Political Ad Spend Hits Record $11.6B, and Comcast Is Cashing In

By James Calloway

This election cycle is the most expensive on record, with AdImpact's June forecast putting total political ad spend above $11.6 billion. That number already beats the 2022 midterm record of $8.9 billion and edges past the $11.2 billion spent across the entire 2024 presidential cycle.

One clear beneficiary is Comcast Advertising. Campaigns are using its linear and connected TV (CTV) ecosystem to reach TV ad inventory, and the company is leaning into the moment. Sarah Fuller, Comcast Advertising's senior director, Government and Advocacy Media Solutions, laid out how the operator is handling the cycle in an interview with Adweek.

Why is targeting suddenly everything?

Media fragmentation has forced campaigns to sharpen their aim ahead of Election Day. Comcast identified Michigan, Texas, Georgia, New Hampshire and California as hot spots for campaign spending across both linear and CTV.

For Fuller, the winning formula is simple. The most successful political campaigns deliver to "the right people in the right places with the right message."

Audience targeting is one of the biggest benefits playing through Comcast Advertising's platform. The company offers:

• One-to-one audience focus
• Content-based and general audience targeting
• Custom audience list uploads, with Comcast integrating that data and reporting on it

The takeaway: in a fragmented TV market, the sell is precision, not reach.

How does Comcast protect the viewer experience?

Comcast Advertising runs frequency caps so viewers aren't buried in political spots. Fuller said the company works in tandem with advertisers to keep the experience positive for broadband and linear subscribers alike.

"It's extremely important that we're not ruining that experience by having it be more ads than actual content that they're choosing to view," Fuller said.

In short: caps are the guardrail between record revenue and viewer churn.

Are national buys smart or sloppy?

Not every campaign is playing it surgical. Fuller flagged a workaround some campaigns have used: national ad buys to run their spots, including during live sports programming. She attributed it to a crowded ad space.

The tradeoff is real. National buys hit general audiences rather than targeted ones, so campaigns have to weigh whether the waste is worth it. But there are upsides too.

According to Fuller, the execution is sometimes cost-motivated. It can also stem from a candidate with grander political aspirations down the line — a national buy is one way to buy exposure.

The calculus: national spots buy fame, targeted spots buy votes.

What changes by 2028?

Fuller expects spend to become even more intentional and strategic in 2028, especially as targeted audiences grow in importance. She can't estimate what share CTV will hold by then, because the industry keeps shifting amid ongoing consolidation and new media emerging.

Audiences will remain the constant. "We're all focused on targeting the right audiences and delivering the right message, based on the clients' demands and needs and KPIs," Fuller said.

The bottom line: with midterms now rivaling presidential cycles in spend, the operators that can pair scale with surgical targeting will own the next political season.