Anyone who has followed the fate of

the

The TV industry of recent years can’t be blamed for thinking the medium is dying.

Consumers have shifted from traditional or linear TV viewing, which is viewed in real time, to streaming video, where they can watch what they want on-demand. According to Nielsen, streaming surpassed broadcast and cable TV viewing for the first time in 2023.

But in the current 2024 presidential election, the mantra is long live television.

Political advertising is an adrenaline rush for the TV world every two years

when seats in the House and Senate are at stake. T

The dose is even more powerful when the White House is at stake. Even as viewership declines, television is expected to see a record number of contentious presidential primaries and general elections in 2024.

plus 435 congressional seats, 33 U.S. Senate races and 14 statewide gubernatorial contests

According to media investment firm GroupM, political ad spend across all platforms will rise to $17 billion.

According to GroupM data, this is an increase of 31% from spending in the 2020 presidential election year and 24% from the previous record of $12.8 billion in 2022.

“Local television will see the vast majority of that,” he said

Kate Scott Dawkins

, global president of business intelligence at GroupM. One TV executive estimated that local stations could see between $8 billion and $9 billion in political commercials.

That’s why major station owners like Nexstar, Fox Corporation, Scripps and Paramount Global

,

are predicting a financial windfall, especially in markets in the swing states that are up for grabs during the presidential campaign. California will see spots early and often as Democrats battle for their party’s nomination to run for the U.S. Senate seat previously held by the late Dia.

N

no Feinstein.

Cable news networks, which devote most of their coverage to politics, can also reap profits from national campaigns and advertising by advocacy groups and political action committees.

The polarized political climate is a factor in the escalating spending. Referenda on abortion rights are expected to take place in several states. The last such vote, held in Ohio in November, led to $70 million in advertising spending by groups representing both sides of the issue.

While most members of Congress are in safe neighborhoods and don’t have to spend much on advertising, a growing number of established parties from the far left or right are facing challenges pitting more moderate candidates against them.

“Historically, you only saw significant primary money on an open seat,” said Patrick Paolini, executive vice president of ad sales at Fox Television Stations. “Now we see it when the seat is filled with a sitting president who is actually still a candidate.

That is it

part of the changing landscape where this money comes from.

“

While streaming is pulling away viewers, local TV is still considered easier and more efficient to buy for a campaign that wants to get a message out quickly.

Although overall television ratings have steadily declined, there are still live televised sporting events, such as the NFL, where every game is shown on local TV in the teams’ markets, even with games shown nationally on the national television channels. streaming or cable.

“Regardless of any decline in viewership, TV is still the best way to reach the masses in a short time,” said Robert Breen, co-head of operations and sales for CBS Television Stations.

Television stations may also benefit from political consultancies and campaigns being slow to adapt to streaming.

“There’s a level of ‘This is what we’ve done in the past, we know it works and we’re going to do it again,’” Scott-Dawkins said.

According to GroupM, streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and Amazon, all of which now have ad-supported tiers, are expected to receive a larger share of political dollars in this campaign cycle.

Online fortune

a veteran political ad buyer from Redondo Beach, noted that spending is still disproportionate to the number of viewers streaming brings.

“When I get a new customer, I have to put him through a whole learning process,” Fortune said. “They’re not putting the dollars they should be putting into streaming. They don’t believe in it. It’s just like cable used to be.”

Fortune believes

a

More political advertising dollars will shift to streaming as a younger generation of political operatives comes online.

But for now, traditional television will continue to enjoy one of its most important benefits: local newscasts, which will be saturated with political ads in markets with competitive races.

Campaigns prefer to place their spots in local news broadcasts because

by

they are watched by viewers who are politically engaged and more likely to engage

come

out and vote. They tend to be older and watch traditional TV more often than younger consumers.

The local news environment also appeals to campaigns. Research from the Knight Foundation found that Americans trust local news more than national news sources by a margin of 2 to 1, with TV stations being their top news source.

As viewers have turned to streaming for scripted dramas, sitcoms and movies, TV stations have added more live local newscasts to their lineups.

A survey by the Radio Television Digital News Assn. and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School found that TV stations aired 6.6 hours of news each weekday in 2022, up from 5.7 hours in 2022.

Unlike network and syndicated programs, stations receive all commercial and advertising revenue during those hours. Fox’s channel group broadcasts a total of 1,200 hours of local news per week.

While the generally nonpartisan approach to local TV news is a selling point for campaigns, some also want to reach the tribal political junkies who also watch cable news. Campaigns for president, U.S. Senate and governor will make national buys on cable news to raise their profiles and boost campaign contributions.

While much of the programming on conservative-leaning Fox News is not hospitable to liberal viewpoints, the most-watched cable network has a large number of Democrats and independents tuning in.

in,

and campaigns want to reach them. In 2020, President Biden made a campaign

a

multi-million dollar commercial purchase on Fox News, including

during the day

the network’s coverage of the Republican National Convention.

“Candidates have taken note of that,” said Jeff Collins, executive vice president of ad sales at Fox News. “We’ve seen them come out and want to be on top-rated programs to get their message across to an engaged audience that cares about politics.”

Collins added that his network is open to all parties and viewpoints, with few restrictions on where their places operate.

One of the commercials that ran during last week’s Fox News town hall, where former President Trump was watched by 4.5 million viewers, was purchased by Republican Accountability, an anti-Trump political action committee.

The ad used images of the violence during the January 6 uprising with the message “He can never be president again.”