Okay, so to be honest, I didn't watch the infomercial last night. But I read all about it and heard about it, and my post is actually going to not even be about what was said in it- I want to talk about how much it cost to put this thing together, and if any campaign finance laws were broken.
There are estimates that he spent somewhere around 4 million dollars for this infomercial... but how is that number arrived at? At NBC, he will pay $891,250 for the privilege, and at CBS he will spend $961,000. His program also aired on FOX, BET, Univision, MSNBC and TV One. I'm guessing he charged similar prices for those venues. That's the 4 million "cost."
But like any good liberal production, that's not the end of the story. First off, does it really only cost 4 million to get 30 minutes of prime-time coverage on TV? Consider this- NBC will charge advertisers $3 million per 30 seconds during the Super Bowl next year. Obama will only bring in 1/3 the audience of the Super Bowl, to be fair, so let's say it only costs him $1 million for 30 seconds of ad time. Feel free to double check my math, but that is about $60 million dollars (30 minutes X 60 second / 30 seconds). Let's say there is a discount for bulk ad buys like this- we'll give him 1/3 discount. That's $20 million dollars for NBC alone, not $900K. Huh. Must be something going on here.
Turns out there is. Under federal law, television networks charge political campaigns a different rate called "lowest unit cost"- which I'm honestly struggling to find information on. What I could come up with though is that I think there are two components to the "lowest unit cost" deal. The first is that they are not charging for 30 minutes as if it were 60 30 second commercials, but rather as if it were however many 30 second commercials normally are allotted for 30 minutes of prime time (16 per 30 minute show?) The second component is the commercial time which is being billed has to be at the lowest unit cost: what the highest volume year-round advertisers would be charged. Or, put a different way by this site "The lowest unit charge is the rate the station charges its most favored commercial advertiser for the same class and amount of time during the same time period or program."
Interestingly enough on this website is this blurb:
Political File.
Stations must keep a file containing records of all requests for broadcast time made by or for a candidate for public office. The file must identify how the station responded to such requests and (if the request was granted) the charges made, a schedule of the time purchased, the times the spots actually aired, the rates charged, and the classes of time purchased. The file must also reflect any free time provided to a candidate. The station must keep the political records for two years after the spot airs. You can find the political broadcasting rules elsewhere in this manual.
If you're a lawyer reading this blog right now, please email me on how we can do a freedom of information request on these ad buys, and find out the details on all of them, and then evaluate whether they complied with campaign finance laws.
Another important point to make- the "cost" of the ad is the cost of the spot buy on these networks, and does not include the cost to produce the film, which apparently was very slick. How much did that cost?
It apparently was filmed by Davis Guggenheim. As a renowned filmmaker, how much did he charge for his services? Or were they donated? Is that covered under campaign finance laws? Guggenheim has done a lot of work for Democrats over the years- His credits as a producer and director include Training Day, ER, Deadwood, and Party of Five. He directed and produced An Inconvenient Truth, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. He also directed Obama's biographical film, which aired during the Democratic Convention.
How much did the set cost? Apparently there was a copy of the Oval Office, and other fancy sets- what was the price tag for those?
I don't have a lot of these answers, but that "$4 million" price tag probably underestimates considerably the cost of this infomercial.
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