CNBC.com Barack Obama

I've been writing a lot about the weak advertising market, and how political ads have been one bright spot. Well now Barack Obama's war chest is going to give the nets a real injection of capital: the campaign bought 30 minutes of prime time programming on CBS and NBC, starting at 8 pm Eastern on October 29.

The campaign is also talking to ABC, which says nothing is yet finalized, and with Fox, which may not be able to air anything because of a potential World Series Game. The price of commercial time in a Wednesday prime time half hour would cost about $1 million, though if the networks charge for the entire hour, and not just the ad time, it would be even more expensive.

This isn't the first time a presidential candidate has bought a prime time infomercial, but it is the first time in 16 years; Ross Perot bought infomercial time to explain his plan to cut the deficit in 1992. JFK did a half-hour ad in 1960, talking about his religion, and in 1968 Richard Nixon spent $400,000 on two hours the night before the election.

• Campaign Ads Give Television Networks a Boost
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For Obama to buy a half hour of prime time national programming now, says a lot about how many states are in play this election, which makes a national ad buy unusually efficient. It also speaks to the huge amount of money he has raised, and his flexibility outside the rules of the campaign finance system, which caps general election spending at $84 million.

What does this mean for John McCain? Under equal-time rules the networks would have to offer similar rates and similar exposure if McCain chose to buy similar airtime. But since McCain is working within the campaign finance rules, he'd probably have a hard time making this sort of bold move.

• Your Money, Your Vote

Obama has been outspending McCain by a lot--sometimes by as much as three times--in the 14 remaining battleground states. But looking at Obama's big prime time message that will air less than a week before the election, McCain may feel under pressure to say something on the national stage. We'll see how he opts to get his message across.

• Obama Wraps His Hopes Inside Economic Anxiety

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