CNN is charging advertisers $40,000 to $100,000 for a 30-second spot during the Republican and Democratic conventions, compared with about $5,000 for a normal prime-time commercial, according to a person familiar with the matter. Fox News plans to charge similar rates, according to Ken Goldstein, a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco who analyzes polling and advertising for Bloomberg Politics.
Even before the deadline to make wireless channel requests had passed, the demand from broadcasters and other media outlets has exceeded the supply of available channels in both Cleveland and Philadelphia for coverage of the Democratic and Republican political conventions. Above, FCC Enforcement Bureau and election wireless engineers take RF spectrum measurements during testing before the opening of the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. (Kevin Parrish photo)
CBS To Overhaul 2016 Convention Coverage
Instead of putting money and resources into into the “air-conditioned skyboxes” above the convention floor that typically showcase network reporters and analysts, CBS News will focus on participants “on the ground,” according to CBS News President David Rhodes.
At this moment, the networks are splitting their staffs between the two locations. Other news organizations big and small are also making the same calculations, stationing reporters in Louisiana and Mississippi while leaving other reporters in Tampa, where the Republican National Convention was supposed to begin today.
Exclusives
For third-place CNN, whose ratings hit a 21-year low in the second quarter, the conventions will be especially critical in regaining viewers going into the election.
The Internet will give people more access to convention halls and a greater opportunity to become part of the political conversation. The popularity of social media and people experiencing big events on TV with tablets and smartphones has driven up TV ratings, most dramatically and recently for the Olympics, and television executives are curious to see if the trend continues in Tampa, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C.
With the parties’ quadrennial presidential nominating gatherings fast approaching, organizers on both sides are bedeviled by a similar challenge: how to raise TV viewer interest in the multiday affairs, which threaten to be largely predictable spectacles nearly devoid of suspense.
Scott Pelley, Bob Schieffer, Charlie Rose and Norah O’Donnell to lead CBS News’division-wide, multi-platform coverage of the 2012 Republican and Democratic national conventions.
Political conventions, long the ultimate made-for-TV presentation, this year are coming of age as digital-media events — highlighting the decline of network television coverage of the gatherings.
