The latest report from Wells Fargo Securities on the television political windfall places total spending on local television at $887.7M. Add in national spot and network and the total hops the billion dollar barrier, to $1.04B.
The local total represents a 3.8% increase, and if that doesn’t sound like much, consider that it is a comparison of the spending in one week to that spent YTD through the previous week. Further, August spending came home at the $99M level, a 69.8% increase of the July total.
Chief beneficiaries of the boom in spending are Belo, Sinclair, CBS and News Corp. – they are well-positioned in the hottest of the hot zones, according to WFS analyst Marci Ryvicker.
The new figures take into account activity during the week of 9/2-9. Of the total spent on local YTD, 45.1% has been on the presidential race, 34.3% on congressional, 17% on ballot and 3.6% on local.
House races were beginning to heat up during the week, and it was the biggest gainer on a percentage basis, picking up 6.6% in additional activity. If was followed by the Senate (4.8%), gubernatorial races (4%), ballot (3.6%) and presidential (3.2%).
Among media markets, the biggest gainers in terms of absolute dollars were Seattle, New York, Washington, Baltimore and Denver. Beneficiaries on the TV side included CBS, Belo, NBC and News Corp. On the radio side, companies with hot locations included Clear Channel, CBS and Entercom.
In terms of percent of total market revenue, they were Seattle, Yakima-Pasco, Spokane, Baltimore and Santa Barbara. TV beneficiaries included Belo, CBS, Sinclair and News Corp. On the radio side, it was the same trio — Clear Channel, CBS and Entercom.
