Corporations get political megaphone
Supreme court reduces regulations on political advertisements
Edward Wasserman, MCT
Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: Voices
Media-bashing is such a reliable crowd-pleaser for conservatives that you never stop to wonder whether all that anger might be a bit of a sham. After all, whenever the opportunity comes along to ensure that the companies that own the media are amply fed and watered, the media's most stalwart allies are on the right.
While liberals quiver and quail, conservatives invariably step right up: No proposed media merger is ever too colossal to block, no matter how it would hobble competition; no regulatory surrender is too cowardly if it'll bring more money to media owners, no matter how thoroughly the "public convenience and necessity"-which communications policy is supposed to protect - would be trashed.
Hence, January's decision from the right-minded conservatives who control the U.S. Supreme Court. They swept aside longstanding restrictions on corporation-funded political advertising and thereby ensured the country's media hundreds of millions of dollars of additional ad revenues for many years to come.
Most of the coverage of this ruling has focused on its consequences for the so-called marketplace of ideas. Either this fanciful place is now open to voices that had been wrongly muffled (the view of the court's 5-4 majority), or it's been left defenseless to unrestrained predation by special interests (President Obama's view, reiterated during his State of the Union speech.)
But what's missing from that discussion is the impact this ruling will have on America's advertising-dependent media. It's Christmas in January.
The ad industry was quick to recognize this, and Advertising Age, the respected trade journal, quoted a Needham & Co. estimate that the ruling would bring an additional $300 million - in addition to the $2.8 billion already forecast - to local TV stations this year. Another Ad Age writer quoted an analyst from TNS Media Intelligence that the ruling "takes an already bulked up (election season) and puts it on steroids."
Analysts cited by Ad Age suggested that CBS, whose local TV stations cover 40 percent of the country, will get $50 million more this year than the $160 million it got from political ads in 2008. Other major station owners will also benefit, among them News Corp., Disney, NBC Universal, Gannett, Scripps, Belo, Meredith, Gray and Sinclair Broadcast. For local stations, political advertising is second only to automotive ads, accounting for 10 percent of total revenue in election years.
While liberals quiver and quail, conservatives invariably step right up: No proposed media merger is ever too colossal to block, no matter how it would hobble competition; no regulatory surrender is too cowardly if it'll bring more money to media owners, no matter how thoroughly the "public convenience and necessity"-which communications policy is supposed to protect - would be trashed.
Hence, January's decision from the right-minded conservatives who control the U.S. Supreme Court. They swept aside longstanding restrictions on corporation-funded political advertising and thereby ensured the country's media hundreds of millions of dollars of additional ad revenues for many years to come.
Most of the coverage of this ruling has focused on its consequences for the so-called marketplace of ideas. Either this fanciful place is now open to voices that had been wrongly muffled (the view of the court's 5-4 majority), or it's been left defenseless to unrestrained predation by special interests (President Obama's view, reiterated during his State of the Union speech.)
But what's missing from that discussion is the impact this ruling will have on America's advertising-dependent media. It's Christmas in January.
The ad industry was quick to recognize this, and Advertising Age, the respected trade journal, quoted a Needham & Co. estimate that the ruling would bring an additional $300 million - in addition to the $2.8 billion already forecast - to local TV stations this year. Another Ad Age writer quoted an analyst from TNS Media Intelligence that the ruling "takes an already bulked up (election season) and puts it on steroids."
Analysts cited by Ad Age suggested that CBS, whose local TV stations cover 40 percent of the country, will get $50 million more this year than the $160 million it got from political ads in 2008. Other major station owners will also benefit, among them News Corp., Disney, NBC Universal, Gannett, Scripps, Belo, Meredith, Gray and Sinclair Broadcast. For local stations, political advertising is second only to automotive ads, accounting for 10 percent of total revenue in election years.
Article last update: 2/2/10 at 8:37 PM CST
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