The national party conventions are still in the future, but already television’s total take in political ad revenue is closing in on $600M. According to Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker, the total take for the year grew by 19.4% between 6/4/12 and 6/24/12.
Broadcast television accounted for the lion’s share, with $434.5M in total income from political advertising at this point. Add in national spot and network and the grand total swells to $583.3M. That number is up 23.2% from 6/4.
The battle for the White House was the biggest driver of revenue, accounting for 38.1% of total spending during the period. 30.4% was spent on congressional races and 26.5% on ballot issues. The local category accounts for 5.1%.
Campaign warchests have now banked $3.1B, up from $2.8B at the time of Wells Fargo’s last report. PACs have pulled in $890M, parties $676M, House candidates $620M, presidential candidates $524M and Senate candidates $344M.
There has been a change in the top five markets by gross political spending: Los Angeles, Cleveland, New York and Tampa remain in the group, and Washington DC has joined it, supplanting Milwaukee.
The top five markets by volume of total market revenue has seen two drop out: Wilkes-Barre PA and Great Falls MT. The new list includes repeaters Wausau WI, La Crosse WI and Madison WI, along with newcomers Sioux City IA and Zanesville OH.
RBR-TVBR observation: We hope our friends in the local broadcast business are enjoying this, because as locals in a highly-targeted swing state, we are getting sick of it – in fact, we’ve been sick of it for weeks now. We often get multiple viewings of the same commercial during the course of one program.
