• by David Kaplan , December 1, 2004

Two different studies show that while broadcast TV attracted the lion's share of political advertising--which led to a significant rise in ad revenues for local broadcast, especially last quarter--cable is continuing to make inroads into those gains.

Local broadcast television ad revenues rose 12.2 percent in the third quarter of 2004 compared to the same period last year, according to a Television Bureau of Advertising analysis of estimates supplied by TNS Media Intelligence/CMR in the top 100 markets.

Not surprisingly, the biggest percentage increase among the top 25 advertising categories for the quarter was posted by "Government & Organizations," which was mostly political spending.

"The political category was up 165.7 percent over the same period in 2003," said a TVB representative, noting that The Bush for President Committee made it onto the list of the top 25 individual local advertisers for the quarter, at number 19. And perhaps partly accounting for his challenger's defeat, the Kerry campaign ranked number 41 on the top advertising categories list.

The largest dollar volume increase during the third quarter came from Automotive and Car Dealers--up $112 million or 10.9 percent. Twenty of the top 25 categories posted increases in the quarter.

In addition to Government & Organizations, the major categories that posted the largest percentage increases in the third quarter were: Media & Advertising (41.0 percent), Insurance & Real Estate (40.7 percent), Financial (30.5 percent), and Computers & Software (28.0 percent).

Twenty of the top 25 categories increased their third-quarter spending on local broadcast television, the TVB reported. Among the top 25 advertisers, the biggest percentage increases in the third quarter were posted by Sprint Corp. (332.1 percent), Berkshire Hathaway (123.4 percent), Verizon Communications (83.7 percent), Comcast Corp. (72.4 percent), and Pepsico (54.6 percent).

Rounding out the broadcast picture, network television posted a 24.9 percent increase in the third quarter, and syndicated television posted a 16.8 percent gain. Combining network and local broadcast television's figures, total broadcast television thus posted an 18.7 percent gain.

For the first nine months of the year, the figures stand at a 9.8 percent increase for local broadcast television, a 17.3 percent increase for syndicated television, and a 12.5 percent increase for network television (putting the first-half grand total for broadcast television at an 11.8 percent increase).

Although TV and radio stations still attract the bulk of election ad and marketing dollars, cable and satellite companies passed newspapers for the third-largest slice of this year's gigantic campaign spending pie, according to a new study from market research company PQ Media.

Cable and satellite collected 2.9 percent of the $2.7 billion being spent by all sources on all election-related media this year--up from 1.6 percent of $1.2 billion in 2000, PQ Media's report said.

"Cable has become much stronger in reaching niche audiences and local audiences," said Patrick Quinn, PQ's president.

According to PQ's study, broadcast television will command the largest share of political media spending in 2004 at $1.5 billion, while Internet advertising is expected to see the fastest growth from 2000 to 2004, with spending up 853.8 percent.

Media spending in the presidential race is projected to climb to $990 million in 2004, accounting for 36.9 percent of communications spending on all races--including those for congressional, senatorial, and local seats.