Good news for Mike Bloomberg: More people are seeing his ads than watched the debate

Mike Bloomberg took plenty of punches in his debut on the Democratic debate stage Wednesday night. But will the two-hour onslaught of attacks actually leave any lasting scars on his candidacy?

Don’t be so sure.

After all, Bloomberg has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising, fueling his rise in the polls, and he’s sure to spend hundreds of millions more. That includes $16.6 million spent on broadcast, cable, and radio commercials across Pennsylvania’s six media markets as of Thursday, according to Advertising Analytics.

The ad-tracking firm estimated that Bloomberg’s TV spending would translate into 5.8 million Pennsylvania adults age 35 and over seeing his ads. A Democratic media buyer unaffiliated with a 2020 campaign said that back-of-the-envelope figure was likely low. And that doesn’t even include digital ads.

“He has been omnipresent on TV,” this media strategist told us. “Most Pennsylvanians watch TV. $1 million in Erie! He could have bought the ABC affiliate there for that money.”

And the debate? NBC and MSNBC, citing Nielsen Fast National Data, said Thursday that it was the most-watched Democratic debate in television history, reaching almost 20 million viewers across the two networks. It also attracted 13.5 million live stream viewers, the networks said.

That’s across the entire United States. Pennsylvania makes up about 4% of the U.S. population.

Put another way, the number of Pennsylvania adults who have seen Bloomberg ads is roughly 30% of the debate’s nationwide television viewership — or 17% if you include live stream viewers.

So more people are seeing his ads than watched the debate. And probably a lot more.