TV stations hoping for primary do-over

By Paul J. Gough

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - It hasn't been decided whether Florida and Michigan will get a second chance at a Democratic primary, but there's one constituency that's hoping the states will: TV stations.

One Michigan station manager who asked not to be identified, said he "goes to bed every night praying there will be a do-over."

Florida and Michigan moved their primary dates into January, a decision Democratic party leaders punished by stripping them of their delegates. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama campaigned in those states. More importantly to stations' bottom lines, there weren't any ads. Nielsen Monitor-Plus said no ad units for either Democratic candidate ran in Florida or Michigan this cycle.

"They didn't spend at all ... which was a very big problem for us," said Julio Marenghi, president of sales at CBS Television Stations, parent of WFOR-TV and WBFS-TV in Miami and WWJ-TV and KTXA-TV in Detroit.

Clinton, who won both contests, wants to include the states' delegates in her total as she seeks to gain ground on Obama in their bitterly fought battle. Some Florida Democratic officials have proposed a new mail-in presidential primary, a move opposed by Obama's camp.

"We'd welcome another election or a run-off or a complete separate primary for the Democrats in both those states," Marenghi said.

There's no way to know whether any of it will happen. Why commit millions of dollars in TV ads in a state if it's unknown whether it will matter? There's still the next big primary, April 22, in Pennsylvania.

The Keystone Sate also has a heavy presence of network-owned stations; CBS has two stations each in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

"No one's spent yet, but we're anticipating that it's just going to come and we're never going to look back," Marenghi said.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter