Political season is underway and that means both financial opportunity and legal risk if Arizona radio and TV stations don’t follow FCC rules. 

LET’S START WITH THE OPPORTUNITY:
Arizona remains forecast as one of the top 5 states in total political ad spend with an estimated $525 million.

To help get your share of this spend, the ABA is hosting a FREE virtual live event on June 28 to review the high profile races, walk through the available candidate ad spend and highlight races where stations may want to make some calls.

Arizona Politics, Polling and Advertising Implications
Tuesday, June 28, 2022, 10am – 11am Arizona Time
REGISTER RIGHT NOW

We’re partnering with Mike Noble and Phoenix-based OH Predictive Insights to make this presentation. It’s an encore to the same highly-attended virtual events we hosted in 2020. The conversation will cover:

1. Overview of the key races in Arizona
2. Governor, US Senate, US Rep, and state legislative fundraising stats
3. Breakdown of political broadcast spending in Arizona

AdImpact expects spending to be broken out as follows: 
Arizona US Senate Seat: $217 million (#3 US Senate spend in the country)
Arizona Governor: $168 million (#2 Governor spend in the country)
Arizona US House Seats: $51 million (#9 US House spend in the country)

Of special note, the US House races remain a wild card across Arizona since so many of the seats have just finished going through a redistricting process to reflect the results of the 2020 census.

NOW LET’S COVER KEY REMINDERS TO MINIMIZE RISK:
LUR: We’re approaching the start of lowest unit rate (LUR) ad windows. The primary election lowest unit rate period opens on June 18, 2022 for an August 2, 2022 primary election. The general election lowest unit rate period opens on September 9, 2022 for a November 8, 2022 general election.

FORMS: We’re sharing the most updated PB-19 forms for FCC political file uploading, one for candidate ads and one for noncandidate ads/PACs. These forms factor in all current FCC rules. The ABA pays for these forms on your behalf. 

CHEAT SHEET: You may also find this 2020 Q&A of all FCC political rules to be incredibly helpful. Even though it’s 2 years old, the rules remain the same.

NEW LAW: In addition to the normal rules of the road, Arizona has passed a new law that affects political campaign contribution transparency. As we first detailed last summer, this law has implications for political ads on TV and radio stations. While the main responsibility falls upon the ad placer, now is the time to make sure you are working this into your SOP for ad review. Read the details.

Have other questions? Reach out anytime.