MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif—LG Ad Solutions, a provider of Connected TV (CTV) and cross-screen advertising, has released a new study finding that, regardless of political affiliation, streaming television environments are a “must-have” media channel for political marketers to reach voters this election cycle. Among those who had a preference, 57% of Republicans, 63% of Democrats, and 70% of Independents stated they prefer watching streaming TV compared to broadcast, cable and satellite TV.
The report comes two years after Nielsen reported that streaming had eclipsed linear TV in terms of popularity with U.S. TV households. It discussed the anticipated change back in December in this TV Tech column.
LG Ad Solutions says that this year’s election “marks a historic departure from traditional media strategies, with CTV poised to play a central role in political advertising expenditures.” According to forecasts by AdImpact, CTV ad spend is projected to surge by 24% compared to the 2022 midterms to $1.34 billion, surpassing major digital platforms Google and Facebook ($1.2 billion), and doubling projected spending on network cable, satellite, and radio combined ($671 million.)
“We wanted to understand the affinity for CTV regardless of political affiliation and location across the country and found U.S. voters are streaming more, and are more open to receiving political advertising on CTV,” said Keith Norman, VP Sales, Political Practice, LG Ad Solutions.
“This research underscores a seismic shift towards streaming across all political affiliations and geographic regions in the U.S. Savvy political marketers are adapting their strategies and tactics accordingly by prioritizing CTV to ensure comprehensive reach and engagement with their holistic media plans.”
Other findings:
- Linear TV Viewership is Few(er) and Far Between – Over the past 12 months, viewers across political parties have begun watching less Linear TV, with Democrats watching 27% less, Republicans watching 35% less, and Independents watching 39% less.
- FAST Channels are Gaining Adoption – Regardless of political affiliation, CTV users in the U.S. prefer free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST), with 69% of Democratic, 72% of Republican, and 66% of Independent affiliated viewers stating they prefer the medium to ad-free subscription streaming.
- A Vast Majority of CTV Viewers Multitask – 93% of viewers across parties indicated that they multitask across devices while streaming, creating extended opportunities to engage them on mobile and desktop.
The study also found that 68% of Democrats, 61% of Republicans , and 56% of Independents are cycling through streaming apps, meaning they have added an app and then canceled or paused an app after watching specific content. This shift in viewer behavior emphasizes the importance of having a direct-to-glass strategy, which builds a cohesive thread across CTV and streaming channels ensuring campaigns don’t miss valuable audiences as they hop from app to app.
“Our direct-to-glass strategy enables political marketers to leverage our proprietary advanced ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) data for genre, behavioral, inclusion, exclusion or conquest targeting tactics- while maintaining reach and frequency control- which hasn’t been possible at scale in prior cycles,” added Norman.
In the report, entitled “The Big Shift: Political Edition,” LG Ad Solutions surveyed over 900 U.S. CTV users who affiliate with a political party.
