Facebook, Twitter Are the Real Winners From Political Ad Spending in 2016 Election

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton launched her first two television commercials Tuesday in Iowa and New Hampshire. While presidential candidates have long relied on television ads to spread their messages, the small screen is losing its luster. Political TV ad spending for the 2016 race is set to grow just 7 percent from 2012 to $5.8 billion, while digital ad spending is poised to soar 600 percent, crossing the $1 billion mark for the first time ever, according to Borrell Associates. Some 55 percent of this figure, or about $588 million, will be spent on social media platforms, boding well for Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR) -- companies whose businesses depend on advertising. ‘I think Twitter, Facebook and Google (GOOG) are going to be the winners,’ said Kip Cassino, executive vice president at Norfork, Va.-based Borrell Associates. ‘TV outlets will disagree as there will be more requests for ads than TV time available, but broadcast is losing market share and digital is the reason for most of the loss.’ Going forward, Borrell Associates said digital political advertising will continue to explode, rising another 200 percent to $3.2 billion over the next four years, compared to TV's 19 percent drop. TheStreet’s Scott Gamm reports from New York.