Commentary

Big Political Ad $: Will Media Agencies Want More Protection For Bumped Consumer Brands?

It's raining political TV advertising dollars. But some fallen precipitation could be washing away steadier ad budgets.

Political ad dollars for the mid-term elections could pack a wallop this year, with over $4 billion in business to local TV stations -- estimates anywhere up to 70% better than 2008.

The bad new is that political messaging is pushing out some of those more steady advertisers -- such as the crucial automotive manufacturer and dealers that have helped contribute to the returning growth spikes for local TV station groups. Seems even those top-level commercials for advertisers who have contracts and guarantees to prevent pre-emption can be bumped if a same-priced political spot wants to take that particular place.

Much of this has to do a Supreme Court decision now allowing corporations to more openly air political messages, as well as looser restrictions for political organizations in pushing their respective causes.

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But one has to wonder whether these bigger corporate political backers -- say certain automobile, telecommunications, car insurance, retail, and other TV advertisers -- are actually bumping some of their own consumer product messages.

For decades now, TV stations have had the somewhat artificial bump of a two-year cyclical rise of political dollars from the presidential elections, and then two years later from mid-term elections. The key question is what happens next year, when there are no mid-term or Presidential elections,

For the most part, advertisers don't buy local TV with the viewership guarantees that advertisers get with national TV networks. Going forward, one wonders whether the bigger media agencies will want more protection from their local TV station vendors when it comes to their consumer messaging efforts.

In a still radically changing, hard-to-predict media world, local TV station sales managers need to stay on their toes.

1 comment about "Big Political Ad $: Will Media Agencies Want More Protection For Bumped Consumer Brands? ".
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  1. Michael Taffaro from WMUR TV, November 2, 2010 at 11:49 a.m.

    Very old news.

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