That’s not unexpected, given the tough comps of the election year last year, so Wall Street analysts were not surprised by the TV pacing figure for Q4. The past quarter finished up with TV down 8.9% in September to 64.8 million. Gannett CEO Craig Dubow noted proudly that non-political advertising was up in Q3 for the broadcast group, "with solid growth in several categories." 2008 is expected to be a very strong year for Gannett’s TV revenues, since it has so many NBC stations carrying the Beijing Olympics along with the expected heavy inflow of political spending. One analyst expressed concerns that with the Summer Olympics coming rather late, August 8-24, some potential political advertising might be competing for airtime with Olympics-related advertising. Dubow isn’t worried, insisting that the scarcity of inventory "will play out in a very positive way for us."
