US election: Gains for entire media

This US election has proved that everything is bigger in the United States - including politics. Take advertising, for instance. On TV, radio and even in computer games Barack Obama has so far out-advertised John McCain by three-and-a-half to one, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, spending an average of $3.5 million a day - not including the 30-minute adverts he bought on most of the major networks last week at a rumored cost of $3 million.

But even if the candidates aren't paying for airtime, they're still on TV. The final presidential debate was watched by more than 60 million people, and the cable news networks CNN and MSNBC, which specialize in political coverage, are up 165 percent and 81 percent in primetime respectively as compared with the same quarter last year.

Other cable comedians also profited from campaign missteps on both sides, with Comedy Central's satirical The Daily Show and The Colbert Report averaging 1.8 and 1.4 million viewers a show, both up 16 percent year on year. The Daily Show had its highest-ever rating, 3.6 million, when Obama appeared on it last week. David Letterman got his highest viewing figures in three years when McCain, who had stood him up previously, returned to face the music in mid-October, attracting 6.5 million viewers.