NCC Media, the ad-rep firm owned by three big cable operators, said it has purchased extra advertising time on CNN in October and early November that can be re-sold to political campaigns for local commercials leading up to the November elections.
Greg Schaefer (pictured), CEO at NCC Media, said NCC has added inventory beyond the typical 2 or 3 minutes per hour of commercial time that cable, satellite or telco-TV operators can insert on a given network. NCC approached national news networks, in particular, because they are of interest to political campaigns, and reached a deal with Time Warner Inc.-owned CNN for time between Oct. 6 and Election Day on Nov. 4, Schaefer said.
Forecasting firm Borrell Associates has estimated political-ad spending will hit $8.3 billion this year, with half of that amount being spent in August, September and October. Cable networks' share of that spend is expected to rise to about $719 million, or 8.7%, up from 6.9% four years ago, Deadline.com said, citing Borrell figures.
