Local/Regional TV Advertising Outlook (2024 actuals, 2025 actuals, 2026 forecast)

Here’s how it looks from the courthouse steps of Localville, USA. The car dealer who swore by the 6 p.m. news still wants “tonight,” but he also wants the two households who already cut the cord and the four who only open YouTube on the living-room screen. That tension, between habitual reach and addressable reality, is exactly where local broadcast and local cable now compete for every incremental dollar.