You also missed the other subsidy. TV ad spots for political ads have their prices frozen at the beginning of the election season. When the season heats up, other advertisers get pushed out as their prices increase, but politicians keep the frozen price.
You are correct. The reason this happens made sense at the time it was done, but doesn't anymore.
At the time these rules were enacted, TV stations didn't want to carry political ads, and hardly any would accept them. The enforced rate structure was devised not only to encourage TV stations to carry political ads, but to ensure that a party with deeper pockets didn't drown out less-well-funded opinions.
When I worked in TV, the sales department hated political season because their bonuses got slashed.
A couple of economic crises later, and TV stations look forward to political ads because they it turns out they are more stable, reliable, and often pay in advance. The old standby for TV ads, car dealers, turned out to be not-so-reliable after all, especially with the automaker bankruptcies and people keeping cars longer.
With a bird in the hand worth two in the bush, we now have political ads out the wazoo.
