Politics Political ad spending for 2024 expected to shatter $10 billion, breaking record

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link : https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/political-ad-spending-2024-expected-shatter-10-billion-breaking-record-rcna104402

Political ad spending is projected to reach new heights by the end of the 2024 election cycle, eclipsing $10 billion in what would amount to the most expensive two years in political history.

AdImpact, a firm that tracks political ad spending, projects that campaigns and outside groups will spend $2.7 billion on ads in the presidential election alone, followed by $2.1 billion on the Senate, $1.7 billion on the House, $361 million on gubernatorial elections and $3.3 billion on other elections. 

It's no surprise that the presidential race is expected to drive the spending, as it does every election cycle. But the $10.2 billion projection for 2024 would be a 13% increase over the $9 billion spent in 2020, when two self-funding Democratic billionaires unsuccessfully ran for president. And it represents a massive increase from the $2.6 billion spent during the 2016 election cycle. 

The new projected high comes as ad spending in the Republican race has hit a torrid pace, eclipsing $100 million in GOP presidential primary spending far earlier than in previous elections.

Shifting viewing habits and changing demographics among Americans are having some effect on the ad landscape: TV ad spending is projected to make up a slightly smaller piece of the pie this election cycle, while streaming television is projected to make up a slightly larger share and Spanish-language ads are projected to increase 9% from last cycle. 

Digital ad spending declined from 2020 to 2022 as some major platforms banned political ads for a stretch in part as a response to the spread of misinformation surrounding the 2020 election. AdImpact expects digital spending to increase for the 2024 election cycle compared to 2022, but it is not projected to hit the heights of the last presidential election.