NEW YORK—As local stations, TV news outlets and networks ramp up their efforts to secure a larger share of what promises to be record political spending in the fall mid-term 2026 elections, the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) has released a new study that examines how effective political messaging is likely to be on various platforms.
The December 2025 survey based on findings conducted in partnership with Dynata of 2,319 U.S. adults examined behaviors and sentiments across five key voting and party affiliation groups, potential voters, non-voters, Republicans, Democrats and Independents. It also examined how viewers spend their time, what sources they trust most and how different TV contexts influence outcomes for political messaging.
Results, published as “The Lead Story: How Multiscreen TV Drives Cross-Partisan Engagement for Political Ad Campaigns” found that Americans overwhelmingly trust TV news over any other digital media source like search, social or AI. Collectively, potential voters are almost 9 times more likely to trust TV news than social media platforms, while 50% of total respondents rank AI lowest for trust.
Article continues belowIn addition, the survey found that audiences turn to TV news sources to stay informed on political issues far more than any other platform. Further, voters are 60% more likely to use TV news to stay informed than they are social media, and twice as likely than non-voters to be pay-TV subscribers.
TV news is also the primary starting point for understanding current events or issues for voters, while social media is viewed as more supplemental. Moreover, voters are much more likely to watch TV news—with 61% typically watching local news and 57% typically watching national news, compared to 38% and 25% of non-voters, respectively.
Social media is far more likely than TV programs to be viewed as a source of fake or misleading information, as potential voters are almost 3x more likely to believe social media platforms are most likely to provide fake or misleading information vs. TV.
Beyond political ads, people are much more likely to purchase products from advertisers in TV news, as potential voters are 42% more likely than not to buy from advertisers adjacent to a breaking news story on local TV news.
"Today's voters, regardless of political involvement or party affiliation, move fluidly across trusted multiscreen TV platforms, spanning both linear and streaming, to stay informed on current events and political issues," said Jason Wiese, executive vice president of strategic insights & measurement, VAB. "TV news delivers the scale, trust, credibility and authenticity that no other media can for both political and non-political advertisers. This creates the opportunity to reach audiences in high-quality viewing environments that are positively perceived and can inform, engage and ultimately drive action."
The full report is available here.
