It seems media companies have a different interest in political races: if they call it a tight race, the candidates will pay them to run ads. And indirectly, if they report that it's tight, people will keep tuning in, and they can sell these eyeballs for a better price to their advertisers.
For example the 2008 Dem primaries with Obama vs Hillary. Obama was sure to win it months before the Dem conference, but I can recall CNN still calling it a race...
> if they call it a tight race, the candidates will pay them to run ads.
All the spending happens well before news channels start reporting ballot counts. Multi-million dollar political campaigns do not rely on the news media to tell them how they should spend their ad budget over a months-long election cycle.
By the time news orgs start reporting actual ballot counts, it's too late to spend any more money. A good chunk of votes have already been cast via mail. Poll stations have either closed or are at best a few hours away from closing.
Raw data available here: https://github.com/the-markup/citizen-browser-georgia