BIA Estimates 2023 Local Political Advertising of $534M

RADIO ONLINE | Friday, August 18, 2023

BIA Advisory Services

With the 2023 elections a little over two months away, BIA is estimating local political advertising will be around $534 million. This is an increase of 30% from $410 million in 2021, and more than double the $254 million in pre-pandemic 2019. TV OTA is estimated to get 43 percent of the while cable TV and radio OTA, will receive 13 percent and 5.4 percent respectively. Combined, digital channels continue to capture share and in 2023 BIA anticipates will account for 22.8 percent share of wallet.

Fueling political advertising this year is issue-based spending. According to AdImpact, the U.S. saw $174 million in issue-based advertisement spending in the first half of 2023, which accounted for 38% of all political advertisement spending the company tracked during that period. The biggest issues covered in the advertisements included Healthcare, by far the biggest, followed by clean energy, fundraising, gun control, and the economy.

Top 5 Markets by Total Political Local Ad Spend in 2023:

Get more from BIA's political forecast in the recently published Local Market Political Ad Spend Report 2023-2024, which details political local ad spend in all 210 TV markets for key media in 2023 and 2024. The report is now available here.