• by Wayne Friedman , November 3, 2020

Election night TV advertising on major cable TV news networks looks to be up a massive two times or more higher than for the Presidential election in 2016.

Preliminary pricing for a 30-second ad unit in prime time on CNN is at $231,000 -- sharply higher versus the total of $92,687 for the network in 2016,  according to SQAD MediaCosts: National, the advertising cost data company.

MSNBC pricing is at $125,000 versus $52,496 in the previous Presidential election.

Fox News Channel is also at double its 2016 unit prices -- at $160,000 to $180,000 for a 30-second unit, according to media agency executives. This is up from $82,319 in 2016, according to SQAD.

For the mid-term elections in 2018 -- typically the second-highest political advertising-spending season after a Presidential election year -- SQAD says CNN averaged $45,600 for a 30-second spot, compared to $71,614 for Fox News Channel and $25,572 for MSNBC.

In 2017, SQAD says, election night prime-time unit-costs for CNN were $8,300 for CNN, $10,200 for Fox News Channel and $4,200 for MSNBC.