Latino media expect ad windfall from presidential race

"We are significant players in the battleground states," said Philip Wilkinson, chief operating officer of Entravision Communications Corp., owner of 51 Spanish-language television stations. "Presidential campaign advertising should come at the end of August, and then I think it's going to come fast and furious." Spanish-language broadcasters in the US project their political advertising sales will soar this year as the presidential candidates woo Latinos in states that have a chance to tip the election. Latinos make up 12% to 37% of the electorate in Colorado, Florida, New Mexico and Nevada, four of the six states that President Bush carried by five points or less in 2004, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington research group. Entravision has 22 stations in those four states. Entravision's political ad sales will double to $12 million from the last presidential cycle, said Lloyd Walmsley, an analyst in San Francisco with Thomas Weisel Partners. Univision, the largest U.S. Spanish-language broadcaster, has five TV stations in Colorado, Florida and New Mexico, among a total of 63. Univision expects to take in as much as $20 million in political ads in the second half of 2008, Chief Financial Officer Andrew Hobson said. That would represent a full-year gain of as much as 78% from 2004.