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Obama Buy on Fox Leads to World Series Adjustment

Major League Baseball will move the start time of the sixth game of the World Series (if a sixth game is needed) by about 15 minutes in order to accommodate a half-hour Fox buy by Barack Obama.

The Obama campaign approached CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox to purchase the 8-8:30pm time slot on Oct. 29. But Fox is obligated to carry Game 6 of the Series if one is needed, preventing the network at first from agreeing to carry the 30-minute ad. MLB games generally throw the first pitch at 8:22. By agreeing to start the game slightly later, the MLB paved the way for Fox to accept the buy, writes The Hollywood Reporter.

Fox sold the half hour slot to the Obama campaign for just under $1 million. CBS sold the Oct. 29 slot for $961,000, while NBC charged the campaign $891,250, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Times points out that networks are required to provide air time at reduced rates for political candidates.

It is not unprecedented for a major sports league to shift schedules a bit to accommodate political events. In September, the NFL moved the kickoff time of the opening game of the season earlier to be sure it was over before John McCain made his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.