Awaiting the '04 Windfall

摘要

New Hampshire broadcaster Jeff Bartlett sees the 2004 presidential election shaping up to be another boon for his station, thanks to a crowded Democratic field, a president with slipping approval ratings, and the unceasing creativity of campaign financiers. But it's not only Bartlett's WMUR-TV Manchester and other bellwether stations in New Hampshire and Iowa that are ex- pecting a windfall of political advertising. A new study by securities analyst Tom Wolzien, of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., pegs TV stations' take from the 2004 election cycle―presidential, congressional and gubernatorial races―at $1.6 billion. Where broadcasters once fretted that a new campaign-finance-reform law would cut political revenue, the study says they can now look forward to a year that is 60% bigger than 2000 and 33% bigger than 2002. "There's more advertising than we expected," Bartlett says. "We've been a little surprised." His ABC affiliate has been a prime target of spending on the state's Jan. 27 primary, but he won't disclose the amount taken in so far.