Health Care Ad Boost for Cable and Stations

The health-care reform debate is giving national cable news networks a welcome ad boost this month. And as influential politicians head home for August recess, local markets should see a bump, too.

A new coalition backing the Obama administration’s health reform plan launched a $12 million campaign this week with more to come. Americans for Stable Quality Care, the group fielding the campaign, is largely backed by the pharmaceutical trade association PhRMA, which has said it will spend $150 million on ads. (Watch the clip below.) The American Medical Association, FamiliesUSA, Federation of American Hospitals and the SEIU union are also participants.

News of the campaign, reported by Politico, will give some heart to TV outlets looking at disheartening comparisons with the back half of 2008, when close to $1.5 billion was spent on the presidential election.

The ad, from agency GMMB, is meant to shore up support for President Obama and will run on national cable networks and air in markets including Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota and Virginia.

“The reason to be optimistic if you’re a local broadcaster is the fact that town halls have shown this is moving out into the mass market phase,” said Evan Tracey, president of TNS Campaign Media Analysis Group. “It’s more about public opinion now, which would lead me to believe this advertising has the potential to be sustained as long as the healthcare fight goes on in Washington.”

Tracey doubted the windfall would be enough to replace lost auto advertising, but he speculated that the healthcare debate could end up drawing dollars from health insurance companies, which have yet to enter the fray in any major way. “Congress could reach a compromise in September or it may drag on through the year. That scenario is good for broadcasters.”

In addition to health-care dollars, Tracey predicts that many local markets will begin to see early 2010 election advertising money in the third and fourth quarter of 2009.

“Some States have early primaries that may accelerate dollars that would have been spent in the early part of 2010,” said Tracey.