Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and former President Donald Trump
Reuters
Consumers who cut their cable cord in recent years are finding that there’s one thing about linear TV they can’t escape: political ads.
With the U.S. presidential election less than 70 days away, campaigns are swarming streaming services like Roku and Hulu to such a degree that connected TVs are seeing more ad spending than internet platforms such as Facebook and Google.
That’s according to data provided to CNBC by political ad analytics firm AdImpact, which started tracking the connected TV (CTV) category in 2022. AdImpact projected that the CTV market brought in about $236 million in ad sales related to the presidential race this year through Aug. 23. The digital category brought in just under $235 million during the same time, AdImpact said, with Facebook and Google accounting for almost all of it.
“CTV is where there is more engagement,” said Jaime Vasil Winkelfoos, the group vice president of candidates and causes at ad tech firm Basis Technologies. “When voters say they are watching TV, they don’t’ say ‘I’m watching broadcast.”
That trend, Winkelfoos said, is “important for political campaigns when allocating budgets.”
Still, while more money is flowing to streaming services, the total amount is dwarfed by traditional broadcast television.
AdImpact currently projects that overall political ad spending for the 2024 election cycle will be as high as $10.7 billion. Broadcast will account for roughly half, followed by CTV at around 14% and digital at close to 12%. According to a report last week from eMarketer, CTV’s share of spending this election will surge to 13% from 2.7% in the last presidential cycle.
Broadcast brought in about $473 million from early January through Aug. 23. That’s down from $875 million during the same time period of 2020, underscoring CTV’s rapid rise.
Meanwhile, overall election-related spending on Facebook and Google has declined by more than half from 2020, when political ads on those two platforms hit $480 million from Jan. 1 through Aug. 23. The steep drop is mostly because that election featured a competitive Democratic primary with one particular candidate — Mike Bloomberg — spending an enormous amount of money on ads.
“That flowed to direct ads and it benefited Meta and Google specifically,” said Eric Haggstrom, vice president of business intelligence at Advertiser Perceptions.
Streaming services have not only become increasingly popular for consumers in the last few years, but they’ve also opened up new ad-based services. Netflix, for example, first introduced its ad-supported subscription plan in late 2022 as part of a wider effort to drive revenue amid slowing subscriber growth. Netflix doesn’t yet accept political ads.
Winkelfoos said there’s now more available advertising inventory available on CTV than ever, coinciding with the market’s growth. One nuance in the AdImpact data is that Google’s YouTube video service is in the digital category, while YouTube TV is part of CTV.
AdImpact noted that it provides estimates for the amount of political ad spending on CTV, because those platforms aren’t subject to the Federal Communications Commission’s rules that require traditional TV operators to report certain political ad information. Facebook and Google, like CTV platforms, aren’t subject to the FCC rules, but they disclose some political ad data.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment, but pointed to remarks made by CFO Susan Li in February, when she said political advertising is “not really a material contributor to revenue growth for us.”
“Even during our last U.S. presidential election cycle in 2020, the government and politics vertical was not among our top 10 verticals either globally or in the U.S.,” Li said at the time.
For CTV users, especially in swing states, the ad blitz is about to hit hard. Robin Porter, the head of political for ad company LoopMe, said that 60% to 70% of spending typically comes after Labor Day, which is this coming Monday.
Prospective voters can expect to see a lot of ads for Vice President Kamala Harris. Earlier this month, the Democratic nominee announced plans to spend $370 million in a fall advertising rush. The campaign reserved $200 million worth of ad space across streaming platforms like Hulu, Roku and Pandora as part of its strategy to reach U.S. consumers.
“There is more upfront spend, especially in CTV, to secure the inventory upfront, even compared to 2022,” Porter said.
In her home state of Georgia, Porter said there’s been a big push by both presidential campaigns to secure post-Labor Day ad space on both CTV and linear broadcasting. With its 16 electoral votes, Georgia is viewed as a critical battleground in the race to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election.
Winkelfoos said the Harris campaign’s announcement regarding its ad plans, which landed just days before this month’s Democratic National Convention, was huge for the industry.
“We haven’t had that big national moment related to big spending until Kamala,” said Winkelfoos.
The Trump administration has floated a plan to trim about $6 billion from the budget of NASA, while allocating $1 billion of remaining funds to Mars-focused initiatives, aligning with an ambition long held by Elon Musk and his rocket maker SpaceX.
A copy of the discretionary budget posted to the NASA website on Friday said that the change focuses NASA’s funding on “beating China back to the Moon and on putting the first human on Mars.”
NASA also said it will need to “streamline” its workforce, information technology services, NASA Center operations, facility maintenance, and construction and environmental compliance activities, and terminate multiple “unaffordable” missions, while reducing scientific missions for the sake of “fiscal responsibility.”
Janet Petro, NASA’s acting administrator, said in an agency-wide email on Friday that the proposed lean budget, which would cut about 25% of the space agency’s funding, “reflects the administration’s support for our mission and sets the stage for our next great achievements.”
Petro urged NASA employees to “persevere, stay resilient, and lean into the discipline it takes to do things that have never been done before — especially in a constrained environment,” according to the memo, which was obtained by CNBC. She acknowledged the budget would “require tough choices,” and that some of NASA’s “activities will wind down.”
The document on NASA’s website said it’s allocating more than $7 billion for moon exploration and “introducing $1 billion in new investments for Mars-focused programs.”
SpaceX, which is already among the largest NASA and Department of Defense contractors, has long sought to launch a manned mission to Mars. The company says on its website that its massive Starship rocket is designed to “carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.”
Musk, who is the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has a central role in President Donald Trump’s administration, leading an effort to slash the size, spending and capacity of the federal government, and influencing regulatory changes through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk, who frequently makes aggressive and incorrect projections for his companies, said in 2020 that he was “highly confident” that SpaceX would land humans on Mars by 2026.
Petro highlighted in her memo that under the discretionary budget, NASA would retire the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, the Orion spacecraft and Gateway programs.
It would also put an end to its green aviation spending and to its Mars Sample Return (MSR) Program, which sought to use rockets and robotic systems to “collect and send samples of Martian rocks, soils and atmosphere back to Earth for detailed chemical and physical analysis,” according to a website for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Some of the biggest reductions at NASA, should the budget get approved, would hit the space agency’s space science, Earth science and mission support divisions.
Petro didn’t name any specific aerospace and defense contractors in her agency-wide email. However SpaceX, ULA and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are positioned to continue to conduct launches in the absence of the SLS. Boeing is currently the prime contractor leading the SLS program.
“This is far from the first time NASA has been asked to adapt, and your ability to deliver, even under pressure, is what sets NASA apart,” she wrote.
President Trump’s nominee to lead NASA, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, still has to be approved by the U.S. Senate. His nomination was advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday.
Chinese bargain retailer Temu changed its business model in the U.S. as the Trump administration’s new rules on low-value shipments took effect Friday.
In recent days, Temu has abruptly shifted its website and app to only display listings for products shipped from U.S.-based warehouses. Items shipped directly from China, which previously blanketed the site, are now labeled as out of stock.
Temu made a name for itself in the U.S. as a destination for ultra-discounted items shipped direct from China, such as $5 sneakers and $1.50 garlic presses. It’s been able to keep prices low because of the so-called de minimis rule, which has allowed items worth $800 or less to enter the country duty-free since 2016.
The loophole expired Friday at 12:01 a.m. EDT as a result of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in April. Trump briefly suspended the de minimis rule in February before reinstating the provision days later as customs officials struggled to process and collect tariffs on a mountain of low-value packages.
Read more CNBC tech news
The end of de minimis, as well as Trump’s new 145% tariffs on China, has forced Temu to raise prices, suspend its aggressive online advertising push and now alter the selection of goods available to American shoppers to circumvent higher levies.
A Temu spokesperson confirmed to CNBC that all sales in the U.S. are now handled by local sellers and said they are fulfilled “from within the country.” Temu said pricing for U.S. shoppers “remains unchanged.”
“Temu has been actively recruiting U.S. sellers to join the platform,” the spokesperson said. “The move is designed to help local merchants reach more customers and grow their businesses.”
Before the change, shoppers who attempted to purchase Temu products shipped from China were confronted with “import charges” of between 130% and 150%. The fees often cost more than the individual item and more than doubled the price of many orders.
Temu advertises that local products have “no import charges” and “no extra charges upon delivery.”
The company, which is owned by Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings, has gradually built up its inventory in the U.S. over the past year in anticipation of escalating trade tensions and the removal of de minimis.
Shein, which has also benefited from the loophole, moved to raise prices last week. The fast-fashion retailer added a banner at checkout that says, “Tariffs are included in the price you pay. You’ll never have to pay extra at delivery.”
Many third-party sellers on Amazon rely on Chinese manufacturers to source or assemble their products. The company’s Temu competitor, called Amazon Haul, has relied on de minimis to ship products priced at $20 or less directly from China to the U.S.
Amazon said Tuesday following a dustup with the White House that had it considered showing tariff-related costs on Haul products ahead of the de minimis cutoff but that it has since scrapped those plans.
Prior to Trump’s second term in office, the Biden administration had also looked to curtail the provision. Critics of the de minimis provision argue that it harms American businesses and that it facilitates shipments of fentanyl and other illicit substances because, they say, the packages are less likely to be inspected by customs agents.
Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chairman of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, takes the stage during The New York Times’ annual DealBook Summit, at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, Dec. 4, 2024.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to sell up to 25 million shares in the company over the next year, according to a financial filing on Friday.
Bezos, who stepped down as CEO in 2021 but remains Amazon’s top shareholder, is selling the shares as part of a trading plan adopted on March 4, the filing states. The stake would be worth about $4.8 billion at the current price.
The disclosure follows Amazon’s first-quarter earnings report late Thursday. While profit and revenue topped estimates, the company’s forecast for operating income in the current quarter came in below Wall Street’s expectations.
The results show that Amazon is bracing for uncertainty related to President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs. The company landed in the crosshairs of the White House this week over a report that Amazon planned to show shoppers the cost of the tariffs. Trump personally called Bezos to complain, and Amazon clarified that no such change was coming.
Bezos previously offloaded about $13.5 billion worth of Amazon shares last year, marking his first sale of company stock since 2021.
Since handing over the Amazon CEO role to Andy Jassy, Bezos has spent more of his time on his space exploration company, Blue Origin, and his $10 billion climate and biodiversity fund. He’s used Amazon share sales to help fund Blue Origin, as well as the Day One Fund, which he launched in September 2018 to provide education in low-income communities and combat homelessness.