(Image credit: Gary Arlen)
By Jon Lafayette
Source: www.nexttv.com, March 2024

Streamers go local to garner political ad dollars

Candidates in local races, particularly people running for congressional seats, have been big buyers of political commercials streaming on connected TV, according to numbers from Madhive.

Madhive, an ad-tech company that provides the streaming infrastructure that powers CTV advertising and reach extension for local broadcast stations owned by Fox, E.W. Scripps and Hearst Television, said congressional races drove 76.8% of CTV political ad impressions.

Other local races — sheriffs, judges and so on — drove 16.6% of impressions.

Candidates for president generated just 5.7% of CTV political spending, while spending on statewide gubernatorial (and lieutenant governor) races accounted for 1%.

“If you talk to political buyers, they will tell you two things: TV advertising works to get out the vote and the smaller the population center, the harder it is to reach key voting blocs,” Madhive said in a blog post. “This is often because small markets have limited broadcast and TV inventory.”

Political spending this election season is expected to be record-breaking. Local broadcast is expected to take the bulk of political spending, but CTV could also see political advertising revenue growth because of its ability to target specific geographic areas or use political indicators to target ads.

“That is why Vizio, Roku and Hulu are pushing into local streaming,” Madhive said. “It’s also why networks are diversifying their broadcast buyers with streaming ’reach extension‘ — which enables buyers to find audiences in suburban areas via streaming across multiple services.”

Madhive said that the top congressional districts for CTV ad impressions were:

  • New York’s Congressional District 3
  • Illinois’s Congressional District 12
  • Ohio’s Congressional District 2
  • Texas’s Congressional District 31
  • New York’s Congressional District 4
  • Texas’s Congressional District 22
  • Florida’s Congressional District 2

Madhive local political head map

Map shows CTV ad dollars in district market across the U.S. (Image credit: Madhive)

Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.