Election-time ad revenues in the US

The Economist has just published some figures on the size of the expected revenues from political ads in the coming election year: $5.2 billion - some 23% increase compared to 2008! What is cool though is that the share of online advertising has increased quite a bit. It now stands at 6% (still small) but at some $310 million, it is 10 times higher than the last time. It is also interesting that, while last time most of the online advertising was seacrh advertising, this time video sharing sites and social media have largely taken over the bulk of online activity. Of course, TV advertising still dominates at over 60% of total spending. Cable does well because it is good at targeting (part of the reason while online advertising also succeeds) but, interestingly, local broadcast TV is also making a killing especially in swing states. Hope it will lead to the right outcome....