Election year spending poured $3.1 billion into the
broadcast TV business, according to a new report.
About $2.9 billion was spent on local TV ads, according to
an analysis of Kantar Media's CMAG data by Marci Ryvicker, senior analyst at
Wells Fargo. The rest went to network and national spots.
The local TV spending was 38% higher than in 2010 and 86%
more than was spent in the previous presidential election year of 2008. In
October alone, there was $1.27 billion spent.
The biggest contributor to spending was the presidential
race, which contributed 41.8% of the ad dollars. Another 21.9% was spent in
support of ballot initiatives. The "others" category accounted for 5.1%.
The markets that got the most political ad dollars were Los
Angeles, Washington, Cleveland, Las Vegas and Denver.
The media companies with the most exposure in those markets
are News Corp., CBS, NBC, Gannett and Disney.
