NBC Giving Candidates Low-Cost Spots During Olympics

August 8, 2008

NBC executives have apparently leaned over backwards to please the next president of the United States -- regardless of who he may be. According to MediaPost's online MediaDailyNews, while the network has charged other advertisers $700,000 and up for a 30-second spot during the Olympics, it charged Barack Obama and John McCain's campaigns only $250,000. The ad buys were made by two Washington-area political consulting firms, Media Ad Ventures (McCain) and GMMB (Obama). One advertising executive who purchased spots during the Olympics told the trade publication, "Whoever bought this, I want working for me." An NBC spokesperson said only that the network "worked very closely with both campaigns to provide them with this singular opportunity to reach millions of American voters." Earlier in the day the network said that it had tallied $1 billion in total ad revenue for the Games, for which it had paid the IOC $894 million.