Every four years, top broadcasters brace for a big revenue hit. The pain only gets worse.
SOURCE: CNN MONEY
Debates whack TV networks
Every four years, top broadcasters brace for a big revenue hit. The pain only gets worse.
October 8, 2004: 11:45 AM EDT
By Krysten Crawford, CNN/Money staff writer
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - When George Bush and John Kerry square off for the second time Friday night, top network executives will be listening to a giant sucking sound.
It happens every four years. Presidential contenders verbally joust on primetime television and the networks airing 90 minutes of uninterrupted coverage lose tens of millions of dollars in advertising.
This time around, independent research analyst Jack Myers estimated that the four top networks -- CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox -- are collectively losing anywhere from $40 million to $50 million on each debate.
With three Bush v. Kerry face-offs this fall, that comes to $120 million to $150 million for this election cycle.
That does not count another wallop from Tuesday night's vice-presidential debate, which Fox did not air due to the baseball playoffs. Nor does it include the advertising losses suffered by the three cable networks, specifically MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN (a corporate cousin of CNN/Money).
"Do they recoup it? No," said Bill Carroll, the director of programming at Katz Television Group.
For networks, election-year debates have long been part of the trade-off of doing business. In exchange for government licenses, they broadcast programming deemed to be in the public interest. While the national party conventions, more circus than serious, no longer qualify, debates do.
Networks have long factored the losses from presidential debates into their projections. And it helped this year that round one of Bush v. Kerry drew 62.5 million viewers, more than...
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