HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — The ratings Donald Trump has brought to this year’s Republican nomination has GOP leaders wondering: Should they sell rights to cover debates, conventions or even primary election results, like a pro-sports league would?
Television networks “have made bundles of money on us,” selling commercials while they’re hosting debates or covering political events, said Bruce Ash, a Republican National Committee member from Arizona, in an interview. “You’re damn right it’s lucrative. It’s a total missed revenue stream.”
Ash, who chairs the Rules Committee, proposed selling rights to coverage Thursday morning at a members-only event at the party’s spring meeting at a beachfront resort.
The proposal wasn’t specific or official. He acknowledged the party wouldn’t be able to prevent other TV networks or journalists from covering a political event, even if a specific network had paid for the rights to some exclusive coverage. The concept would work “the same way the NFL sold the rights to Fox, CBS, ESPN and the NFL Network. This is the future."
Selling TV, radio or live-streaming rights to Republican events would give the GOP the ability to better shape its image, educate its voters and spread its conservative message around the world, Ash said.
Paul Reynolds, a GOP national committeeman from Alabama, supported the idea and said he once presented a similar concept to a GOP committee that deals with the arrangements for hosting the party’s convention. Reynolds, who owns radio stations, had limited his proposal to radio coverage.
Other GOP national committee members said they found the proposal worth exploring.
John Frey, of Connecticut, said he wondered whether this year’s high ratings for political events were due solely to Trump’s involvement.
When Ash made his proposal, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said the task of selling rights to coverage could go to a future party chairperson, said Shawn Steel, a committee member from California.
“Why would you object?” Steel said. “We don’t trust the media. It’s hard to get a fair shake.”
