ID :
27827
Sat, 11/01/2008 - 05:47
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Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/27827
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Over 33 million Americans watch Obama election ad
Washington, Oct 31 (PTI) If Barack Obama fails to win the race for the White House, the U.S. T.V. networks should hire him to entertain viewers on Wednesday nights as the Democratic Presidential nominee has attracted record viewership for his paid political ad, a major Hollywood publication has said.
Obama's 30-minute prime-time infomercial was seen by 33.6
million viewers across seven networks -- C.B.S., N.B.C., Fox,
Univision, M.S.N.B.C., B.E.T. and T.V. One.
That was 70 percent more than the viewership for the conclusion of the World Series on Fox (19.8 million) on Wednesday. Clearly, Obama vs. McCain is more compelling to viewers this week than Phillies vs. Rays (popular baseball programme), 'The Hollywood Reporter' said.
Rating agency Nielsen estimates that roughly 71 percent viewers of Obama's paid political advertisement were white, 17 percent were black and 15 percent were Hispanic.
However, the tricky question was how one could compare Obama's ad to? After all, such a national pre-election special has not been attempted in more than a decade.
A Ross Perot political special in 1996 totalled 22 million viewers. And one of Perot's ads on November 2 in 1992 carried on A.B.C. and C.B.S. attracted 26 million viewers.
Obama's ad was 30 percent higher but, then again, Perot only got 19 percent of the vote on Election Day, the major trade publication of the film industry in the United States noted.
The lowest-rated of the three recent presidential debates involving Obama and his Republican rival John McCain received 52.4 million viewers -- but that was carried by more networks and was, after all, a highly anticipated debate instead of a paid ad, it said.
Among all seven networks, the time period typically draws a total of 30.3 million -- so Obama increased their viewership by about 11 percent.
The Obama ad was most watched on N.B.C., where nearly 10 million viewers tuned in. More than 8.5 million watched on C.B.S. while just under 8 million viewed the programme on Fox. On average, about 7 million people usually tune into each network at that hour.
Among the top 56 local metered markets, Nielsen says the
Baltimore market had the largest T.V. audience for the ad while the Portland market had the lowest.
But even if American viewers did not catch the spot when it first aired, clips of the programme had repeatedly been broadcast across the cable news channels Thursday, maximising the 47-year-old Illinois Senator's exposure in the crucial remaining days before Election Day on November 4.
In the ad, Obama, who aspires to be the first black-American president, promised to keep the doors of government opened for the people and called for their participation in American democracy.
"I'm reminded every single day that I am not a perfect man. I will not be a perfect President. But I can promise you this. I will always tell you what I think and where I stand. I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face.
"I will listen to you when we disagree. And, most importantly, I will open the doors of government and ask you to be involved in your own democracy again," Obama said.
"The strategic brilliance of this for Obama is that he is going to consume about 24 hours of the news cycle," Evan Tracey of Campaign Media Analysis Group said. "It boxes McCain in, takes the oxygen out of the room," CNN quoted Tracey as saying.
It is unclear exactly how much the Obama campaign spent on the commercial in total, but estimates put the cost at least USD 3.5 million. PTI
Obama's 30-minute prime-time infomercial was seen by 33.6
million viewers across seven networks -- C.B.S., N.B.C., Fox,
Univision, M.S.N.B.C., B.E.T. and T.V. One.
That was 70 percent more than the viewership for the conclusion of the World Series on Fox (19.8 million) on Wednesday. Clearly, Obama vs. McCain is more compelling to viewers this week than Phillies vs. Rays (popular baseball programme), 'The Hollywood Reporter' said.
Rating agency Nielsen estimates that roughly 71 percent viewers of Obama's paid political advertisement were white, 17 percent were black and 15 percent were Hispanic.
However, the tricky question was how one could compare Obama's ad to? After all, such a national pre-election special has not been attempted in more than a decade.
A Ross Perot political special in 1996 totalled 22 million viewers. And one of Perot's ads on November 2 in 1992 carried on A.B.C. and C.B.S. attracted 26 million viewers.
Obama's ad was 30 percent higher but, then again, Perot only got 19 percent of the vote on Election Day, the major trade publication of the film industry in the United States noted.
The lowest-rated of the three recent presidential debates involving Obama and his Republican rival John McCain received 52.4 million viewers -- but that was carried by more networks and was, after all, a highly anticipated debate instead of a paid ad, it said.
Among all seven networks, the time period typically draws a total of 30.3 million -- so Obama increased their viewership by about 11 percent.
The Obama ad was most watched on N.B.C., where nearly 10 million viewers tuned in. More than 8.5 million watched on C.B.S. while just under 8 million viewed the programme on Fox. On average, about 7 million people usually tune into each network at that hour.
Among the top 56 local metered markets, Nielsen says the
Baltimore market had the largest T.V. audience for the ad while the Portland market had the lowest.
But even if American viewers did not catch the spot when it first aired, clips of the programme had repeatedly been broadcast across the cable news channels Thursday, maximising the 47-year-old Illinois Senator's exposure in the crucial remaining days before Election Day on November 4.
In the ad, Obama, who aspires to be the first black-American president, promised to keep the doors of government opened for the people and called for their participation in American democracy.
"I'm reminded every single day that I am not a perfect man. I will not be a perfect President. But I can promise you this. I will always tell you what I think and where I stand. I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face.
"I will listen to you when we disagree. And, most importantly, I will open the doors of government and ask you to be involved in your own democracy again," Obama said.
"The strategic brilliance of this for Obama is that he is going to consume about 24 hours of the news cycle," Evan Tracey of Campaign Media Analysis Group said. "It boxes McCain in, takes the oxygen out of the room," CNN quoted Tracey as saying.
It is unclear exactly how much the Obama campaign spent on the commercial in total, but estimates put the cost at least USD 3.5 million. PTI
