Cumulus, Pandora Well-Situated for Political Ads, Says Macquarie

Presidential campaign advertising spending could be “a nice lift” for broadcasters and streaming service Pandora, Macquarie analysts Amy Yong, Rachel Arrowood and Alessandra Gonzalez emailed investors. Pandora has political ad sales teams in New York and Washington, D.C., in addition to local sales teams, the analysts said Thursday. Those offices are expected to lead to more political spending on Pandora, they said. “Management expects to benefit significantly from local house and senate races on top of the Presidential election.” Cumulus is also well-positioned for incremental revenue in a presidential year, with 76 stations in swing states, the analysts said. Earlier this week, another analyst said late spending by the campaign of Donald Trump may help some TV station owners (see 1610190022), after some of their shares fell on concerns about Trump's relatively low spending (see 1609210075).