It’s not just Barack Obama’s ads that will be on NBC’s Olympics coverage. John McCain’s campaign will air advertising during the Beijing Games, too.

The McCain campaign made a last-minute $6 million buy, a slightly bigger buy than the $5 million purchase made earlier by Sen. Obama’s campaign.

Like the Obama campaign, the McCain campaign bought a package that includes both network and cable spots.

NBC is broadcasting the Olympics on its broadcast and cable channels as well as NBCOlympics.com.

The buys are the first substantial purchases of network TV by any presidential candidate in 12 years, though Rudy Giuliani’s campaign had two tiny buys on "Fox News Sunday" broadcasts earlier this year.

In recent years, presidential candidates have restricted their national advertising to some cable in battleground states.

The McCain campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” said Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of TNS Media Intelligence’s Campaign Media Analysis Group.

“For the same reason the idea was good for [Obama], it is good for McCain: It’s high traffic for eyeballs in a normally low-traffic time of year,” he said.

Mr. Tracey speculated that the McCain campaign, which is accepting federal funds for the general campaign that kicks off after the Republican National Convention the first week in September, made the last-minute buy to use up money it raised for the primary campaign. That money cannot be spent after the convention.