Various TV plans for Super Tuesday by Zuzana Moravcova

In New York, the Super Tuesday for the presidential primaries is nearing. For television and media, it is going to mean an unexpected profit. All three broadcast networks have set an hour for a Super Tuesday wrap-up, but ABC TV decided to give its whole prime-time to the political story. CBS News doubled its commitment from one to two hours. An ABC News-Washington Post research made last week found that Americans are almost as excited about Super Tuesday (37 percent) as they were about the final of the Super Bowl (40 percent). What is usrprising, college graduates were more excited about the political contest than about an important football game. It showed 53 to 33 percent. According to Nielsen Media Research CNN's prime-time weeknight viewership in January jumped 39 percent from January 2007. Both CNN and MSNBC, which was up 33 percent, have aggressively promoted their political parties. "We are pleasantly surprised by the level of interest," said Jon Klein, president of CNN U. S.. "We knew they would be interested. We did not know they would be obsessed. We are obsessed, too, so that is a good match." BBC America broadcasts five hours of coverage, which is going to be seen worldwide. After Wednesday night, the BBC's team is joined by Ted Koppel to offer analysis. New options on Super Tuesday include a six-hour online video report including features of journalists from the Washington Post and Newsweek. It is all going to be available through those publications' Web sites.

by Zuzana Moravcova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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