The article reads: Barack Obama to pay big for primetime buy, and we find out that Obama really is paying a lot for a 30 minute spot:
But buried a little further in the story is this little gem:NEW YORK -- Barack Obama will pay NBC and CBS almost $1 million each for the campaign's half-hour ad buy in primetime Wednesday, Oct. 29, less than a week before the election.
According to papers available at CBS's headquarters in New York, the campaign agreed Monday to pay $961,000 for the entire 8-8:30 pm time period. It wasn't clear whether that was in pattern, meaning it would run across all time zones at that period.
So it looks like Obama is getting a deal on these advertising spots. Fortunately, at least this half-hour bit will be obviously partisan, as opposed to the regular NBC & CBS programming.The agreed-upon prices are not what it would cost an average advertiser for a half-hour time buy, which are extremely rare in broadcast network primetime anyway. They are the so-called "lowest unit cost" that is required under federal law.
