Comcast’s global ad tech platform for streaming video, FreeWheel, now has a direct integration with Tunnl. The timing suggests that the start of 2026 midterm election media buying is nearing — and FreeWheel is ready to bring political and issues-based advertisers as many connected TV and streaming avails as necessary to push a candidate over the top come Election Day in November.
“As campaigns and issues-focused organizations head toward the 2026 midterms,
speed and flexibility are key,” said Michelle Eule, Executive Director of Data and
Measurement Partnerships at FreeWheel. “Audience strategy can shift day to day and
activation needs to keep pace. With Tunnl now available on-platform, our buyers can
more quickly find and activate audiences built for political and adjacent use cases,
spanning topics such as issues, advocacy, policy and reputation.”
With 2026 political ad spending projected to reach $10.8 billion overall, Connected TV is expected to hit $2.5 billion, “becoming a must-buy channel for campaigns and advocacy
organizations” as broadcasters seek to capture as many dollars as it can in an increasingly competitive environment.
“By adding Tunnl’s political and issues-based voter segments to its growing roster of
directly integrated political data partners, FreeWheel is giving political buyers a more
centralized way to reach key voter audiences with speed and precision on Connected TV,” says the Comcast-owned FreeWheel.
For multidimension companies such as Comcast, which owns the Xfinity MVPD and NBCUniversal, connected TV ad solutions are part of the bigger media mix. However, for smaller broadcast TV companies with no connected TV or streaming solutions of their own, increasing concerns that it could lose out on political dollars are emerging across the industry.
