• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 14, 2016

Many analysts expected a big political TV advertising push this season -- from politicians’ campaigns, political action committees, and other interested parties. But, somewhat under the radar, there was also high interest from non-political marketers buying into TV political content.

CNN and Fox News, according to Bloomberg, is looking to charge high premiums — on the order of $40,000 to $100,000 — for a 30-second spot during both the Democratic and Republican conventions.

And this comes as many voters already know who their candidates will be -- and perhaps who they’ll vote for. So where’s the drama in that?

Heightened interest in politics has already yielded big storylines -- the controversial style and speech of Donald Trump and the federal investigation of emails by Hillary Clinton.

This interest will be extended even more by near-wall-to-wall TV coverage of convention events. Virtually all TV networks are upping their programming hours versus four years ago.

This would make sense, especially on the back of some wildly unexpected big viewing in the primary season during the Republican debates.

Once the conventions are over, momentum will hopeful build into the expected presidential debates in the fall -- talk fests with even higher TV advertising premiums.

In 2012, the first debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney pulled in 67.2 million viewers -- which itself broke a 32-year-old record. One Fox executive believes the very first of the Trump-Clinton debate should best this level -- but perhaps not reach Super-Bowl-like ratings.

A record $4.4 billion in political advertising was expected before the start of this political season. Now, new analysis suggests those numbers -- due to the continued flood of money by special interests -- might be even higher when all is said and done.

One possible chink. Should the race become weak -- if, for example, Trump falls well behind Clinton in the polls -- then U.S. viewers may look away to other TV drama, in real life or otherwise.