By JONATHAN POLAKOFF Staff Reporter
The Obama and Romney campaigns haven’t wasted their dime running TV and radio advertisements in Los Angeles. And until recently, neither have special interest groups.
But after an uncharacteristically sluggish start to the year, political ad spending is making a significant impact on revenue for TV and radio stations in Los Angeles.
With 11 separate propositions coming up for a vote on Nov. 6, deep-pocketed proponents and naysayers have ramped up spending in local media, as have some candidates for local office.
“Political advertising is very, very healthy,” said Chris Johnson, national sales manager at KNBC (Channel 4), last week. “We still got 10 days.”
Spots closest to the election are commanding top dollar.
Look no further than Alan Jackson’s bid for Los Angeles County District Attorney.
His campaign is spending $2,560 for an advertisement during the Oct. 29 airing of “Wheel of Fortune” on KABC (Channel 7). By comparison, an ad one week later – the night before the election – during the same evening time slot cost his campaign $5,600, according to public filings.
But it hasn’t been like that all year. The stations are actually playing a game of catch-up after an inauspicious start to the season.
Through August, only $14.5 million was spent on political advertising on broadcast TV, radio and print in the Los Angeles market, industry sources said. It’s a fraction of the $72 million spent during the same period in 2010, when Meg Whitman was running for governor, or the $50 million spent through August in 2008, when Proposition 8 went to vote.
The slow start is largely the result of a bill signed into law last year by Gov. Jerry Brown that moved voting on all ballot propositions to the November general elections rather than June primaries. As a result, only two initiatives that had previously qualified were on the June ballot.
It remains to be seen whether that decision will result in a net loss of advertising dollars.
But one definite effect has been heightened demand for air time in the already-hot days leading up to the election.
“There are only so many” available time slots, said Mary Beth Garber, executive vice president of radio analysis and insights at Miracle Mile’s Katz Radio Group. “They get bombarded.”
TV stations are the largest beneficiary of the political ad dollars. In the Los Angeles market, TV stations get about 70 percent of the local political ad spending, while radio gets about 25 percent and print about 5 percent.
Among the heaviest buyers of local ad inventory recently has been Jackson, as well as various groups either for or against Proposition 32, which would reform political contributions, and Proposition 30, which would increase sales tax and income taxes paid by high earners.
