NEW YORK—Leo MacCourtney, president of Katz Television Group, has been elected to serve a two-year term (2019-2020) as chairman of the Television Bureau of Advertising.

MacCourtney has been a board member of TVB since 2005 and most recently served as its treasurer, TVB said. He takes over from Perry Sook, founder, chairman and president of Nexstar Media Group, who completed his two-year term at the end of last year.

“I am grateful to follow Perry Sook’s leadership in the role of TVB Chairman as we continue our work on initiatives to support the future growth and innovation of the local broadcast TV industry and our over 800 member stations,” said MacCourtney.

“As the broadcast TV industry continues to evolve across all screens and devices, so has TVB’s mission to increase collaboration between media agencies, advertising sales resps and broadcasters to support our shared goals for sustainable local TV growth,” he said.

MacCourtney has more than 37 years of professional experience in the broadcasting industry. From 1998 to 2007, he served as president of Blair Television. MacCourtney joined Katz Television, a television representation company, in 2007 as VP of Business Development. He became president of the Eagle Television Sales division in 2008. He was named Katz Television Group in March 2012.

Besides TVB Board membership, MacCourtney is a board member of the International Radio & Television Society Foundation, the Broadcasters Foundation of America, the Emma Brown Foundation and the Washington Media Scholars Foundation.

“As a TVB Board member and a leading executive at the nation’s top TV rep company, he has been a strong advocate for the power of local broadcast TV’s premium, cross-platform local advertising opportunities,” said Steve Lanzano, TVB president and CEO.

“importantly, Leo’s experience collaborating with both broadcast leaders and media agency executives will serve TVB well as we continue our work to advance local TV, which enhancing our members’ local revenue opportunities and advertiser relationships.”

Politicians running in the 2018 elections spent a record amount of money on advertising for mid-term campaigns, with more than $4 billion between local broadcast, cable and online. The vast bulk of the dollars went to local television, at just over $3 billion, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising. Cable brought in $1.1 billion and $900 million went to online advertising. Although local television reaped the biggest windfall, the numbers represent a 29 percent increase for local TV, 75 percent for cable and a whopping 260 percent increase for online, when compared to the 2014 mid-terms, according to Axios.

The biggest spenders in the campaign, according to Axios were Political Action Committees (PACs), including Priorities USA and House Majority PAC on the left, Congressional Leadership Fund and Senate Leadership Fund on the right, as well as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The figures for digital online political advertising were debateable, with advertising research firm Borrell touting $1.8 billion and Kantar Media/CMAG estimating $900 million. In 2014, an estimated $250 million was spend in online campaign ads.

Nevertheless, with 3 out of every 4 dollars spent on local TV ads, TVB touted the figures as proof that political campaigns continue to view local television as the primary venue for political advertising.

“Campaigns, PACs and other entities spent over $3 billion dollars on local broadcast television advertising in the 2018 midterm cycle,” commented TVB President & CEO, Steve Lanzano. “There is no doubt that local broadcast TV delivers for political campaigns. Candidates continue to derive tangible, winning results from local broadcast television. Tuesday’s dominant reliance on TV, over all other media platforms, demonstrates that voters rely on local broadcast TV to inform their voting decisions.”

“2018 was uncertain in every way; the volatility this cycle was unprecedented,” said Kyle Roberts, President and CEO of Advertising Analytics. “It’s why we saw candidates and campaigns go back to what is tried and true: if you use TV, it reaches voters and they listen. TV works.”