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The US midterm elections on 3 November 2026 are increasing pressure on advertising inventory in connected TV, local television and video platforms. For German brands with US business, the price per thousand impressions alone is not the deciding factor: the new record figures for the ad market and insights from Comcast show why actually incremental households reached, frequency and regional availability are the more important control metrics.
11,21 billion dollars: a record is not yet final revenue
On 26 October, AdImpact reported, according to TheWrap, a total of 2025 billion US dollars in advertising money already spent or reserved for the 26/11,21 election cycle. This puts the nominal value above the roughly 11,20 billion dollars of the 2023/24 presidential cycle and well above the 8,9 billion dollars of the 2022 midterms. However, reservations are not the same as fully delivered spots or finally settled revenue; the figures are not adjusted for inflation.
In the third quarter of 2026, according to AdImpact, 51 percent of the roughly three billion dollars in political advertising went to broadcast TV, 23 percent to connected TV and 15 percent to digital advertising channels. These are the shares for the quarter, not the entire cycle. The company's earlier annual forecast of 11,6 billion dollars in total is a different data status and must not be presented as spending already realised.
Price reports are regional and cannot be transferred to all US ads
Even before these new figures, Digiday reported on 26 October, based on agency interviews, about increased demand: for certain bookings in Texas, media buyers cited 10 to 15 percent higher CPMs. For premium CTV, one observed regional value was around 43 instead of 34 to 35 dollars; for YouTube, one interviewee reported roughly 20 percent more CPM.
These are individual agency observations, not a national price index. Campaigns also concentrate their spending on political hotspots. Anyone deriving a blanket surcharge for all US video ads from this mixes regions, formats, audiences and auction effects. Fixed TV slots carry an additional risk: pre-emptions, meaning the displacement or rebooking of ad slots that were already planned.
What Comcast reveals about reach – and what it doesn't
In a own practice article on addressable TV, Comcast Advertising explains that in one case study, shifting six percent of the budget increased the number of households reached by 29 percent; total reach rose by 22 percent. The underlying analysis relates to two US TV markets and data from 30 July to 5 September 2025, not to the entire election market 2026.
Comcast also cites that 45 percent of certain target households, according to its own analyses, could only be reached through addressable advertising in the first half of 2026, and 41 percent independent swing-voter reach in an evaluation of campaigns from 2,024. These figures have different populations and time periods. They can be neither added together nor read as universal proof of political campaign success or increased voter turnout.
In a conversation with Adweek on 28 October, Comcast executive Sarah Fuller describes a mix of household targeting, audience lists, CTV and linear TV, as well as frequency caps against ad overload. This is the perspective of a seller, not an independently verified measurement of the effect of these measures. The operational point for media teams nonetheless remains: a format should be assessed not only by booked impressions but by deduplicated net reach and contact frequency.
Four checks for German brands with US target audiences
For US campaigns, it is advisable to first document the development of prices and reach per target region and format; second, to agree replacement dates and guarantees in advance for any displaced spots; third, to check the contact frequency across linear TV and streaming; and fourth, where possible, to examine conversions for incrementality using control groups or geo tests. Because the streaming ad time on YouTube measured by Comscore says nothing yet about additionally reached buyers. Likewise, a new Netflix conversion pixel alone does not prove a causal increase in purchases. For context and brand-safety planning, the problems with inconsistent CTV genre data are additionally relevant.
EU rules are not a reflection of US election advertising
Since 10 October 2025, the EU Regulation on the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising applies. It requires labelling and disclosures, including information on sponsors and costs; targeting based on personal data is heavily restricted and subject to special conditions. It does not ban all political advertising across the board, but platforms can be independently more restrictive. On 12 October 2026, the European Commission launched a pilot version of its transparency archive. Its specific reporting obligations will only take effect with the official launch announced later.
German companies that advertise ordinary consumer goods in the USA do not automatically become political advertisers because of the US election campaign. For genuinely political campaigns, however, the target market, the applicable law and the platform rules are decisive. We have explained the US blackout period for new political Meta ads and how it differs from the EU separately.
Sources: Adweek/Comcast, 28 October 2026, Comcast Advertising with case study methodology, TheWrap on AdImpact data from 26 October, Digiday, 26 October, EU Commission on political advertising, 10 October 2025 and EU repository pilot, 12 October 2026.