Politics / Barack Obama Obama Buys $5M in Olympic Ad Time Set for NBC and cable channel coverage By Peter Fearon, Newser Staff Posted Jul 24, 2008 6:52 AM CDT Copied Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks at a fund raiser in New York. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) The Obama campaign has bought $5 million worth of network and cable television airtime to run during coverage of the Beijing Olympics, reports TV Week. It's the first major TV airtime purchase by a political candidate in 16 years. NBC and its cable channels will air 3,600 hours of Olympic coverage beginning August 8. (More Barack Obama stories.) Report an error