Like politics itself, advertising is a zero-sum undertaking. The more commercial time sold to political advertisers, the less there is available for all other advertisers. Kantar Media’s latest analysis suggests that in especially key media markets in 2016, political’s share of all available TV ad time could reach 40% to 50%, meaning that one minute of every two minutes of commercials aired in those markets will be bought by candidates, parties, and outside groups. No other advertiser “category”—not auto, telecom, retail, medical, etc.—has ever claimed or wanted even close to that amount of share; no TV platform has ever wanted to sell anyone else that much. The biennial-to-quadrennial surge of political ad revenue at a time of slowing growth for traditional media companies is too good to pass up. We know a lot about where this tsunami will hit, starting with local news and the network affiliates that air it. In looking at ad activity in eight politically hot markets in June 2014, for example, Kantar Media Chief Research Officer Jon Swallen found that 68% of all political ad time
Subscribe Today
Our subscribers have first access to individual race pages for each House, Senate and Governors race, which will include race ratings (each race is rated on a seven-point scale) and a narrative analysis pertaining to that race.