Best Practices for Political Advertising

With midterm elections fast approaching and the broadcasting and cable political window now open, it's time for traffic managers to re-familiarize themselves with the FCC's guidelines for political advertising. MediaPost reports that there will be more than $3.5 billion of political advertising on broadcast TV in 2018, and at this writing in early September less than a third of that has already been spent.

Knowing the law is only the first part of the puzzle for traffic teams. They also need to charge the right amounts, track the Lowest Unit Rates (LURs), and avoid creating too many rebates that need to be paid out after the election.

That's why we recruited WideOrbit implementation experts Janis Logan and Sharonda Webb to lead a webinar on political advertising best practices. Janis and Roni recapped WO Traffic's internal controls for helping traffic managers adhere to industry standards and minimize rebates. Attendees left the webinar prepared to better track political revenue and monitor LUR and spot placement. We'll highlight a few key takeaways below. (Watch the full webinar here)

Baseline standards for political advertising:

According to MediaAudit.com, stations must adhere to a set of baseline standards for political ads:

Stations are required to accept political advertising for Federal offices

Qualified candidates always get the lowest rates for their commercial class of time

The lowest rate regulation is required in political protection periods only (45 days prior to a primary and 60 days prior to a general election)

Political Action Committees (PACs) and party committees are not required to have the same consideration as candidates

We'll show you how traffic teams can win the season by taking the following steps:

Before the political window begins (60 days prior to a general election and 45 days prior to a primary), determine how political orders will be coded in WO Traffic

Regularly monitor political data with daily revenue and spot manager reports

Mitigate reporting errors by pulling and adjusting political reports daily

Ready to learn more? Watch our recorded webinar for the full presentation!

We can only provide guidance on handling ads in WO Traffic. For desired guidance around ad content, ad source, or FCC rules, we recommend consulting your station's legal counsel.

LINK:	https://www.wideorbit.com/best-practices-political-advertising/...
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