Cleveland Tops Local TV Political Ad Spending

The Cleveland-Akron market now ranks number
one. No, Nielsen has not refigured its DMA's (Cleveland-Akron is still 18). But
according to Television Bureau of Advertising and BIA data compiled by Wells
Fargo Securities, it is the top market in political ad dollars spent
year-to-date through Sept. 2 at $37,250,280.

Number
two is Washington, D.C. at $35,504,710,
followed by Tampa-St. Petersburg-Sarasota, Fla., at $31,233,120.

Rounding
out the top five are Las Vegas at $30,665,420, and Orlando-Daytona Beach, Melbourne, Fla., at $24,854,410.

According
to Wells Fargo, total local TV political ad spending year to date through Sept.
2 is $852.6 million. Add in network and national spot, and the total is just
south of $1 billion at $998.4 million.

Presidential
spending is the greatest percentage of that total, at 45.4% of year-to-date
political ad spending. Congressional was at 33.8%.

Fox
gets the nod as the outlet with the greatest exposure to all those political ad
dollars at 10.2% based on its total market share (station revenue as a
percentage of total market revenue). CBS is second at 8.4%.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.