Local television stations in swing-states cash in on deluge of political ads

Swing state residents may be growing weary of the barrage of political ads, but this election season has been a boon to local TV stations.

President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, the two parties and the 10 largest independent groups have spent more than $610 million on presidential TV ads so far this year, according to the Wesleyan Media Project, which obtained data from ad tracking firm Kantar Media/CMAG. More than 915,000 presidential ads have aired on broadcast and cable television since June 1. That’s a 44.5 percent increase from the same period in 2008, and a 43.7 percent increase from 2004. Erika Franklin Fowler, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, said the ad buys this year are concentrated in the handful of swing states that will likely decide the election.

The top markets for ad buys are Denver; Las Vegas; Tampa; Cleveland; Orlando; Washington (DC); Miami; Columbus; Cincinnati and Norfolk (VA), according to the data from Kantar Media.