CTV Overtakes Cable in Political Ad Spend for the First Time in a Midterm

In the 2026 midterms cycle, political advertisers have spent $11.4 billion to date, up 28% from the 2022 midterms, according to data shared with ADWEEK from AdImpact, a firm that tracks and analyzes ad spend. The cycle has already drawn more ad spend than any election cycle tracked by AdImpact, including the 2024 U.S. presidential cycle, which set a previous record of $11.2 billion. And of the $2.5 billion uptick in investment from the 2022 midterms, more than half (53%) has gone to connected TV. On the whole, spend in CTV grew 122%, from roughly $1.1 billion in the 2022 midterms to $2.4 billion during this cycle. Of the total media pie, CTV gobbled up 21%, up from 12% in the 2022 cycle. Another roughly 62% of spend went to linear TV, including broadcast, cable and satellite, down from 73% in 2022. Linear is losing ground: While broadcast spend rose 21% to $5.7 billion, cable fell 26% to less than $1.3 billion. In the 2022 midterms, ad spend on cable outpaced CTV by about 1.6x. Today, CTV is nearly double cable. “A problem with cable is that less than 50% of the population now have access to cable, but more than half have access to CTV, including FAST [free ad-supported TV] channels,” said Brian Wieser, CEO of consultancy Madison and Wall. The rebalancing toward CTV is at least partially due to the granular targeting advantages the channel offers, according to Ari Paparo, an adtech industry vet and the founder of Marketecture Media. “In linear, the ability to finely target via ZIP or household was limited to the local cable slots,” he said. But in CTV, advertisers are generally able to target audiences by ZIP code and household—huge upsides for campaigns and advocacy groups looking to target very narrow audiences in specific districts. Overall, Paparo said, CTV promises “more flexibility and less waste.” Political ad dollars in CTV are, notably, not evenly distributed across streaming services, because Netflix and Prime Video do not allow political advertising. The budgets, therefore, are limited to a set including Hulu, YouTube, Roku, FAST channels like Pluto TV and Tubi, and local broadcast apps. Digital, like CTV, proved to be a magnet for investment, surging 63%, from $1 billion to nearly $1.7 billion. In total, digital accounted for nearly 15% of ad spend during this midterm season.Meanwhile, investments in radio dipped nearly 12%, from $314 million to $277 million. The map was also reconstituted. While political spend surged in some key battleground markets this year, it fell in others. Ad spend in Detroit nearly doubled, attracting $310 million, up from $167 million in the 2022 cycle, with Michigan’s Senate and gubernatorial races heating up. In Maine, where five-term incumbent Republican Susan Collins is battling it out with Democratic challenger Troy Jackson, ad spend has poured into the Portland-Auburn market to the tune of $180 million. Elsewhere, Ohio’s Senate special election and governor races have drawn big bucks to the Cleveland-Akron market, with spend topping $238 million. Dallas and Houston are also hotspots this year as political advertisers duke it out for influence over Texas’ high-profile Senate race between James Talarico (D) and Ken Paxton (R). But in Atlanta, investment tumbled from $330 million in 2022, when Georgia saw the contentious Raphael Warnock-Herschel Walker Senate runoff, to $275 million. This year, the state is home to two closely watched races: a gubernatorial battle between ex-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) and billionaire Rick Jackson (R), as well as a Senate showdown between Jon Ossoff (D) and Rep. Mike Collins (R). The U.S. midterm elections will be held Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Politics

CTV Overtakes Cable in Political Ad Spend for the First Time in a Midterm

Spend in CTV grew 122% to $2.4 billion compared with the 2022 cycle, while cable fell 26% to less than $1.3 billion

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Kendra Barnett

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