When The Smartest Local TV Buy Is National

LocalProximity
Written By Tim Hanlon

NFL football fans watching FOX’s broadcast of the Philadelphia Eagles-Los Angeles Rams game on October 4th encountered an unexpected visitor during commercial breaks: Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, estranged wife of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton, urging support for the state’s GOP ticket without mentioning her husband. The spot was financed by Texas PAC, a Senate Republican-aligned outside group spending heavily to elect him.

Viewers of other FOX games nationwide saw ads specifically promoting Paxton, including one highlighting his work combating human trafficking, alongside attacks on Democratic opponent James Talarico. The national placements came from Senate Republican-aligned outside groups, including Texas PAC, reaching millions who couldn't vote in the race.

The economics help explain why. As Chron reported, political-ad tracker Medium Buying estimated that purchasing a single 30-second spot in each of Texas's four largest TV markets during that day's intrastate Cowboys–Texans FOX NFL game would have exceeded $2 million. Some local stations had already sold out, while the network still had national inventory available. The national purchase price remains undisclosed, but reaching Texas voters through a nationwide buy may have cost less than purchasing those four markets separately.

Nor was Texas an isolated example. In September, the Senate Leadership Fund spent roughly $2 million advertising during ABC's national primetime Texas–Ohio State college football broadcast, reaching some 14 million viewers with messages about Senate races in those states, even though most of the audience lived elsewhere.

An Old Advertising Paradox

The logic isn't new. More than two decades ago, Southwest Airlines regularly advertised during national NFL telecasts, including ABC's Monday Night Football, despite serving only portions of the country. The strategy predated Southwest's expansion into Denver (2006), New York's LaGuardia (2009) and Atlanta (2012), leaving millions of viewers watching ads for an airline they couldn't yet fly.

Southwest accepted geographic waste for national reach, betting that some viewers would eventually become customers. Political advertisers face a narrower opportunity: Pennsylvania voters can't vote in Texas. Yet a national buy can still make economic sense if it reaches enough eligible Texas voters more cheaply than local alternatives. What matters is the cost of reaching those voters, not how many others see the ad.

The Rising Price of Precision

Political advertising has always been unusually dependent on local television. Media intelligence firm AdImpact projects $11.6 billion in spending for the 2026 cycle, including $5.6 billion on broadcast TV. That money mostly concentrates in contested races, creating acute competition for the same local newscasts, primetime programs and live sports. As AdImpact CEO Kyle Roberts observed in a June episode of the “In The Vicinity” podcast, conventional advertisers often switch from assembling local buys to purchasing national television after covering 20 or 30 markets. Political buyers, by contrast, traditionally work DMA by DMA, following the boundaries of individual elections.

Networks and affiliates sell different slices of the same NFL broadcasts. On October 4th, FOX's early window of national inventory spanned four regional matchups, including both Eagles–Rams and Cowboys–Texans, priced against nationwide advertiser demand. Dallas and Houston stations, meanwhile, sold their scarcer local spots to advertisers competing for Texas voters. Both benefited from the games' popularity, but concentrated political demand likely made local airtime considerably more expensive.

The economics are particularly compelling for super PACs, which generally lack access to candidates’ favorable lowest-unit advertising rates. With Election Day imposing a fixed deadline and local inventory scarce, national sports buys can deliver immediate, predictable reach across Texas, including smaller markets. The wasted impressions may cost less than the precision of assembling comparable local buys.

Local Demand, National Dollars

For local broadcasters, the irony is that soaring demand for NFL inventory can make national advertising more attractive. When network affiliates or O&Os sell out or price remaining spots prohibitively, networks may still have inventory available. Local stations may have maximized their revenue, but networks can capture additional political spending their affiliates cannot accommodate.

The structural irony runs deeper. Affiliates pay substantial reverse-compensation fees for network programming, particularly live sports, while networks sell national airtime to advertisers seeking those same local audiences. Stations profit from their limited commercial inventory but receive no direct share of those additional national dollars. Network-owned stations present a different equation, with both revenue streams benefiting the same parent company.

None of this signals an exodus from local broadcasting. Geographic precision remains valuable, and national buys can generate too much wasted or duplicated reach to justify their cost. Addressable CTV and cable offer compelling targeted alternatives, though neither necessarily matches the simultaneous aggregated audience of national football.

After decades of increasingly precise TV advertising, some political buyers are finding that reaching millions of the wrong viewers can cost less than reaching only the right ones. For local broadcasters, the same programming that makes their inventory so valuable can make the network's broader reach look like a bargain.

Listen To Episode 30 Of “In The Vicinity”

Local News To Peruse:

Tim Hanlon

Tim Hanlon is the Founder & CEO of the Chicago-based Vertere Group, LLC – a boutique strategic consulting and advisory firm focused on helping today’s most forward-leaning media companies, brands, entrepreneurs, and investors benefit from rapidly changing technological advances in marketing, media and consumer communications.

Next

The Local News Crisis Is Coming For Television