Ads for Presidential Race Drop 60%, Hurting Local Broadcasters
- Longer primaries and Trump’s media strategy cause ad decline
- Trump expected to start buying first TV ads in coming days
A vendor is seen selling pro-Donald Trump shirts and buttons outside a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Aug. 5, 2016.
Photographer: Darren Hauck/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Spending on political advertising during the U.S. presidential election has dropped 60 percent from 2012, a troubling sign for local TV broadcasters that were counting on a windfall.
Since late April, when Donald Trump effectively secured the Republican nomination, $146 million has been spent in the presidential race by all sponsors, compared with $373 million over the same period in 2012, according to an analysis by Ken Goldstein, a Bloomberg Politics polling and advertising analyst. That hurts station owners like Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., Tegna Inc., and Tribune Media Co., Goldstein said.