Demand from advertisers usually extends into the morning after the election. This year, Mr. Collins added, it is stretching into Wednesday night. An increase in early voting because of the coronavirus pandemic means the winner of the presidential election might not be declared in the hours after most polls have closed. Officials in several battleground states have warned that the wait could last days.
Before the contest between President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. took over the news cycle, networks were already moving toward running fewer commercials to try to retain easily distracted viewers while competing against streaming platforms. On election night, several networks plan to limit the number of ads, though most are also selling space on their digital platforms.
Political spending has mitigated some of the effects of the pandemic on the advertising industry in recent months. National spending on cable news commercials was up 115 percent for the Sept. 29 presidential debate compared with the debate on Sept. 26, 2016, according to Standard Media Index, a company that collects advertising data. And spending on cable news last month was up 60 percent from the equivalent period four years ago.
In 2016, the average cost of a 30-second Election Day commercial across major cable and broadcast networks was $16,507, with more than $26.8 million spent, according to Standard Media Index. Fox News has fetched higher prices for Election Day commercials than it had in past years, Mr. Collins said.
Gibbs Haljun, who handles investments at the media agency Mindshare, said Election Day was “a unique circumstance” for many companies, but noted that some brands had kept their ads away from television coverage of a presidential race marked by misinformation and bare-knuckle campaigning.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/business/media/election-day-tv-ads.html
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