PAC ad rates

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Throughout this election season, we’ve been following the battle over lowest unit rates – the requirement that, during the 45 days before a primary and the 60 days before a general election, political candidates be sold advertising time at the lowest rate given to any commercial advertiser for the same class of broadcast advertising time airing during the same program or daypart.  Candidates even get the benefit of volume discounts without having to buy in volume.  During this election season, there have been many legal battles over a Public Notice from the FCC’s Media Bureau that had the effect of extending these lowest unit charges to political parties and joint fundraising committees when those committees’ ads are authorized by a federal candidate.  While a group of Democratic candidates challenged that ruling, these challenges effectively ended for this political cycle when the Supreme Court decided that the FCC Commissioners needed time to review the decision of the Media Bureau before any court could consider the merits of the Public Notice, effectively putting the issue on hold for the foreseeable future – or so we thought. 

The issue of lowest unit rates refuses to die.  The push to get LUC extended to parties and joint fundraising committees when their ads are authorized by a candidate was led by the Republican party. The perception is that Democratic candidates’ own campaign committees raise substantially more money than do the committees of Republican candidates, so those Democratic candidates get a greater advantage from their money that buys advertising spots at LUC, as these candidates can potentially buy more spots at lower rates than Republican non-candidate groups that may be opposing their election.  Not content with their initial victory in defending the extension of LUC to parties and joint fundraising committees (where Republican groups  tend to raise more money) for their authorized ads, the Republican National Committee, along with the Texas Republican Party and four Republican candidates, last week filed suit against the FCC in US District Court in Texas arguing that the FCC’s application of the lowest unit rate rules is unconstitutional, as those rules discriminate between different types of political speakers by forcing stations to give their lowest advertising rates only to candidates, and allowing stations to charge more to parties (and, though not stated in the complaint, other political advertising buyers like PACs).  The RNC argues that it is unconstitutional for the government to favor certain classes of political speakers over others who may be delivering messages on the same issues. 

Continue Reading Is the Requirement that Broadcasters Give Lowest Unit Rates to Political Candidates Unconstitutional?  The Republican Party Files a Lawsuit to Find Out

The lowest unit rate window for the November 5 general election opens today, September 6.  With that date in mind, we thought that it was a good idea to review the basic FCC rules and policies affecting those charges. In this election, with the Presidency and control in both houses of Congress at stake as well as many state offices, advertising on broadcast stations, particularly those in some battleground states, is already in great demand by both candidates and issue advertisers.  Your station needs to be ready to comply with the FCC’s political advertising rules and the rates that apply to each of these groups. Lowest unit charges (or “Lowest Unit Rates”) guarantee that, in the 45 days before a primary and the 60 days before a general election, legally qualified candidates get the lowest rate for a spot that is then running on the station within any class of advertising time running in any particular daypart. Candidates also get the benefit of all volume discounts without having to buy in volume – i.e., the candidate gets the same rate for buying one spot as your most favored advertiser gets for buying hundreds of spots of the same class. But there are many other aspects to the lowest unit rates, and stations need to be sure that they get these rules right.

It is a common misperception that a station has one lowest unit rate, when in fact almost every station will have several, if not dozens, of lowest unit rates – one lowest unit rate for each class of time in each daypart. Even at the smallest radio station, there are probably several different classes and dayparts for advertising spots. For instance, there may be different rates for spots running in morning drive than for spots that run in the middle of the night. Each time period for which the station charges a differing rate is a class of time that has its own lowest unit rate. On television stations, there are often classes based not only on daypart, but on the individual program. Similarly, if a station sells different rotations, each rotation that offers substantially different benefits to an advertiser will be its own class of time with its own lowest unit rates (e.g. a 6 AM to Noon rotation is a different class than a 6 AM to 6 PM rotation, and both are a different class from a 24-hour rotator – and each can have its own lowest unit rate). So, in the same time period (e.g. morning drive on a radio station), there may be spots running in that period that have multiple lowest unit rates (e.g.  spots may end up running in that period that were sold just for morning drive, as well as cheaper spots that were sold as part of a 6 AM to 6 PM rotation that just happened to fall within the morning drive period).  Candidates can buy into any of those classes of time, and they take the same chances as does a commercial advertiser as to where their spots will land (e.g. if a candidate buys a 6 AM to 6 PM rotator, and that rotator ends up in morning drive, another candidate may buy that same rotator the next week and end up at 4 PM. That second candidate can only guarantee that they will end up in morning drive by buying a spot guaranteed to run in that time period).

Continue Reading Window for Lowest Unit Rates for Candidate Advertising for the November Election Opens Today, September 6 – Are You Ready?