Nielsen: Americans Saw 1.5 Million Ads, Spending Hits $4B

The Nielsen Company says the number of individual political television messages grew by 5% or 70,000 in October 2010 versus the same time period two years ago -- the presidential election -- and more than twice its five year average.

Total political advertising messages grew to 1.48 million in October -- typically the largest month for political commercials. On average over the last five years, October yields some 650,000 average TV political messages; the next biggest month is September at around 290,000; November comes in at 250,000. Estimates are that total political advertising dollars for this 2010 season have grown a massive 30% versus 2008 -- the presidential election year -- to around $4.0 billion. A political message/commercial may air many times during a particular election season. Nielsen says TV viewers in the Cleveland market were exposed to the highest proportion of political TV ads versus overall TV commercials -- 23.4% -- in the month before the election. The next biggest markets included Columbus; Portland; Sacramento; Seattle; Campaign; Reno; Denver; Orlando; and West Palm Beach.