While viewers may be tired of watching political ads on television, the stations themselves sure aren’t wearying of airing them, reports the Associated Press.
TV political spending may reach a record $3 billion, and the benefit could extend beyond Election Day because many regular advertisers have gotten squeezed out of station schedules, the story says. The huge demand from political campaigns is also pushing ad rates up, with station managers saying that some regular advertisers aren’t able to buy ads right now.
"Political advertising has been a gigantic Band-Aid for this market," says Darrin McDonald, general manager of Fox affiliate KVVU in Las Vegas, which expects its political ads to reach $30 million this year, up from $22 million in 2008.
The problem with this is next year no station will be able to match this year’s revenue and so management will go crazy because revenue will be down in 2011. I have seen this cycle over and over.
Oh, but wait, we’ll all be heroes again in 2012 if we don’t get fired first.
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