Belo Offers Candidates Free Airtime

Belo will offer the "It's Your Time" program, free airtime for congressional and gubernatorial candidates, for the ninth consecutive election cycle this fall. The company also announced election coverage plans: Belo's news-producing stations will televise at least one hour of political coverage each week in the six weeks prior to the general election on Nov. 6. The company's election coverage in 2012 may include debates, issue- and ad-watch programming, and interviews with local, state and federal candidates which will be streamed and archived on Belo websites through Election Day. Belo stations will also expand their election coverage this year by broadcasting several runs of debates and "It's Your Time" spots on their multicast channels and publishing political coverage on their enhanced smartphone and iPad apps. Candidates participating in "It's Your Time" each receive five minutes of free airtime — four minutes to tell viewers why they should be elected and one minute to answer a question specific to the candidate's individual race.