That's right. The Obama campaign has made possibly the most unusual media buy of any presidential campaign. They have bought an entire channel on the Dish satellite network.
More after the jump...
Channel 73-00 on Dish satellite network is now labeled 'Obama' and is simply looping Obama's 2 minute economic ad, Barack Obama's Plan for America, and there is no word yet what other plans the campaign has for this channel.
Conservative bloggers began almost immediately complaining that they do not want to pay for an Obama channel or Obama ads, but it seems this channel is a media buy -- bought and paid for in full by the Obama campaign. According to Ben Smith,
on a forum for Satellite TV aficionados, where one user writes that a Dish Network executive emailed to reassure the user that it "is paid advertising by the Obama campaign and is not an endorsement of Senator Obama by DISH Network" and will broadcast through November 4.
So far, no one seems to have been able to get an official statement from Dish or their parent company EchoStar. There is also no word whether the Obama campaign plans a similar media buy with DirectTV.
UPDATE: Dish Network subscribers are reporting that when a commercial comes on any of the other channels, a little thing appears offering to let you select the Obama Channel.
UPDATE II: A friend of mine with Dish Network managed to get a better screen capture for me:
UPDATE III: According to RussT3, they are now looping three items. There's one of his 2-minute ads, followed by the mini-documentary about Obama that was aired at the DNC before his speech, followed up by another 2-minute ad.
Note: I have scoured the web for more information about the new Obama channel, but there is no information. No announcements have been made. I will continue to update this article with any new info as long as it is on the recent list.