Nielsen: Americans Saw 1.5 Million Ads, Spending Hits $4B

The Nielsen Company says the number of individual political TV messages grew by 5% or 70,000 in October 2010 versus the same time period two years ago -- the presidential election -- and more than twice its five-year average.

Total political advertising messages grew to 1.48 million in October -- typically the biggest month for political commercials. On average over the last five years, October yields some 650,000 average TV political messages; the next-biggest month is September at around 290,000; November comes in at 250,000.

Estimates are that total political advertising dollars for this 2010 season have grown a massive 30% versus 2008 -- the presidential election year -- to around $4.0 billion. A political message/ commercial may air many times during a particular election season.

Nielsen says TV viewers in the Cleveland market were exposed to the highest proportion of political TV ads versus overall TV commercials -- 23.4% -- in the month before the election. The next-biggest markets included Columbus, OH; Portland, OR; Sacramento, CA; Seattle, WA; Champaign-Springfield, IL.; Reno, NV; Denver, CO.; Orlando, FL., and West Palm Beach, FL.

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The fewest political messages as a proportion to overall TV messages were in Jackson, MS -- just 1.0% of TV commercials came from political messaging.

Other lower political messaging markets included Richmond-Petersburg, VA, 2.45%; Lincoln-Hastings-Kearney, NE, 2.79%; Salt Lake City, UT, 2.94%; Tyler-Longview, TX, 3.60%; Chattanooga, TN, 3.67%; Knoxville, TN, 3.90%; Harlingen-Brownsville, TX, 4.02%; Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX, 4.03%; and Houston, TX, 4.13%.

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