• by Wayne Friedman , December 8, 2017

With big political ads and the Winter Olympics coming in 2018,  local TV advertising -- from traditional over-the-air and digital advertising -- will climb 8% next year to $20.8 billion.

TV stations’ digital video advertising revenues will see the best results -- rising 10% from a year ago to $1.1 billion -- with traditional TV advertising up 7.8% to $19.7 billion, according to BIA/Kelsey, a media analytics company.

In 2016 -- the year of a presidential election and Summer Olympics -- local TV advertising rose 11.4% to $20.6 billion, according to BIA/Kelsey. In 2014, the last time there was a Winter Olympics, total local TV advertising climbed 8.4%.

BIA/Kelsey says the total for all local video ad revenue -- from broadcast, cable, online and out of home -- will grow 8.4% to $32.8 billion.

Local cable video advertising sales will climb 7.9% to $6.8 billion; local online video will soar 38% to $2.2 billion; with local OOH video up 6% to $1.7 billion.