Posted on 11/13/2014 11:08:40 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
In local TV, nobody likes a landslide. Close races are more intriguing to cover for the newsroom, and they are far, far more lucrative for the sales department. An analysis by the Cincinnati Business Courier concludes the runaway win on Election Night by Ohio Governor John Kasich cost two Scripps stations, Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS and Cincinnati ABC affiliate WCPO $10 million in lost revenue:
Political spending is about the footprint and the competitiveness of each individual race, Scripps CFO Tim Wesolowski said during a conference call for Scripps executives to talk to investors and analysts about the companys third-quarter earnings. (Some) races that we thought would be competitive never materialized. The best example of that was a lack of a competitive gubernatorial race in Ohio.
Kasichs wide early lead likely cost Scripps TV stations in Cleveland and Cincinnati more than $10 million, Wesolowski said.
(Excerpt) Read more at mediabistro.com ...
Well that is a point I had made earlier, yes, they push out ads from regular advertisers for sure - which is why it is not a dollar for dollar situation.
If those two stations lost 10 million in ad revenue from the campaigns and PACS, they probably recouped several millions from regular ad buyers who did not get pushed out. I never said it wasn't a money maker, just not the obscene cash cow it may seem from the outside.
A lot of those slots wind up used on “self advertising”, ie commercials for other stuff on the same network. So it isn’t sell it cheap or sell it higher, it’s often sell it cheap or burn it. You’ll notice when there’s competitive races you’ll see a lot less self advertising. During the McSally-Barber dust up here (one of the most expensive congressional races ever) our networks pretty much didn’t advertise their own programming for a couple of week, but you’d get 2 or 3 McSvB ads every commercial break.
My heart breaks for the leftist bastards ...
Not just electronic media. Print/mailing houses do very well also.
Did he say ABC stations?
I’m tearing up at the mere mention.....NOT! They deserve it.
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