The 2026 Midterms Are Where AI Meets the TV Ad

Television has been undergoing a transition from linear broadcast channels to streaming services for over a decade, with recent research showing that 43.8 percent of U.S. TV viewing is now via streaming on connected TVs.

This transition has fundamentally changed how advertisers approach TV as a marketing channel. The broad brush approach of linear TV advertising has been replaced with the precise audience targeting, segmentation and budget control that’s typical of other digital channels such as social media.

But unlike social media, display and other digital marketing channels, TV ad production costs and lead times have remained a prohibiting factor. While political campaigns could feasibly run multiple CTV ad campaigns with specific messaging targeting specific voter demographics, this has rarely been the case. Instead hyper-targeted ads have largely been the domain of social media, while messaging within TV ads has remained broader and less specific.

The arrival of AI could upend this paradigm. AI-powered production platforms have collapsed the cost and time of producing TV ads. Meanwhile, the explosive growth of ad-supported streaming has created huge amounts of inventory that campaigns can buy in precise, targeted increments.

This convergence has real implications for how campaigns use TV ads, particularly in down-ballot races that have historically been priced out of the medium entirely. And this year’s midterms will be the first election cycle within this new environment.