Political Ad Dollars Drove Local TV Revenues to a 13% Gain in 2012

Political advertising fueled a 13% increase in local TV ad revenues last year, to $20.8 billion, details BIA/Kelsey in newly-released data. Certain markets which featured heavily-contested campaigns saw significant jumps: for example, the Wisconsin markets were up by more than 40% overall, while the Ohio markets experienced an average increase of almost 38%. While online properties saw rapid growth, over-the-air (OTA) delivered a healthy increase of 12.8%, up to $20.2 billion. With revenues growing faster than expected last year, the researchers project spending to “normalize” this year. (more…)