• by Wayne Friedman , Today

The U.S. political advertising season continues to gain momentum -- slowly accelerating to a total $6.1 billion through Aug. 24 -- according to the most recent estimates from political ad tracker AdImpact.

This is about halfway to the estimated total spend by the media researcher for the entire political season -- $11.6 billion.

The August reading is up $1.3 billion from the reading on July 16 of $4.8 billion.

Broadcast spend is at $3.12 billion, with connected TV/streaming at $1.14 billion, digital at $937 million, cable TV at $770 million, radio at $124 million and satellite at $51 million.

The biggest TV station group to benefit from the spend is Gray Television (at $434 million), followed by Nexstar Media Group ($416 million), Fox TV stations ($363 million), Tegna ($350 million) and Sinclair ($319 million).

Currently, Republican-supported issues and candidates and issues represented 2.69 billion in spending, while Democratic spending came in at $2.35 billion and independent spending totaled $1.11 billion.

Overall, AdImpact’s $11.6 billion projection for the entire 2026 season would be the highest ever for a midterm election. It was $8.9 billion for the 2022 midterm season and $11.2 billion for the 2024 Presidential election year.

Broadcast is set to get 48% of this total spend -- at $5.6 billion, followed by CTV/streaming at $2.7 billion (23% share) and digital platforms at $1.6 billion (14%).