• by Wayne Friedman , October 16, 2010

Fox News Channel has signed on two major advertising deals for its big midterm election night coverage: carmaker Infiniti USA and Norfolk Southern Railroad.

Media executives say the Infiniti deal will be a major sponsorship for both TV and online. Infiniti will also be the single sponsor for the day after the election program "Special Report with Bret Baier," as well as the exclusive auto advertiser on election night on Fox News.

Norfolk Southern Railroad will get traditional TV messages -- a media buy of commercials and TV billboards. Norfolk was also a major sponsor for Election Night 2008.

Fox News executives confirm the deals.

On the Internet, Infiniti will get home page messaging on foxNews.com on election day and the day after. The online media package includes display and video ads, which also extend to mobile. Infiniti has been sponsoring a viewer poll both on air and online since August in the Fox Report.

GE Capital also bought an online election package that includes display and video ads.

For election night 2009, Fox News was the easy leader among cable news networks -- averaging 4,043,000 total viewers and 1,130,000 adult 25-54 viewers, key among many advertisers. Fox News grew almost 90% over its 2009 prime-time viewership averages for the night.

For the big presidential election 2008, Fox News was at 9,044,000 total viewers, and 3,925,000 adult 25-54 viewers.