Local TV revenues stand to rise by about 5.8% this year, according to BIA Advisory Services. The growth is being fueled by the Winter Olympics and by the upcoming fall elections. Many of the contests for House and Senate seats will be hard fought and advertised heavily on TV. The local TV revenues for 2019 don’t look as rosy, so analysts are recommending that stations make the most of helping clients with other video advertising efforts. Here’s the scoop.

In total this year, local TV advertising will be worth $18.2 billion. Some of the biggest increases for local TV will come from digital advertising and retransmission fees. Political advertising will drive part of the digital ad growth. Mark Fratrik, senior vice president/​chief economist at BIA Advisory Services, says, “Of all media, television still dominates in political years, even as campaigns integrate more digital advertising into their overall strategy.”

Next year, local TV revenue growth will fall off and amount to only 4.9 percent. TV stations that want to continue to grow should explore how small businesses are using video advertising. BIA reports that “mobile local video is growing at 14.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).” About 50% of SMBs that have explored the benefits of video advertising deployed a video ad last year. This year, media sales reps might want to target professional and financial services businesses in the local market. According to BIA data, these operators will be most likely to spend more on video advertising. The company’s research also shows that local entertainment businesses and those operating in the home trades and services sectors have been interested in producing video ads.

Media sales reps can check out what a local business has been doing on YouTube and get a website alignment analysis by reviewing the Digital Audit available on AdMall from SalesFuel. Using that information, they can pitch the benefit of their video production services.