About that pressure release valve, elections ain’t cheap:

AdImpact reported Wednesday (Oct. 14) that the 2025–26 political cycle has surpassed $10 billion in combined aired ad spending and future reservations

It’s not stopping there:

expects total spending to reach $11.6 billion by Election Day

More than a billion left in less than a month.

The traditional TV ads we all expect from election cycles get the lion’s share, but hundreds of millions are forecast for digital. That’s a lot of room in the auction opening up in the aftermath.

AdImpact bar chart comparing original and updated 2026 political advertising spending projections by channel. Broadcast TV leads at $5.6 billion, followed by connected TV ($2.7B), digital ($1.6B), cable ($1.4B), radio ($300M), and satellite TV ($100M). All categories increased or remained unchanged from earlier projections.

(I can’t imagine what 2028 is going to look like)