Why Georgia Runoff Ads Are Running On Tennessee’s News Networks

He estimated that Georgians make up about 10 percent of his audience. His station has seen millions of dollars in political spending anyway.

“In a year we have had a pandemic, this is certainly unexpected and to be welcomed,” Ellis said.

Stations make the most money with Super PACs. While the candidates are protected from price cuts under federal law, the external groups are not – and some pay four times the price for the same airtime. In Atlanta, for example, candidates pay $ 6,000 for a 30-second ad during “Jeopardy!”. and $ 5,000 for a seat on the Wheel of Fortune; Super PACs are charged at $ 25,000 and $ 20,000 for the same slots.

“It’s good money,” said Mr. Acuff at the Chattanooga train station.

Among the non-state media markets, Tallahassee, Florida, home to approximately 35 percent of Georgia viewers, is the most efficient for campaigning in Georgia.

At the other end of the scale is the market in Dothan, Ala., Which is only 5 percent of Georgia viewers.

TV stations in Dothan seem small enough to be overlooked by even the most ambitious Georgian politicians. The market reaches a single county in southwest Georgia, Early, that doesn’t crack the top 100 counties in Georgia by population.

A little more than 10,000 people or around 0.1 percent of the state population live there.

But the margins in Georgia in November were so excruciatingly narrow – Mr Biden, the first Democrat to promote the state since 1992, won by less than 12,000 votes – that the campaigns in Dothan advertise, even though 95 percent of the market is outside Georgia .

“This election will be very close,” said Miryam Lipper, a spokeswoman for Mr Ossoff, who said reaching out to all voters is our top priority.