Spending on television ads for the midterm elections has surpassed $1 billion, with certain cable networks receiving a more partisan share of spending.
The ad spending — $1,065,727,692.92 to be exact — produced more than 2.6 million ads, data from Echelon Insights shows.
Unsurprisingly, the ads on Fox News and MSNBC were overwhelmingly partisan — 84 percent Republican on the former and 85 percent Democratic on the latter.
However, news networks weren’t the cable channels that received the heaviest share of partisan spending. 93 percent of ads run on the Golf Channel were pro-Republican, while 94 percent of ads on E! were Democrat.
Republicans also targeted The History Channel, ESPN 2 and the Discovery Channel.
Democrats made up more than 80 percent of all political ads on Comedy Central, ABC Family, BET and Bravo, the data shows.
Channels split down the middle included Spike, HGTV, FX and The Weather Channel, showing both the demographics and the desire of both parties to reach those types of viewers.
The ads weren’t cheap at some networks: A spot on ESPN — which aired more than 30,000 ads this cycle — cost an average of roughly $131, followed by about $129 for Fox News, $95 on USA and $93 on TBS.
But MSNBC came in substantially cheaper at slightly less than $32, while it cost just under $13 for an average spot on The Weather Channel.
“Though cable remains a relatively small percentage of overall TV buying, the variety of options for targeting mean that it can yield valuable insights as to the two parties’ targeting that broadcast can’t,” Patrick Ruffini, Echelon’s co-founder, wrote in an e-mail to the Washington Post.
