Latest in Political Ads

Less than a week before the midterm elections, political TV advertising is setting records for both volume and negativity. Total political ad spending will reach $6.75 billion in 2018, research firm PQ Media predicts, with about half of that going to television. A study released Tuesday by the Wesleyan Media Project…

Broadcast TV investors are finally resigning themselves to the likelihood that stations won’t see the bonanza they’d expected this year from political ads — mostly due to lower than anticipated outlays by Donald Trump. Sinclair Broadcasting shares fell 9.4% yesterday after it lowered its guidance for political…

TV station owners, and their investors, couldn’t wait for the 2016 election campaign to kick off. This would be “the first ever without an incumbent [presidential candidate] or limits on campaign funding,” Moody’s Investors Service said in April. It projected that $3.4 billion could go to stations, helping to lift…

That $4 billion to be spent on TV in the 2016 election cycle is up 18% vs 2012, and could result in a windfall for station owners E.W. Scripps and Gray Television, according to a widely watched business estimate out this morning. Wells Fargo Securities’ Marci Ryvicker tracks political spending more closely than just…

It’s OK to market stuff to captive movie theater audiences. But potentially enlightening or disturbing political and campaign pitches will be off limits this year on more than 20,100 screens at 1,600 theaters served by National CineMedia. The No. 1 exhibition ad sales company says today that it won’t accept political…

Here’s the good news for station owners and networks in an analysis of this year’s political media spending out today from ad forecasting firm Borrell Associates: Cash will continue to flood most markets, with broadcasters seeing $4.6B, an 11.5% increase over 2010, the previous midterm election year. The problem…

Two years ago TV broadcasters kicked up a fuss when the FCC made a simple decision: It ordered them to put online info about the political ads that they air — info they already were required to make available on paper to anyone who visits the station. Broadcasters lost that fight. But it seems that many, possibly…

Broadcast companies spent about $10B last year for TV stations — and the acquisition spree will continue in 2014 with help from the two big rivers of cash, Moody’s Investors Service says in a report out this morning. “Larger broadcasters will make selective acquisitions or station swaps in 2014 to expand their…

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. And ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Jan. 27, 2014 – DIRECTV (NASDAQ: DTV) and DISH Network L.L.C., a wholly owned subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH), have joined forces to offer an addressable advertising platform of unprecedented scale and reach for political campaigns. The strategic…

Wells Fargo Securities’ Marci Ryvicker tracks political ad spending more closely than anyone on Wall Street, so I was pleased to see her weigh in this morning on what’s ahead for 2014. She agrees with the consensus view that spending will be down vs 2012, which included the presidential race, but up from 2010, the…

Doesn’t that violate a Newtonian law that compels spending on political ads to grow into infinity? You might think so considering that the total has increased every two years since 2002, and only fell in three years since 1980 (that would be 1990, 1998, and 2002). But 2014 will change the recent trajectory, with the…

The returns are in and show that this year’s elections provided a bigger windfall for TV providers than expected by Wells Fargo Securities’ Marci Ryvicker — who’s followed this stuff closer than just about anybody. Campaigns and interest groups spent $2.8B on local TV, $104M at national networks, and $467M on cable…