• by Wayne Friedman , October 27, 2015

Helping to navigate the expected wild swings in local TV advertising inventory for the political season, pay TV provider advertising sales company Viamedia and media measurement company Rentrak have announced a political advertising planning tool.

Using Rentrak’s Advanced Demographics, the tool was developed to plan, purchase and manage TV inventory for the 2016 political season. It can show where ad inventory will be in highest demand, allowing political and other marketers to shift media dollars to other areas.

In addition to anticipated rising prices, a rush of political advertising in specific markets can bump traditional spot TV advertisers' commercial inventory during and around high-volume election primaries and other time periods.

The companies cite Borrell Associates, which estimates there will be 19% growth in broadcast TV political ad spending and a 39% gain in cable TV political ad spending for the 2016 election season, versus four years ago.

Viamedia estimates that more than 80% of its share of the 2015-2016 political ad dollars will be spent on nine cable networks. It did not disclose the name of those networks.

Viamedia sells local TV ad inventory for U.S. cable and telecommunications TV providers -- nearly 60 pay TV distributors. It also owns placemedia, a programmatic data-driven platform.