Spot TV spending surges on political ads

Political advertising was a nearly billion-dollar business in October for local TV stations.
 
Spot TV brought in $994.8 million in political spending in October through Oct. 27, according to Kantar Media CMAG data analyzed by Wells Fargo Securities, with year-to-date local TV political spending at $2.22 billion through Oct. 27.
 
Adding in national spot and network ad dollars, political ad spending on all of broadcast TV stood at $2.42 billion through Oct. 27, up 13.1 percent from the previous week's total.

Wells Fargo projects that spot TV spending will hit $2.8 billion after the final week is tallied.
 
During the week ended Oct. 27, congressional candidates accounted for 41.4 percent of the political dollars, with 33.4 percent coming from the presidential race, 21.2 percent from ballot initiatives and 4.0 percent other.
 
Through Oct. 27 the top five markets with the greatest political dollars were Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Cleveland, Las Vegas and Denver. The top five markets with the greatest change in political dollars during the week ended Oct. 27 were Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland and Orlando.
 
During this year's election cycle through Oct. 17, federal fundraising was at $5.17 billion, and it was distributed fairly evenly. Of those dollars 23 percent were raised by presidential candidates, 22 percent by political parties, 22 percent by PACs, 20 percent by House candidates and 13 percent by Senate candidates.
 

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