Local cable advertising rep company Viamedia says it expects record midterm political advertising, with growth coming specifically in issue ads.
Election advertising spending is up 11% year-to-date, when compared to the 2018 midterm elections, and up 2% from 2020, a presidential year marked by heavy spending by Michael Bloomberg during the primaries.
Digital and connected TV revenue is already 61% higher than in 2018 and up 38% from 2020.
Through August, issue advertising — as opposed to ads backing a specific candidate — accounted for 63% of all 2022 political advertising handled by Viamedia, compared to 47% during the 2020 and 2018 election cycles.
The next biggest political category is spending for candidates for U.S. Senate at 12%, followed by campaigns for governor with 11%.
“Thanks to a revamped political advertising team, including our outstanding partners at Ampersand, as well as a growing local sales team, we are able to achieve these results in the face of cord cutting,” Viamedia CEO David Solomon said. “This is due in part to our strong growth in connected TV advertising as well as to the still-powerful draw of the television screen for impactful and results-driven political messaging.”
Viamedia’s data is based on political advertising purchases from more than 60 multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) in 70 markets. ■
