Happy Election Day 2025!! A huge thank you for subscribing to Impressions to Ballots. For the next year, each Tuesday we’ll explore one topic at the intersection of politics, advertising, and data.
Before we get into where campaigns will spend in 2026 or how different audiences watch video, we need to talk about streaming, why it matters, and what it actually is.
Why does it matter?
The TV screen commands the attention of voters. BUT let’s be clear: voters do not give a shit crap about how an ad got on their screen. Or the nuance of whether an ad on their screen is considered “linear” or “streaming.”
Our goal for this newsletter is to give political advertisers strategies that actually move voters.
So what is streaming?
When I watched F1 last weekend, I opened the ESPN app on my LG TV and streamed it. My parents watched the World Series on their Samsung TV through a Spectrum cable box, classic linear.
If you watch video content through an app on a connected device, you’re streaming. If you watch through a cable box, antenna, or satellite, you’re watching linear. Remember, we’re still talking about content, not ads.
A couple more definitions:
Over-The-Top (OTT): Umbrella term for all streaming content on apps on any type of device, including mobile and desktop.
Connected Television (CTV): OTT, but only on the TV screen. ~70% of OTT
Streaming has exploded in recent years
Think about how you watch TV today versus 5 years ago. If you’re like most Americans, your viewership is probably very different. Here are some key numbers:
12 hours and 43 minutes - the time an American adult spends with all types of media per day. This has remained roughly constant in recent years; there’s only so much time in a day.
6 hours and 45 minutes - the time spent with video per day. Digital video, streaming included, has grown 61% since 2020 with a CAGR of 8.4%.
5 hours and 14 minutes - time spent watching the TV screen in 2026
2 hours and 37 minutes - time spent watching media on Connected TVs and Linear TVs. We’re dead even in 2026.
Streaming’s Growth hit TV with the Complexity Stick
Once upon a time, there were 3 major channels on TV, and everyone walked uphill both ways. Then in the 80s, there was “Springsteen, Madonna… and music still on Cable MTV”. Cable added options (channels) and fragmentation to viewership. Advertisers had to spend more time figuring out what programs people watched and where to place ads.
Then came streaming. New networks (apps), backed by big tech, entered the market, and content exploded.
42% of original shows were made for streaming in 2021.
So people are watching more content, across more services. If cable added 10x complexity and fragmentation, streaming added 100x.
What does this mean for political advertisers?
Plan for 2026 - Viewership is evolving faster than campaign strategies. You can out-reach your opponent with the same dollars by matching spend to audience behavior.
Plan for your audience - The “average voter” doesn’t really exist and they don’t care how an ad was bought. Some audiences are 80% streaming, others still lean linear. Use actual viewership data to shape your mix.
Optimize across screens - Campaigns that can dynamically shift spend across screens will convert waste into reach. Siloed buying = lost voters.
Next week, we will dive into CSM’s political video spend projections to see where political advertisers will spend their budgets in 2026.
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Chauncey