2010: What a Difference a Year Makes in Broadcasting

Coming into 2010, broadcasters were expecting a flood of political advertising dollars to fill coffers depleted by two years of recession. They were not disappointed.

Candidates, parties and others attempting to influence elections, congressional votes and ballot initiatives spent some $3 billion on advertising this year, and most of that, perhaps $2.4 billion, went directly to TV stations, still seen as the best way by far to target likely voters, according to political ad tracker Evan Tracey. So fast did the dollars come, that stations' biggest challenge was managing regular advertisers who were being pushed aside of the campaigners. The political money, along with the return of auto advertising, which had practically disappeared in 2009, fattened the top and bottom lines of most full-service stations and took some of the pressure off the cost lines.