The ABC television network has shunned such tie-ins with advertisers because it believes the sponsors get much more attention and airtime than do the shows the network is promoting.
It also handles airtime sales for Westcountry Television, S4C and Channel Television.
The stopwatches are running and airtime is being divided not according to news values but according to party entitlement.
It is a far cry from the days when Gonzalez and his wife had to pay stations in advance for pre-dawn airtime.
One of the central issues is the effect on advertising sales of a Granada-LWT deal. The Incorporated Society of British Advertisers has written to the OFT expressing concern about any further concentration in the selling of ITV airtime.
Merrill therefore canceled the airtime it had bought on Tuesday's World Series game; the spokesman says it is still discussing with ABC whether it will have to pay a penalty for doing so.
Charges for phones vary from country to country, and depending on whether they are bought with or without airtime.
But even Mr. Frank of International Management concedes that at such lofty levels, the winning network will have to sell a big chunk of airtime to a cable channel to avoid taking a bath in Barcelona.
In a telephone interview, she said the law allows opposition parties more airtime for campaign purposes than they would have received under their original request.
Schuller blamed his financial problems on the rising costs of airtime.
Gore's campaign bought what deputy campaign manager Larry Harrington called "a decent or modest amount" of television airtime in Illinois.