Presidential Election 2012: 80 Percent Spending Spent on Local Television; PACs Considered Big Reason for Record, Says TVB

Presidential elections can be expensive and the 2012 election year provided records.

According to the TVB, a not-for-profit association of America's commercial broadcast television industry with over 500 individual television stations, "the biggest media impact maker on the 2012 Presidential election was...Local market broadcast television. (Again!)."

The report noted local television stations capturing over 80 percent of the total television spending in the political category, this includes local and national cable and network broadcasts.

With the information gathered, TVB stated television remained the largest segment for political organizations to spend on. In 2012, approximately $2.9 billion was spent on local television stations, a 38 percent increase compared to the 2010 elections when $2.1 billion was spent and near double from the $1.5 billion in 2008.

The 2012 presidential election spending was huge due to two components:

1. PACs

2. "New campaign management tools and techniques are fundamentally additive not media replacements in terms of utility and expense."

In regards to PACs, TVB said, "This was the first presidential cycle where they played a role and they played a vastly different role for each campaign. Obama's campaign was in the classic mode. His campaign itself placed 88 percent of the broadcast spots...In the Romney camp the campaign accounted for less than 40% of the spots. His PAC accounted for another 12% - and 50%, half his broadcast media - came from other PACs (mostly Crossroads) and the RNC."

For more information, visit TVB.org.