Political Spending Poised to Set Records

POLITICAL SPENDING POISED TO SET RECORDS
[SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: Jean Grillo]
Analysts project even more record-breaking sums of political spending as the presidential races begin. According to Victor Miller, senior managing director, Bear Stearns, there is 20% more political money in all TV in the 2007-08 cycle then existed in the 2005-06 campaigns. "We're seeing about $2.5 billion for all TV political versus $2.1 billion," Miller remarked during today's TVB "Political: Probing the Mother Lode" panel. "2007 state and local political spending is driving first- and second-quarter earnings in local broadcast," added Evan Tracey, COO, Campaign Media Analysis Group, TNS Media Intelligence. "Political continues to be a growing part of the pie for local TV," Tracy added. "We just had a State Supreme Court race in Wisconsin that generated over $2 million in TV ad spending." According to Tracey, broadcast is still the biggest megaphone, but cable is making deeper in-roads, “especially since politicians like to advertise on news shows and cable has 24/7 news." The calendar, not the candidates, looms as a larger threat, however, to growing political revenues. A growing number of states are moving their primaries to the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday date, with only Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina earlier (in January).
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/04/12/daily.17/

* Political Ads During the Super Bowl? (Associated Press)
As states line up to hold presidential primaries on the first Tuesday in February, the Feb. 3 Super Bowl could look super inviting and super expensive to presidential campaigns eager to deliver a knockout punch.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/04/12/daily.16/