With a presidential election season around the corner, ad intelligence company AdImpact said it has launched Potomac, a new political media-buying software product.

Potomac is a centralized platform for planning, buying, revising and reconciling political campaigns on national and local linear broadcast and cable, AdImpact said.

A financial dashboard, digital buying and an option for automatic make-goods are expected to be added by year-end, the company said. 

"Potomac will revolutionize political media buying by equipping those running campaigns to operate and compete on a landscape that has become increasingly fast-paced and dynamic,” Nora Hall, product lead on Potomac for AdImpact, said. “With its user-centric design and comprehensive features, our innovative software is poised to consolidate workflows, increase efficiency, and most importantly — boost impact. We are excited to introduce Potomac as a new go-to solution designed to tackle the complexities of political media buying and deliver unparalleled success ahead of this monumental political cycle.”

Potomac's cloud-based software enables users to access real-time information about orders, traffic and payments. 

“What sets Potomac apart is its fully automated rate request and avail upload system. Users can store and upload files seamlessly while staying on top of your campaign's progress,” Harvey Kent, strategic adviser to AdImpact, said. “This cutting-edge software fills a longstanding gap in the market and finally provides a comprehensive efficiency-driven solution for political media buyers.”

E.W. Scripps reported lower net income in the third quarter as well as slower-than-expected advertising growth at both its stations and national networks.

Net income dropped to $33.7 million, or 38 cents a share, from $46.1 million, or 50 cents a share, a year ago, when the company had a $32.6 million gain from the sale of its station’s building in Denver. Segment profit was up 13%, the company said.

Revenues rose 10.2% to $612.1 million.

Scripps’s local media unit’s profit rose 52% to $99.6 million. Revenues rose 14.2% to $378.4 million. Core advertising revenue — excluding political advertising — fell 12% to $147 million.  Scripps collected $63.2 million in political advertising in the quarter and has brought in $208 million this year through Election Day. 

Due to the unexpected shift in political ad spending away from some Scripps markets as well as the ongoing macroeconomic challenges, Scripps adjusted its 2022 free-cash-flow expectation to about $320 million from approximately $400 million.

Retransmission revenue was up 7% to $165 million.

Profits at Scripps’s national networks division fell 13.6% to $71.984 million. Revenues rose 3.9% to $3.9 million.

Weakness in the national advertising market is continuing to impact Scripps Networks revenues, the company said.

Connected TV revenue for the Scripps Networks division was up 57% and the company said it expects to reach an annual run rate of $100 million in CTV revenue in 2023.

For the fourth quarter, Scripps said it expects local media revenue to be up in the mid-20% range and local media expenses to be up in the mid-single-digit range. The company expects the Scripps Networks unit’s revenue to be down mid-to-high single digits, with expenses about flat.

“Scripps’ impressive 10% revenue growth in the third quarter was fueled in part by the company’s multiplatform distribution strategy — to ensure viewers can find our high-quality programming content anywhere they watch TV,“ CEO Adam Symson said “We have now launched our free, ad-supported TV (FAST) networks across major connected TV services, and in the third quarter, that paid off with a solid beat of Scripps Networks’ revenue expectations. We’re just getting started and expect that strategy to fuel continued revenue growth against an impressive run rate. 

“In the midst of an economic climate that is challenging consumer spending and confidence, Scripps is leaning into its leadership in free TV to benefit the company and shareholders,” Symson said. 

“In Local Media, we achieved a record level of political advertising revenue for a midterm election, despite less spending than we expected for key races in our Florida and Montana markets,” Symson added. “We know that political campaigns continue to rely greatly on local broadcasters to share their messaging with voters, and we have full confidence campaigns and PACs will return to us during the 2024 presidential election cycle and beyond.” ■

Like other advertisers, political campaigns should spend a portion of their budgets on streaming, a new study by Comcast Advertising’s Effectv unit recommends.

While many studies suggest the optimal allocation for product advertisers is about 40% streaming, Effectv says that with political spending, 10% to 20% is the right level. (Effectv says general advertisers should be spending 20% to 30% on streaming.)

Historically, political candidates have heavied up on local broadcast, but Effectv’s study found that more than half of households in the “frequent voter” category reached by streaming were incremental to those reached with traditional TV, and that 9% of frequent voters could only be reached through streaming. 

Also: Advanced Advertising: iSpot.tv Says Advertisers Underspend on Streaming

“With midterms around the corner, advertisers need to pinpoint where they can optimize their budgets — across all mediums — and divide funding accordingly,” Effectv head of political sales Dan Sinagoga said. “Balance is needed now more than ever, with political advertising spend set to hit a record of $9 billion this season, so it’s critical that advertisers plan and optimize campaigns holistically across all screens to reach audiences regardless of how they are consuming TV content.”

Also: Political Advertising Jumps on Sports Programming: Viamedia

Streaming seems to be especially effective at reaching people who are in “light news-viewing” households, Effectv found. 

In order to reach the broadcast possible spectrum of voters, Effectv said TV and streaming work better together. And even though traditional TV remains a foundation for most political campaigns, streaming is increasingly important in helping to reach more likely voters.

“TV viewership is changing before our eyes, and political advertisers need to adjust to that new reality,” Sinagoga added. “Relying on ‘old standbys’ like local news is not enough anymore. Streaming is a critical component to political advertising, and we’re seeing greater success among advertisers who take a multi-screen approach, using streaming as a strong complement to linear TV.” ■

Political candidates are increasingly turning to sports to reach viewers and voters, according Viamedia, which sells advertising for cable TV operators.

Viamedia said spending on linear cable and related digital networks in sports programming is likely to reach, if not exceed, the record levels seen during the 2022 presidential election year and triple the spending during the last midterm election in 2018.

In 2020, political spending in sports programming grew 170% from the 2018 levels.

Also: Viamedia Expects Record Political Spending With Jump in Issue Ads

Among sports-oriented networks ESPN is the leader in generating local political ad revenue for operators. Spending around baseball on Fox Sports 1 and TBS has more than tripled in 2022 compared to 2018.

"Spending around sports programming on cable and connected TV has proven a winner for candidates and political action committees looking to reach a broad cross-section of voters," said Viamedia CEO David Soloman. "It aggregates an undeniably large audience spanning demographics and interests – and the audiences are watching live and are engaged.  We think we’ll match the 2020 record this year and beat it in 2024."

Also: Viewers Are Paying Attention to Political Advertising: TVision

Spending on sports, though growing, is eclipsed by cable news.

"The 800-pound gorilla in political ad spending on cable continues to be Fox News, followed by CNN, with other news nets distantly following. Noteworthy is that, while news net political ad spend is increasing, sports in particular has taken off as a category of programming drawing political dollars," said Solomon. ■

In recent years, we’ve seen some pretty cool marketing tactics from political campaigns, including one candidate who enlisted the meme community and another’s foray into the world of video games. And while these past activations definitely exhibited a “cool” factor, this year’s 2022 midterm election marketing campaigns are banking on CTV for the “conversion” factor.

One of the obvious benefits of streaming is that it's a digital version of traditional linear media -- same content, same screen size, but with the ability to apply the benefits of programmatic ad buying. In simple terms, this means advertisers can do more than just target the “standard adults 25 to 54” they are accustomed to on linear, and leverage expanded segments including behavior, interests, and geography.

That’s why this year’s 2022 midterm elections are expected to exceed $8 billion in political ad spend, with an estimated 15% of that going to CTV, as candidates leverage streaming’s superior targeting abilities to connect with potential voters on a local level. Not to mention, CTV is redefining what “local” really means.

Getting Granular with Geography

There are 210 designated market areas (DMAs) in the U.S. and more than 41,000 zip codes within, which traditional linear TV allows advertisers to target viewers by. For political advertisers, however, targeting by zip codes doesn't quite cut it. When you break it down, congressional and legislative districts rarely line up with zip code maps, which sometimes forces candidates to buy an entire city or metro area in order to reach all the voters they want. This can result in a huge waste of money. 

Streaming, on the other hand, provides the ability to go beyond zip codes and target congressional and legislative districts from a geo perspective. This digital style targeting on television screens is something political campaigns were never able to access at scale before. And when you pair this with behavior and interest targeting, all of a sudden a political candidate can target “Democratic-leaning swing voters, that care about climate change, and live in a specific congressional district.”

This scenario recently played out in the primary for New York’s 19th Congressional District, which encompasses all or part of 11 different counties, spanning three different DMAs: New York City, Albany, and Utica. Instead of putting all their money into linear -- where they would have had to spend money across all three DMAs including the very expensive New York market -- campaigns utilized streaming to limit their buys to households within the district, making those buys far more cost-effective.

Understanding the Outcomes

Another benefit of streaming being digitally delivered is that it allows candidates to transcend the probabilistic feed they’re accustomed to on linear and get down to deterministic data. Sure, linear provides a confirmation that your spot ran on this channel at this time, but streaming provides a wealth of information that is tied to a specific household based on data from IP addresses, device IDs, and geolocation. 

All those data signals coming in can be leveraged towards performance-based attribution and measurement. So candidates can see which people were exposed to what ad, and if they went to the website, joined the email list, downloaded an app, donated to the campaign, or actually walked into a physical location to vote. This is a huge step up from linear where at most candidates can determine that their ad ran, and then probabilistically attribute activity to it during a window of time. 

In recent years, we’ve seen some innovative attempts to tap into culture, but this year candidates are focused on optimizing messaging, speaking to local voters and driving conversions. And at a time when the digital is struggling to adjust to privacy regulations, iOS changes, and the sunsetting of the cookie, CTV is offering a privacy-compliant, one-stop-shop platform for candidates to drive conversions. ■

Local cable advertising rep company Viamedia says it expects record midterm political advertising, with growth coming specifically in issue ads.

Election advertising spending is up 11% year-to-date, when compared to the 2018 midterm elections, and up 2% from 2020, a presidential year marked by heavy spending by Michael Bloomberg during the primaries. 

Digital and connected TV revenue is already 61% higher than in 2018 and up 38% from 2020.

Through August, issue advertising — as opposed to ads backing a specific candidate  — accounted for 63% of all 2022 political advertising handled by Viamedia, compared to 47% during the 2020 and 2018 election cycles.

The next biggest political category is spending for candidates for U.S. Senate at 12%, followed by campaigns for governor with 11%.

“Thanks to a revamped political advertising team, including our outstanding partners at Ampersand, as well as a growing local sales team, we are able to achieve these results in the face of cord cutting,”  Viamedia CEO David Solomon said. “This is due in part to our strong growth in connected TV advertising as well as to the still-powerful draw of the television screen for impactful and results-driven political messaging.”

Viamedia’s data is based on political advertising purchases from more than 60 multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) in 70 markets. ■

Viamedia, which sells for cable operators, said it saw record first-quarter political ad activity with spending up 42% from the mid-term election four years ago. 

Viamedia said the spending was coming for races for the House, Senate, Governor and local races and issues.

“What we’re seeing, so far this season, underscores the reliability of political advertising directed primarily at linear television platforms,” said David Solomon, president & CEO at Viamedia. 

“Campaigns and PACs understand the power of the big-screen format – whether linear TV, CTV or OTT -- for getting their messages across to constituents,” Solomon said. “All video providers are now managing record order inflows. Nothing beats local for candidates seeking to get their message out and for our clients to super serve this cycle’s political advertising.”

Some markets in battleground states were already showing big spending spikes.

Pennsylvania spending is up 670% with a governor and U.S. Senator up for election. 

In North Carolina, Viamedia sees a 266%  jump in spending with political action committees advertising ahead of a governor’s race. In Georgia, where there will be a race for governor as well as senator, spending is up 277%.

Viamedia’s data was pulled from political advertising purchased on more than 60 multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) of various sizes in more than 70 markets. ■

The E.W. Scripps Co. reported lower fourth-quarter earnings but said that it will get a boost this year from heavy political spending at its stations and higher viewership of its national networks.

Scripps said it expects to garner about $270 million in political advertising revenue in 2022, up 40% from the last midterm election year. It also plans a campaign to boost over-the-air viewing as consumers cut the cable cord.

The company expects free cash flow to be up 50% to $400 million to $450 million in 2022.

Net income fell to $40.2 million, or 43 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, from $244.7 million, or $1.35 a share, a year ago.

Fourth-quarter revenue rose $5.3% to $622 million. The acquisition of Ion Media last year contributed to the increase.

“Scripps shareholders have much to celebrate in the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2021 financial results, especially our delivery of record non-election year free cash flow of $280 million during a period when our country’s economy was emerging from a global pandemic,” CEO Adam Symson said.

Symson noted that at the company’s new national networks group, its five Nielsen-rated entertainment networks grew audience year over year, contributing to fourth-quarter revenue.

“Scripps Networks already capture 25% of viewing in the expanding OTA marketplace, and as we move through 2022, we are devoting ourselves to continued viewership and revenue growth,” he said. “Among our plans is a marketing campaign on how to watch over-the-air TV and the wide range of quality content you find on it. This campaign is  part of Scripps’ effort to carve out our own valuable corner of the television ecosystem: free, ad-supported  platforms such as OTA, FAST [free, ad-supported television] and AVOD [ad-supported video-on-demand] that serve subscription-weary Americans.”  

In the fourth quarter, the Scripps Networks group had profits of $106 million, up from $93.2 million on an adjusted combined basis following the Ion acquisition. Revenue was up 14% to $273 million.

Scripps’s local media group posted a profit of $82.2 million, down from $202 million a year ago. Revenue dropped 26% to $351 million in a nonelection year. Core advertising revenue was up 1.5% to $183 million. ■

A trio of Democratic House members have introduced a bill that would require broadcasters to make their reports on political ad sponsorships machine readable.

H.R. 5897, the Fair and Clear Campaign (FCC) Transparency Act was introduced in the House by Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.T), and John Yarmuth (D-Ky.).

Currently broadcasters have to make public--in their FCC public files--reports of the airtime they have sold or donated for political ads, but they don't have to do it in a standard format that can be "easily analyzed by researchers and watchdog groups," Eshoo said in announcing their bill.

A Senate version has been introduced by Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.).

“Our simple legislation empowers researchers, watchdogs, and the public to make sense of information broadcasters are already required to report by requiring the FCC make this information machine-readable," added Eshoo.

Fox Corp. said it expects to generate nearly $300 million in political advertising during the second half of 2020.

Speaking on the company’s first quarter earnings call with analysts Tuesday, Fox CFO Steve Tomsic said that so Far this quarter, the company has seen just under $100 million in political advertising.

Related: News Network Ad Prices Jump Election Night

Of that about 70% went to the Fox’s local TV stations with most of the rest airing nationally on Fox News and Fox Sports.

Both parties have taken the unusual step of buying ads in the World Series and during NFL games.

“When we look at it across the first half, from July 1st through to day, without wanting to steal the thunder of the next earnings call, we’ll push close to $400 million dollars of political ad revenues for the full six months, of which just north of $200 million will be local,” Tomsic said. “So its been an enormous quarter and a half for us.”

Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch added that the growth of national political political advertising has been unique this election cycle.

“Political advertising has been almost entirely local and the growth in national political advertising, particularly on Fox News, but also importantly in sports, has been a a new and I think, very positive development.”

Murdoch added that political spending is added to the strength of the overall advertising market.

“What the robustness of the political market has really done is drive our scatter price up as advertisers have scrambled to find time across local stations, across sports, across news and across entertainment.”

Fox made a “strategic decision to hold back a little bit more time than we normally would in our upfront negotiations negotiations--about 5% more time,” he said. “That bet is paying off handsomely.”

Political advertising in 2020, like many other factors in this unprecedented campaign season, will be very different. It’s not just about the mail-in ballots brouhaha or result report challenges on the night of Nov. 3.

Cable, broadcast and advertising executives plus seasoned political tacticians and analysts are gearing up for constant revisions in how campaigns advertise during the coming six weeks. They are trying to determine how to schedule messages in a year where up to 50% of voters may cast their ballots well before Halloween weekend, when (in a “normal” year) we’d see a deluge of last-minute campaign commercials.

“September is the new October,” Republican ad strategist Evan Tracey told me.

Democratic media expert Mark Jablonowski said he expects that “the typical binge right at the end … will be smaller since campaigns will begin spending earlier.”

Like other political operatives and media executives, rivals Tracey and Jablonowski agreed that the early emphasis is “get-out-the-vote” messages, both by candidates and political action committees. They said that COVID-19 has forced everyone to “focus early” on political advertising. Moreover, constant polling throughout the coming weeks will drive campaigns to buy commercials in locations where they identify still-undecided voters who have not yet cast early ballots.

Dan Sinagoga, head of political sales at Effectv, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable (formerly known as Comcast Spotlight) expects that the commercial flow during September and October will be front-loaded more than usual. 

“Early spending for the General Election is up by 14% in Effectv markets this cycle compared to 2018 and 20% over 2016,” he told Multichannel News.  

“States like California, Colorado and Oregon have always been traditional heavy mail-in states in the Effectv footprint, but you will see more early voting in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida than ever before according to our agency partners,” Sinagoga explained.

As for sufficient ad-time inventory, he acknowledged that availability has “become a challenge” to some non-political clients, leading to a “delivery strain” as the amount of campaign advertising increases.

“Had it not been for the slow ramp to the retail business due to COVID-19, August’s political uptick would have caused greater spot clearance issues for non-political advertisers,” he said, noting that August felt “very much like the General Election window started already.”

He cited the growth of multi-platform advertising, which Sinagoga calls “a pivotal part of Effectv's sales efforts with VOD and IP inventory pitched along with linear TV on every avail.” He expects video-on-demand (or Connected TV) to become the “#1 or #2 reach channel available – on broadcast or cable – regardless of the market.”

“We are seeing a sweeping change in 2020 as it pertains to media allocations,” he said. “We are seeing political agencies and their clients planning for up to 25% of budgets towards OTT resources.”

Sinagoga points out that more than 70% of all digital political advertising is being placed programmatically.

“Effectv launched a programmatic offer in July and is pacing far ahead of where we had hoped at this point, with the General Election spending still to go,” he said.

Like others who are monitoring campaign spending, Sinagoga observes that media outlets in swing states are already seeing political ad growth – especially ones where early voting is widely used.

“The elongated voting season was a big driver in the record-setting political ad spend [Effectv] saw in August,” Sinagoga said, citing a FCC public file which showed that other companies also “benefitted from that heavy up.” 

Singagoga observes that “viewership data being used more holistically” in political ad buying.

“We averaged between eight to 12 networks on political buys during the primary season this year, where we typically see between one to four networks,” with the biggest growth coming on cable news channels. He noted that there were “Fox News-only executions in heavily Republican states.”

Effectv’s data shows that viewers are spending more than 77% more time with cable news, mainly MSNBC and Fox News. Moreover, political ads are going to female-skewing networks such as HGTV, USA, TLC and the Food Network, which he calls “voter-rich environments.”

More Automotive, Retail Competition for Ad Avails

This year’s political advertising playbook is complicated by competition for channel inventory as beleaguered retailers begin their pre-holiday marketing campaigns earlier than ever in an effort to recoup sales lost during the early days of the COVID-19 lockdown. Now is also prime season for automotive advertising as car companies introduce new models with aggressive TV campaigns.

In addition to candidates’ commercials, this year’s political line-up will be overwhelmed by Political Action on Committees ads, which are not subject to the “lowest unit price” (LUP) rates that candidates must be offered for broadcast and cable TV buys.   

Steve Lanzano, president and CEO of the Television Bureau of Advertising, has observed variants of the early-advertising movement in many states. "It started earlier," he told me with a nod to the "agility" of political media buyers, who are buying time dynamically.

“Their money moves on a daily and weekly basis, based on the polls,” he said.

At Gray Television Inc. (which owns or operates TV stations in 94 markets), Kevin Latek, executive VP and chief legal and development officer, also acknowledges that “early voting [puts] pressure on campaigns to ramp up advertising earlier than October.”

“We saw some 2020 Senate candidates start advertising last summer,” he said, noting that, “Political advertising displaces traditional advertising to varying degrees.”

Like Sinagoga at Effectv, Latek cited the increasing role of political ads on digital platforms, including ones each company operates.  He pointed to the growing role of targeted political ads on connected TV/over-the-top ad platforms, which are sold through the company’s ad representatives.

Political Gurus See “Everything Happening Earlier”

Steve Passwaiter, VP/general manager at Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), which monitors political advertising, characterizes 2020 as “very unfamiliar territory.” He observes that political action committees – which are not entitled to the LUP rates that candidates pay – are outspending candidates. 

 “This year we’ll get a flood of ads early,” Passwaiter told me.  He cited the “passion that’s in the mix this year,” although he still expects 40% of campaign funds will be spent on ads during October – probably early in the month. 

Kantar envisions $7 billion in national, state and local political advertising in this election cycle, including $1.2 billion for local and network cable TV and $3.5 billion for local and network broadcast TV. Digital platforms will garner $1.8 billion of the total, with the balance going to radio, print and other media.

PQMedia, a Connecticut firm that has been analyzing election spending since 2004, expects total political advertising to top $9.3 billion this year.

Dr. Leo Kivijarv, executive VP and research director at PQMedia, also expects “October will be a bigger month than normal.”

“Spending will not be concentrated in the last two weeks before Election Day,” he told me. Like other researchers, Kivijarv expects ad-buying decisions will be made dynamically as campaign strategists track voter polls – especially in swing states – in order to throw money to lure voters who are still making up their minds.  He is especially focused on radio, which over-indexes on Black and Hispanic voters

Republican and Democratic party strategists also are evaluating how mail-in and early voting processes are affecting ad tactics. Most acknowledge that COVID-19 has curtailed traditional campaign procedures – especially for local races – such as neighborhood events or door-knocking appeals.

Jablonowski, managing partner & CTO of DSPolitical, a digital advertising company for Democratic candidates and progressives causes, said “everything is happening a little earlier.”

"Ad buys are beginning earlier than ever for the more competitive races," he told me. "Peak spending will start a bit sooner and last a bit longer than is typical," although campaigns for down-ballot races may be delayed because of fund-raising problems, he said.

“There are likely to be more buys than previous years – and they will be aligned to several key dates on a state-by-state basis,” Jablonowski added. “We’ll also see get-out-the-vote buys starting earlier and running longer in more states. But this isn’t about the number ad buys; it’s about the amount of money that is behind the buys.”

“This election requires a much larger voter education and get-out-the-vote effort to help those who are unfamiliar with new voting processes and important dates to remember in addition to Election Day. That means multiple flights, targets, and creative strategies,” Jablonowski said.

Republican political consultant Tracey agreed that early advertising to get-out-the-vote will be a prime GOP goal this year. Beyond seeing September as “the new October,” Tracey described the increased importance of get-out-the-vote efforts plus the newfound attention to over-the-top and connected TV this year.

People are learning how their smart TVs work with all their time at home,” he said. “It will be a more challenging buying environment as we move toward November.”

Tracey expects PACs as well as candidates to put funds into early voting promotions.  And ultimately he acknowledges that since 80% of Americans have already made up their minds on which Presidential candidate they favor, the big push is to get out the vote and sway that “undecided” cadre of 15% to 20% of votes to swing your way.

Tracey noted that historically early voting has been a way “to bank your base.” Now, he said, the message to everyone is, “Don’t wait for Election Day.”  He called it a tactical move to “get your base voters to bank their votes early, then concentrate on the undecided.”

As a result, ad spending is coming early “because it’s that kind of year.”

“This is the only business where you spend the most amount of money when you have the least number of prospective customers left,” Tracey said.

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Next year is shaping up to set records for local cable political advertising, just as this year has been about presidential candidates drawing historic TV audiences to their debates.

The debate-viewing phenomenon started with interest in Donald Trump and has maintained momentum for both Republican and Democratic clashes. On the ad-sales side, the growth is driven by data, data and more data.

Kantar Media has estimated political candidates will spend about $4.4 billion on TV ads in 2016, with about $3.3 billion going to cable networks and $800 million of that earmarked for local cable ads, a 23% increase from the $650 million spent on local cable in 2012.

It seems that almost every candidate, regardless of political affiliation, is recognizing the value of local cable as a vehicle to get their message out to precisely those they want to hear it. President Obama’s campaign successfully tapped Rentrak set-top box data in 2008 and 2012 to figure out which shows and networks its voters were watching.

Now, according to Rentrak president of national television Chris Wilson, there is even more data to exploit.

Some candidates buy ads during the 4:30 a.m. local news, rather than in primetime, because the earlier broadcast has a higher concentration of the voters they want to reach, Wilson said.

Obama also taught campaigns to buy ads on multiple networks and in markets and on channels where no other spots from competing candidates are running. His 2012 campaign bought ad time on more than 100 networks, while other candidates averaged about 20 to 25.

“He went so much deeper,” Wilson said. “And he had 100% of the noise in areas where [Republican candidate Mitt] Romney didn’t run ads. Voters weren’t getting a counterpoint.”

At cable operator-owned NCC Media, director of political strategy Tim Kay said current campaigns so far are using, on average, 35 more networks than in 2011, including Food Network, HGTV, AMC and sports outlets.

In the past, local newscasts were a top priority. That isn’t necessarily the case anymore.

“They were looking for frequency and saturation in the marketplace,” Kay said. “Now, they’re looking for these nuggets of individual voters across the television networks. They’re finding they’re not watching the local news.”

Sports is a draw, especially for the live-viewing factor. Strong prospects include the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in March, typically followed in states with heated primaries, and Big Ten Network and SEC Network football in key states like Florida or Ohio ahead of the general election.

Comcast is continuing to offer household-addressable ads (currently within on-demand programs) and satellite-TV providers DirecTV and Dish Network are in the second year of D2, the household-addressable election ad program reaching into more than 20 million homes.

The 2014 races brought in ads from more than 175 campaigns, mostly in statewide races, while the two satellite-TV providers were focused on getting systems in place and raising interest, “which was easy,” Joe Hockenjos, vice president at AT&T AdWorks, said. (AT&T now owns DirecTV.)

Popular targets now include party-affiliated voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, he said. Some candidates weeks ago booked ad time via D2 in the two states right up to the New Hampshire Primary and Iowa Caucuses. Business is expected to be good at least through Super Tuesday on March 1, Hockenjos said. “For our product, it’s high, high demand,” he said.

Whereas candidates used to hold off until the primaries were coming up soon, they are booking well earlier, Kay said. During the 2014 midterm elections, some Republican candidates bought ads a year in advance.

“They’re trying to build up a message earlier to try to persuade the audiences,” Kay said of early ad buyers. “Those last few weeks that used to be about persuasion are now are about [voter] turnout.”

Kent Gibbons contributed to this story.

Cable saw strong a turnout among political campaign-ad buyers this midterm election season, helped by numerous close races for governor and senator and by candidates using selected cable networks, rather than just by buying ads on local newscasts, industry ad sellers said.

While total political-ad spending is lower when there’s no presidential election, cable is likely to bank as much in 2014 in ads as it did during the 2012 season, Dan Sinagoga, vice president of political advertising at Comcast Spotlight, the top cable company’s ad-sales division, said.

That’s been largely at the expense of local broadcasters, according to Sinagoga. He said the cable industry’s share of dollars spent on political ads will hit about 30% this cycle, continuing a trend that saw it take more than 20% in 2012.

Comcast also added more possible commercial minutes to the mix this time around by freeing up some of the “avails” — the 2 minutes per hour typically allotted to local ads — that would normally go to promoting its triple play, high-speed Internet or other services. “It will help us keep easily five to eight million additional dollars that we probably wouldn’t have been able to fit traditionally,” Sinagoga said.

Headed into this non-presidential election cycle, advertising tracker Borrell Associates had predicted cable networks would do $719.3 million in political ads. That would be 46% more than in the last midterm races, in 2010 ($492.7 million).

Tim Kay, director of political strategy at cable operator-owned NCC Media, cited Kantar Media’s forecast of $600 million to $800 million in local cable ad sales and said, “We’re definitely on the latter part of that number,” or above $700 million, headed into Election Day on Tuesday (Nov 4).

“What’s interesting is, we’ve run more commercials, as of two weeks ago, than in all of 2012,” he said.

Kay said most ads are still flowing to the big three favorites of Fox News Channel, CNN and ESPN. “But we’re seeing a lot of non-traditional networks pop up, such as TV Land and Bravo,” he added.

NCC bought a schedule of ads from CNN in October, which helped expand the inventory beyond the local-avail minutes. Kay would not reveal sales specifics but he said the number of political ads NCC placed on CNN were up from both 2012 and 2010.

Sports events have been big among political buyers, Kay said, especially National Football League games.

Sinagoga said Comcast saw gains on non-traditional political-ad outlets such as Animal Planet and Oxygen. “One of our hottest networks this year has been Hallmark [Channel], and that was never the case leading into 2012.”

As for hot markets, NCC’s Kay said noticeable spikes have come in Omaha, Neb., due to the state’s race for governor; in Colorado, with close contests for governor and U.S. senator; and in North Carolina, which has a tightly-contested U.S. Senate race.

Colorado, Texas (especially during this year’s primary elections), Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Arkansas were all significant for Comcast this year, Sinagoga said.

Comcast also added an element to the on-demand programming mix this time by dynamically inserting advertising into programs addressed to individual households, Sinagoga said. That was a first step toward what the company expects will be household address-ability across its national footprint by the time the 2016 campaigns roll around. That “niche” product did well in Virginia, Florida, New Hampshire and Colorado, he said, and “is going to be a seven-figure addition to our overall pie.”

Political advertising is expected to reach $8.3 billion this year, according to a new report from Borrell Associates.

Borrell says that two-thirds of that money will be spent between July 1 and Election Day and that the bulk continues to go towards tradition media, rather than digital outlets.

“Spending on online ads is definitely growing – and poised to explode in two years,” the report says. “But even at a forecast rate of a threefold increase between 2012 and 2016, digital media would still be less than $1 billion, accounting for less than 8% of all political advertising. Most of the activity, it seems, is by digital marketing managers working within the campaigns, managing social media and email communications directly with the electorate.”

Borrell says that candidates and political organization will spend $37 per voter this year, up 9% from the last mid-term election. It expects spending to jump to $51 per voter in 2016, up 21% from the previous presidential election year in 2012.