• by Wayne Friedman , May 14, 2020

The Donald J. Trump for President campaign has ramped up spending on national TV networks over the first two weeks in May -- on Fox News Channel, HGTV, and three big major TV broadcast networks.

Trump has spent around $1.64 million for 11 spots which had 179 airings, yielding 170.8 million impressions, according to iSpot.tv.

Among the top networks, CBS totaled $396,139 in spending, followed by NBC at $293,595, Fox News Channel with $269,866, HGTV at $260,866  and ABC with $238,715. Those five took in the bulk of the campaign, which has run across 11 networks so far.

Fox News Channel garnered the most impressions -- with 49.9 million, followed by CBS (17.0 million), NBC (14.5 million), HGTV (12.5 million) and ABC (11.1 million).

Between May 2 and May 8, the Trump presidential campaign had 1,737 airings on local TV for the ad “American Comeback” and 982 airings for a COVID-19 commercial called “He Does It His Way,” according to Advertising Analytics.

Over the same period, the Trump campaign spent $1.8 million in digital advertising on some 9,490 pieces of creative on Facebook and Google. 

For that week, $19.8 million in political advertising was spent in local TV for 514 elections. 

On national TV networks, the next-biggest political advertising spend, according to iSpot.tv, was the National Urban League with 49 airings of commercials and $395,253 in spending, yielding 4.44 million impressions.

Unite The Country was next with a spend of $152,608 on 27 airings of commercials, yielding 49.4 million impressions.