Cable's Campaign Push

CABLE'S CAMPAIGN PUSH
Cable will significantly increase its share of campaign ad dollar revenues in 2008, analysts and cable ad advocates agree. Another point of agreement: Cable still lags far behind broadcasting in the grab for its part of the multibillion-dollar pot. While cable has done a better job of selling its targeting advantages to political operators, analysts say, it still has some work to do to overturn broadcast's considerable edge. According to progressive think tank New Politics Institute (NPI), Democrats plunked down $10 on broadcast ads for every dollar they spent on cable in 2006. That figure was a vast rise over the 18 to 1 broadcast-to-cable ratio in 2004, when cable earned only an $80 million slice of the total $1.5 billion ad-buying pie. The figures are still trending upward, says NPI. In 2008, research firm PQ Media predicts that broadcast TV will rake in more than $2.2 billion in campaign spending, a 46% gain over 2006. As for cable's share, Evan Tracey, chief operating officer for the Campaign Media Analysis Group of TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks campaign advertising, estimates cable in 2008 taking anywhere from 12%-18% of the TV total. That would put the wired medium's share of both Democratic and Republican dollars at between $250 million and $400 million.
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