Political spending in 2024 is forecast to be $11.1 billion in 2024, increasing $2.2 billion (up 24%) over 2022, and $1.5 billion (up 15.5%) over 2020 Political ad spending. Political will be the top spending vertical category in 2024 for many of the media channels in BIA’s forecast, including Radio OTA, TV OTA, TV digital, Cable TV and CTV/OTT. While local ad spending on digital is growing, traditional advertising is forecast to account for 70.2% of political ad spend in 2024, down from 77.9% in 2020.

As with past Presidential elections, in 2024 over-the-air TV (TV OTA) will get the largest share of political ad dollars in local with an estimated $4.6 billion in forecast spending. Add in TV Digital, and the number rises to $4.9 billion. PC/Laptop will be the second highest at $1.3 billion, followed by Cable TV at $1.1 billion. Cable TV is the only media channel forecast to be down from 2020 in this category, by nearly $183 million. Over-the-air radio remains steady with $536 million in 2024, up 16% from 2020.