Posted on 10/12/2008 11:45:30 AM PDT by AZLiberty
What wouldn’t presidential candidates do for media hype? Tough question. What they would surely do, however, is get big bucks out of their pockets and buy network primetime. At least this is what the Democratic presidential nominee did.
The Barack Obama campaign will pay NBC and CBS just under $1 million each so as to air the ad-program it will create for the first 30 minutes of primetime on October 29, according to documents released by the two networks.
The established prices are far from reaching the standard fees an usual advertiser would be required to pay for a half-hour time purchase, which is nevertheless very uncommon in broadcast network primetime. Although Barack Obama is not getting a cost cut, his campaign will be charged the so-called “lowest unit cost,” meeting the requirements of federal law.
In spite of the fact that the campaign’s ad buyer GMMB initially intended to acquire the first 30 minutes of CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox primetime on Thursday, October 30, Sunday, November 2, and Monday, November 3, it eventually settled for Wednesday, October 29, as the Thursday and Sunday buys would have been more expensive.
The deal makes Senator Barack Obama the first presidential candidate in 16 years to purchase a half-hour primetime network television for a campaign program.
The ads are due to be aired just a few days before the long-awaited election.
Wouldn't it be a shame if the country experienced a half hour brownout during the scheduled broadcast???
If they had a "No Obama" channel, I'd be watching it exclusively.
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