Leading Independent Provider of Ad-Sales Representation to Cable TV Systems Sees Near-Tripling in Spending Vs. 2018 Mid-Terms
Viamedia Poised to Meet or Exceed Prior Political-Ad Records Despite Impact on Cable Advertising of Cord-Cutting
New York City – October 31, 2022 – Political ad spending within sports programming across linear cable and related digital networks grew 170% in 2020 vs. 2018 and is poised to meet if not possibly exceed the 2020 record in 2022 – a near tripling vs. the last Mid-Term election period.
The findings come from an analysis of data from Viamedia, the leading fully integrated cross-media local advertising company. The company continues to see record-level Mid-Term political advertising -- despite industrywide decreases in cable TV subscribers.
ESPN continues to lead political ad buys for all sports-carrying cable networks in the political ad category which include TBS, TNT, USA, ESPN2, FX, FS1, NFL Network, CBS Sports Network, the college conference networks (including Big Ten Network, SEC Network, ACC Network among others), as well as regional sports networks.
“The 800-pound gorilla in Political Ad spending in news continues to be Fox News, with CNN and all other news nets distantly following. Noteworthy is that news net political ad spend is not increasing the way sports has taken off,” David Solomon, President & CEO at Viamedia
Spending around Major League Baseball, which doubled in 2020 vs. 2018, already has more than tripled in 2022 vs. 2018, even before the first World Series pitch, per Viamedia data.
“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,” Solomon added. “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.”
About Viamedia
Viamedia provides a comprehensive portfolio of audience and impression-based local video cross-media advertising solutions that bridge the gap between linear TV and digital programmatic advertising. In 2020, Viamedia introduced its patented, cloud-based QTT® platform which utilizes a proprietary technology stack and designed to enable ad campaigns to be more efficient and easier to execute, by utilizing rich data to deliver targeted, dynamic ads to consumers via linear television. Viamedia also offers a complimentary suite of impression-based digital products for streaming, mobile, display, email, search, social and more. Headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, Viamedia maximizes advertising inventory from more than 60 MVPDs in 31 states across 69 DMAs, aggregating all forms of TV audiences and providing a single point of sale to more than 6,000 local, regional, and national advertisers. Viamedia's success is built on its people, processes and proprietary software.
For more information, please visit https://viamediatv.com.