Campaign 2004 broke all records - - in a big way
Estimates of total campaign ad spending on television for the 2004 election had run as high as 1.5 billion dollars, but a final tally from TNSMI/CMAG says even that was too low. It's pegged campaign spending on TV alone at 1.6 billion - - and that's just in the top 100 markets - - plus another 64.5 million for cable.
Those figures were released by the Alliance for Better Campaigns, which advocates an end to costly campaign via mandatory public financing, plus requiring broadcasters to provide air time to candidates at deeply discounted rates, if not free.
"Television air time is the number one cost center for candidates in competitive races," said the group's President, Meredith McGehee. She called the record ad spending as "an enormous election-year windfall for broadcasters, who receive free licenses to operate on the publicly-owned airwaves."
The TNSMI/CMAG tally of 1.6 billion is more than double the 771 million spent in 2000, the last presidential election year. A total of 1,950,737 political spots aired this year on 615 stations in the top 100 markets.
Meanwhile, the Alliance for Better Campaigns charges that broadcasters lined their pockets with campaign cash, while shortchanging viewers on campaign coverage. "The deluge of ads swamped the meager campaign coverage that most local stations offered this fall. According to the Lear Center Local News Archive, in presidential battleground states, a half-hour of local news averaged almost six minutes of campaign advertising, but only three minutes of campaign news. Forty-five percent of all campaign stories were about strategy or horserace, while only 29 percent focused on campaign issues. Ad watch stories, which truth-check the political commercials, made up less than one percent of campaign stories in the study's sample," the group charged.
Who saw the most campaign ads? While Los Angeles, because of its high ad costs and the number of congressional districts and other electoral races in its far-flung geography, still managed to be #1 in total dollars, 83.9 million, this year's focus on "battleground" states is demonstrated in the number of markets where the most ads ran. Tampa and Mimi, both in battleground Florida, topped the list.
Top Ten Markets, by number of ads sold
Tampa (Market Rank 13): 47,738
Miami (Market Rank 17): 43,216
Las Vegas (Market Rank 51): 41,664
Portland (Market Rank 24): 41,072
Denver (Market Rank 18): 40,341
Cleveland (Market Rank 16): 38,741
Kansas City (Market Rank 31): 38,382
Albuquerque (Market Rank 47): 38,116
Charleston (Market Rank 62): 37,465
Milwaukee (Market Rank 32): 36,713
Source: Alliance for Better Campaigns, TNSMI/CMAG
RBR observation:
Anyone who thinks broadcast licenses are free hasn't tried to acquire one lately. New licenses, by law, now go to auction and if you want to buy an existing license you'll have to pay a multiple of cash flow in the double digits. On top of that, there are annual regulatory fees and it seems every year folks on Capitol Hill - - both Democrat and Republican - - propose new taxes on broadcasters as a way to help fill budget gaps. But those facts are ignored by the folks who see stealing your airtime as an easy way to "level the playing field" between candidates. These attempts at legalized theft won't go away, so broadcasters have to be vigilant in fighting back by emphasizing the role radio and TV play in informing voters - - as described in the following story.
Are you reading this from a forwarded email?
