TV Q&A: Do political ads bump regular advertisers?

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review.

Q: We are starting to see more and more political advertising on television as we approach the 2024 election. Are there rules in place to allow local entities such as grocery stores, car dealerships, furniture stores, etc., to have the ability to access those advertising minutes when the majority of advertising minutes are all political?

— Bob, Whitehall

Rob: The FCC requires that stations accept ads from any legally qualified candidates with the commercial time sold at the lowest rate that the “station charges its most favored commercial advertisers for the same classes and amounts of time for the same periods.” The FCC does not require TV stations to accept ads from grocery stores, car dealerships, etc., so the political ads take priority, and the other advertisers can be bumped.

Television stations have more control over ads placed by third-party political groups and TV stations can charge higher advertising rates for those third-party political commercials.

“If the ad comes from an outside group, like a political party or an interest group of a super PAC, then the stations can make editorial decisions about whether or not to run the ads,” Christopher Terry, a University of Minnesota expert on campaign advertising law, told KARE-TV in 2020.

Q: Just wondering why none of the local TV stations aired the Labor Day parade?

— Cheryl, via Facebook

Rob: I don’t recall a TV station ever televising the Labor Day parade in the past 20 years, though maybe that did happen decades ago.

Broadcasting a live event like a parade is resource-intensive and my guess is the local stations have wagered that they could not cover the cost of the broadcast with the advertising they’d sell during such a telecast.

If WPXI decided it couldn’t make enough money during the holiday buying season to justify producing and airing its now-defunct “Celebrate the Season” parade, it seems extremely unlikely any outlet would want to make the effort to televise the Labor Day parade.

Q: When will “Dr. Pimple Popper” return with new episodes?

— Carol, Greensburg

Rob: I never could get TLC representatives to answer if the show would be back beyond the unhelpful “we have nothing to share at this time,” but it appears the program is done on TLC because earlier this month Lifetime announced star Dr. Sandra Lee will have a new series, “Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out,” on Lifetime in 2025.

Q: Will the WVU-Pitt football game on Saturday be on WTAE-TV, Channel 4, or just ESPN2?

— Bruce, via email

Rob: While WTAE will air a pre-game show featuring interviews with the coaches of both teams (11 a.m. Sept. 14), the game itself is only on ESPN2 and streaming on ESPN+.