ADVERTISEMENT

CROWDED FIELD
The sheer number
of presidential
candidates,
particularly among
Republicans, is a
contributing factor
to the increase in
political spending.
MARIO ANZUONI/REUTERS/NEWSCOM
before a general election are sold at the lowest rate that the
station offers in the time period. SuperPACs do not qualify
for the lowest-unit-rate discount, so they pay what the market
will bear. And at a time when extremely time-sensitive ad
dollars are flooding in to local markets, the price tag can be
sky-high indeed.
“Certainly it’s the PAC funding that is really driving the
overall growth,” says Tribune’s Wert. “Races vary by state and
by market, and those will ebb and flow, but the PAC dollars
look like they’re just going to continue to escalate.”
Will Feltus, senior VP of Arlington, Va.-based National
Media Research Planning and Placement, says he’s seen situations
where the cost of a 30-second spot on a local newscast
in Roanoke-Lynchburg, Va., No. 69 on the list of 210 TV
markets, costs as much as a spot in New York City. National
Media has a long history of political campaign work, including
media buying for George W. Bush’s presidential bids in
2000 and 2004, and Mitt Romney’s run in 2012.
“Just a few election cycles ago, the typical premium (over
a campaign-purchased spot) would have been about 50%,”
Feltus says. “Now it’s 200% to 300%. It’s the demand. If one
SuperPAC pays that inflated rate, then the others have to
pay it also.”
In some cases, presidential campaigns have found it more
cost effective to buy network TV spots rather than locally targeted
slots. In 2012, Feltus recalls shifting to a network buy
within ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” because a local spot in
Wheeling
and Dealing
Local TV's hunger for
political ad dollars has
helped drive station
consolidation.
$12 BILLION
10
8
6
4
2
0
’09 ’11 ’13 ’15*
’10 ’12 ’14
DOLLAR VALUE OF M&A
AMONG TV STATIONS
*THROUGH Q3
SOURCE: SNL KAGAN
the program on the ABC affiliate in Orlando, Fla., was going
for a pricey $70,000, while a national spot with nearly 100
times the reach cost $140,000.
But that strategy works only for a presidential campaign,
not a state-specific Senate, House or gubernatorial race.
As eager as TV stations are for the windfall, they do have
to exercise some restraint when it comes to peak campaign
season. Stations still have to maintain good relations with
endemic advertisers — meaning there are no 200% price
hikes for the car dealerships, banks, retailers and packaged-good
companies that are a station’s year-round bread
and butter. While there’s no mandated mix of political and
nonpolitical ads, station managers are mindful of turning off
viewers with commercial pods that feature nothing but electioneering.
And there’s potential liability if a political spot
makes an out-there claim about a person or an organization.
The legal vetting process of political ads was a key topic of
Tribune’s daylong summit.
Wilner predicts that TV spending will eventually plateau,
not only because of the generational shift, but also because
advertisers are intent on finding cheaper, more narrowly targeted
digital alternatives. And there’s always the potential for
public backlash to the spectacle of megabucks donors flooding
the airwaves.
“Will this be the last huge cycle for station groups?” Wilner
posits. “We may well look back on 2016 and see it as the
high point for presidential campaign spending.”
Features
63