The debates tend to be loss-leaders for the networks, typically costing upwards of $1 million to produce. That investment can’t be recouped via the limited number of commercials that air during each debate. But sponsoring a debate helps promote the network’s brand among viewers for the long campaign to follow, said Sam Feist, CNN’s Washington bureau chief and the executive producer of the four debates it has sponsored so far.
“The debates have been fascinating to watch this year,” Feist said. “They have been interesting and important at the same time. There are lots of [programs] that are important but not interesting, and some that are interesting but not important. These are both. The country is facing significant challenges, and there are viewers and voters who are trying to decide which of the candidates to vote for. You have independents and Democrats watching, too.”
Feist argues that the debates are a better way than campaign ads for voters to get information about the candidates. The largely unscripted statements and exchanges reveal more about the candidates than 30-second commercials, he says.
The only people who seem less than pleased about the debates are those running TV stations that count on those ads every four years.
The number of debates, and the broad national exposure they’ve provided, have diminished the need for TV commercials in the early primary states, said Ken Goldstein, who heads Campaign Media Advertising Group (CMAG), an Arlington company that tracks political ad spending.
In fact, ad spending in the two early voting states is way down this year, even accounting for the fact that only one party is contesting the nomination this year compared with two in 2007. The Republican candidates and political action committees have spent $3.3 million on TV ads in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and other Iowa cities so far this year, according to CMAG, vs. $27.4 million at this point during the last campaign.
In New Hampshire, the figure this year is $1.3 million compared with $17.2 million four years ago.
Some candidates haven’t shown up on the air at all. As of Tuesday, Gingrich had yet to run a spot in New Hampshire. Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty spent more on TV ads in Iowa before dropping out of the race in August than Santorum, Huntsman or Bachmann have through mid-December, according to CMAG.
Dale Woods, president of WHO, the NBC affiliate in Des Moines, said his station saw a slight jump in political ad sales after Saturday’s debate. But with only three weeks before the Iowa caucus, that’s a late start. In particular, Woods says, Gingrich and Romney have been slow to take to the local airwaves. “Romney was much more aggressive last time,” said Woods. “But that could be because he’s concentrating on New Hampshire,” where his prospects are much stronger than in Iowa.
This suggests an underappreciated aspect of the debates: that they keep candidates with limited bankrolls and the lagging poll numbers in the race longer. Relieved of the necessity to keep pace in the advertising arms race, candidates such as Santorum, Bachmann and Huntsman can hang around longer.
Just ask Gingrich. Six months ago, his campaign broke and in disarray, he seemed poised to disappear. Today, he’s still on the island. And he may be there next fall, too.
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