As we get closer to the 2022 Congressional Primaries, I am sure many of us are wondering, “Are there any cable channels without political ads?” And the answer is legally no. TV channels cannot reject ads from qualified candidates. They can reject ads from PACS, or other third party political organizations however. Fiscally there are channels that are more likely to have political ads than others.
With the increase in streaming and DVR political parties are changing their ad buy strategies, when it comes to TV. According to The Washington Post in 2014, political campaigns were moving to playing ads during live sports. Different channels are more likely to be flooded with different campaign ads. The Golf Channel has more Republican ads than Democrat ads while E! has more Democratic ads than Republican ads.
How can we avoid political ads? Streaming services are the easiest way to avoid TV political ads. You can use an ad blocker on the internet to avoid political ads to a point. But at the end of the day we as consumers of media will not be able to avoid political advertisements completely. We have to do our research, pay attention to the end of the advertisement where they disclose who paid for the ad, and follow the money. Some good research materials to look at are the Electioneering Communications Database and Open Secrets.
