Political dollars rolling in for TV

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Wells Fargo Securities analyst Marci Ryvicker is keeping tabs on political ad buying on broadcast TV to see if it tracks with her estimate that political ad spending will hit $3.3 billion this year. So far, the dollars are rolling in.


“Year-to-date, through September 26th, political ad spend on broadcast TV totaled $981million. This represents a $91 million, or 10% increase, over the prior week (ending September 19th). However, the pace of incremental spend slowed somewhat (by 37%) – for example, $91 million was spent during the week ending September 26th versus $145 million spent during the week ending September 19th,” Ryvicker reported.

In terms of absolute dollars, the top markets for the most recent week tracked (9/20-26) were Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, Cleveland and Tampa.

But, of course, heavy political spending can have a bigger impact when you move down in market space. As a percentage of market revenue, the top markets for political were Indianapolis, IN; Wilkes-Barre, PA; Wausau, WI; Tallahassee, TN; and Panama City, FL.