NEW YORK and WASHINGTON—DirecTV Advertising has launched DirecTV Elect, a new digital platform powered by AI that is specifically designed for political advertisers looking to reach connected TV (CTV) audiences.
The launch comes at a time when Political ad spending is set to reach $10.8 billion (up more than 20% from 2022) in the 2026, making this the most expensive midterm election cycle in history, according to AdImpact's Political Projections Report 2025-2026.
The vast majority of that spend, about 83%, is expected to be driven by TV, including broadcast, cable, and CTV, with CTV growth taking center stage as the fastest growing media type at $2.5 billion.
DirecTV Elect offers CTV at scale, with inventory across DirecTV and national cable networks, reaching an audience of over 130M monthly active users nationwide. This provides political advertisers and advocacy groups with seamless access to a wide variety of programming including news, live sports, and entertainment through a platform built to deliver political messages on TV.
"AI is redefining how political campaigns discover and engage with voters, helping unlock deeper insights and more effective connections," said Amy Leifer, chief advertising sales officer at DirecTV Advertising. "When that intelligence is complemented by the reach and credibility of television, voters gain greater clarity and confidence in what they see, while campaigns can achieve stronger results. DirecTV Elect brings these strengths together — combining the trust of television, the precision and flexibility of digital, and the intelligence of DirecTV Advantage, all fueled by AI.
More specifically, DirecTV Elect delivers AI-driven insights into voter sentiment and campaign issues powered by DirecTV Advantage, the company's data solutions suite that allows political advertisers to turn those insights into actionable CTV media strategies.
DirecTV Elect uses AI to analyze millions of signals from Large Language Model (LLM) responses, news, social media, donation patterns and recent voting behaviors to help political campaigns know where to focus, what to say, and ultimately, who to reach. From national messaging to neighborhood insights with geo-targeting by zip, district, and state, the company said that DirecTV Elect offers unprecedented access to the voters.
"Campaigns need to meet voters wherever they are, across linear, streaming, and digital environments," said Drew Groner, senior vice president, head of sales and marketing for DirecTV Advertising. "Political ad buyers want to find new ways to reach undecided voters, voters in the battleground states and those in states with the highest projected spend. What is particularly interesting this year is that they're looking to use live sports programming to break through to those audiences. DirecTV Elect can now give campaigns access to premium live sports inventory on streaming at scale, along with the insights to help them deliver their message where and when it needs to be heard."
DirecTV also stressed that media budgets and ad dollars continue to shift to CTV as more viewers turn to streaming.
Nielsen's monthly report of The Gauge, recently reported that streaming continued to dominate TV usage and owned 45.2% of total watch-time in September.
DirecTV Advertising also conducted a survey in September of over 1000 U.S. adults about their views on political advertising, and three in five (61%) respondents said that they trust political ads on TV – a +56% advantage over social media.
Political ads seen on TV are also viewed as being the most accurate and the most informative, with those surveyed saying that they pay more attention to political ads on TV than in any other medium. More than half of all respondents (52%) also said they find political ads seen within TV or streaming content to be most persuasive (compared to just 35% for sponsored social media posts), which is a key factor that can help move the needle for campaigns looking to influence undecided voters.
