• by Wayne Friedman , November 25, 2019

As part of his reported $37 million in proposed initial TV advertising spend, new Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg started his efforts on Sunday night with one commercial and four airings, totaling an estimated $1 million in TV spend.

Bloomberg’s TV commercial aired on CBS’ Sunday afternoon NFL Football, “60 Minutes” and “God Friended Me” and NBC’s “Football Night in America,” according to iSpot.tv.

Over the weekend, Bloomberg officially entered the race, with a reported near-term expected TV advertising spend of $37 million.

While the big TV campaign was an eye-opener to political TV analysts, Bloomberg has a ways to go when it comes to current spending versus other candidates -- especially in contrast to another Democratic candidate with a strong financial/business background.

In the past month alone, candidate Tom Steyer has aired 14 different commercials -- some 2,005 national/regional airings -- totaling $11.4 million, according to iSpot.tv. Since July, he has spent $14.5 million overall (2,739 airings).

Also during that period, the Donald J. Trump for President campaign had six airings with a number of commercials for an estimated $552,571 in national/regional TV spend.

Among other candidates during this period, Pete Buttigieg’s Pete for America campaign for had two airings, with ad spend of $77,218, while Joe Biden’s Biden for President campaign had one airing, with ad spend of $40,411.