Cable Cleans Up on Campaign Ads

CABLE CLEANS UP ON CAMPAIGN ADS
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
All politics may be local, but political advertising on cable television increasingly is going national. The Republican Party's decision last week to buy national ad time on cable networks for the first time in an off-year election followed similar purchases from advocacy groups supporting both parties. The national buys augment the heavy advertising that candidates, parties and advocacy groups conduct on local cable systems and TV stations. Networks such as Fox News Channel and CNN are poised to benefit as local advertising time gets scarce in markets where races are tight for the Nov. 7 election. The chance that the Republican Party may lose control of both houses of Congress has raised the stakes in many districts, leading to a run on local ad time in states including Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. So far, the national cable advertising is a trickle, perhaps around $3 million, according to Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of TNS Media Intelligence's Campaign Media Analysis Group. The national advertising may increase in future races, Mr. Tracey said, as parties seek to strengthen brand loyalty among their supporters. The tight races in this off-year election may push total political advertising as high as $1.7 billion, the same amount spent in the last presidential election cycle, he said.
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10935
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