While Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have been advertising for months, Mr. Edwards began his first significant television campaign last week.
A campaign must display breakthrough creativity, receive significant television and radio air time and run repeatedly over several years, she said.
G.E. will still be managing the company when certain significant television rights deals come open for bid within the next year.
Politics dominates this list of the year's most significant television events, but the medium's definition of political became fuzzier than ever.
So far, the only significant television advertising in the race has been by organizations ostensibly unaffiliated with either political party, including the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the Sierra Club, Michigan Right to Life and a business group called Americans for Job Security.
Though he has done some significant television work and continues to produce at least one stage piece a year, he has not directed a theatrical film since "Fanny and Alexander" in 1982.
Mr. Frankenheimer, whose career stumbled badly in the late 1970's and 1980's because of personal problems and alcoholism, came back in the 1990's with significant television work that was flourishing at the time of his death.
Mr. Pernetti said he first saw the videos in November, which was the same month he secured a coveted invitation for Rutgers to join the Big Ten Conference, a move that guaranteed national exposure and significant television revenue.
