
Story by Cynthia Littleton Ω Illustrations by Francesco Bongiorni
On Oct. 15, executives from Tribune Broadcasting’s 42 TV
stations around the country gathered at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel
in Washington, D.C., for a day of workshops, seminars and
insights from guest speakers on the biggest money-making
opportunity for many local TV stations over the next 12 months:
political advertising.
Television’s quadrennial gold rush is on, and promises to be
fiercer and richer than ever. A perfect storm of conditions is
driving a leap in TV spending that is projected to hit $4.4 billion
for the 2016 election cycle, encompassing federal and state
races, up from $3.8 billion in 2012, according to Kantar Media’s
Campaign Media Analysis Group . This political spending surge
has helped drive the burst of mergers and acquisitions activity
among TV station owners during the past three years.
With billions of dollars up for grabs over a short period
of time, broadcasters like Tribune and others are intensifying
their sales efforts, and in some cases centralizing the process,
in order to make the most effective pitches possible to the
political class.
“We determined two years ago that we needed to double
the size of our political team,” says Tribune Broadcasting president
Larry Wert. “We know that most of the dollars are placed
out of New York and Washington, so we did a few things to
address that. We created sales leadership (positions) dedicated
to that role.”
The 2016 race marks the first battle for the White House
without an incumbent on the ballot since the Supreme Court’s
landmark Citizens United decision in 2010. That ruling removed
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