NBC’s Lester Holt, Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie along with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow talked 2016 politics at an NBC-sponsored event at Advertising Week this morning. While Lester Holt promised it wouldn’t all be about Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner was a hot topic of conversation, as was a potential Joe Biden run, (Maddow doesn’t think he’ll jump in).
Todd talked about a topic near and dear to many local stations: campaign advertising. “I can’t wait to see what the Cedar Rapids media market is going to look like on January 25,” said the Meet the Press host. The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus is four months from tomorrow.
Between campaign cash, RNC and DNC spends, and heavily-funded super PACs, there will be no shortage of ads. Some candidates “will get stuck with 3 a.m. timeslots for your advertising,” Todd predicts.
Todd said he would not be surprised to see local TV pack more ads into newscasts. Most local newscasts run 22 minutes, “but we’ll see a 20-minute broadcast,” Todd said. “I think we’ll even go to 18 and then 16-minute broadcasts.”