Beyond the phenomenally lopsided overall spending, a look at past ad buys and reservations of future ad time reveals some other potential medium-by-medium effects of a less contested Democratic primary versus the mosh pit that is the Republican race. Just four Democratic advertisers have been up on TV or radio in this month alone. On the Republican side? Fifteen. As of November 13, CMAG showed $141 million in past and prospective spending by Republican presidential advertisers on local broadcast, local cable, satellite TV and radio versus $22 million in past and prospective spending by Democrats. That $22 million includes activity by Bernie Sanders' campaign, which only just debuted on TV earlier this month. While small amounts have been spent or booked on network advertising and on March states, the vast majority of the money has gone, or is going to just the first four. Behind the numbers, arguably, are a handful of trends by medium:
- Domination by local broadcast (call it the WMUR factor)
- Greater use of local cable by Republicans than Democrats (call it the Fox factor)
- Ditto with satellite TV
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