Senate Spending Soars

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With the Senate on the line and close races in key battleground states—North Carolina, Colorado—the TV political ad money is piling up.

According to Kantar Media/CMAG data from the Center for Public Integrity, TV ad spending on Senate races totalled $321.4 million as of Oct. 13. That is an increase of almost $100 million in the past four weeks.

That total includes local broadcast TV, national network and national cable (no local cable). It also includes ads that mention a candidate but do not overtly call for his or her election or defeat. It only counts ones that have run, not future ad buys.

So far 372,200 ads have run.

The following are the top nine states in Senate TV ad spending.

1. North Carolina        $46.6 million

2. Georgia                  $34 million

3. Colorado                 $30 million

4. Michigan                 $28.9 million

5. Kentucky                $27.9 million

6. Iowa                        $23.8 million

7. Arkansas                $21.8 million

8. Louisiana                $21.6 million

9. Virginia                   $10.1 million

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.