• by David Kaplan , October 29, 2004

Is the nation tiring of the election already? Luckily, there's less than a week to go, as a poll commissioned by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) found that nearly nine out of 10 Americans believe local broadcasters are providing "the right amount" or "too much" time covering the 2004 elections.

The nationwide poll of 1,001 Americans, conducted October 22 through 25 by WirthlinWorldwide, surveyed Americans on their views related to election coverage provided by local radio and television stations. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percent.

According to the poll, 42 percent believe local broadcasters are providing "too much time" covering the elections, while 47 percent say local stations are providing "about the right amount" of coverage. Only 10 percent of Americans think broadcasters are providing "too little time" covering elections.

An overwhelming margin--69 percent to 28 percent--of poll respondents say they oppose government-mandated free airtime for political candidates.

And given the tightness in many of the local broadcast markets, NAB's members are likely to regard proposed mandated free airtime as a dubious enterprise.

With estimates that political TV advertising will be $1.6 billion--and the bulk of that devoted to spot broadcast--the length of the campaigns has led to such unprecedented spending.

"This is the first time that we've had national political campaigns advertising locally, practically on a year-round basis, and with the concentration so focused on swing states," Kathy Crawford, president of local broadcast, MindShare said. "It has never been like this before."

The spending has been somewhat lopsided, with broadcast beating out cable, media buyers note.

"In contrast to CNN and Fox and other national cable, the candidates haven't been paying much attention to buying local cable," said one media buyer. "The main reason? Local cable's comparatively higher rates. Local broadcast CPMs are just cheaper than cable."