The 2022 midterm election is expected to be the highest-spending political ad cycle ever. AdImpact forecasts that more than $9.7 billion will be spent on political advertising, revised from the $8.9 billion forecast in July 2021.

This is good news for social media companies and traditional media outlets alike, who will benefit from the number of visitors browsing and searching for the latest news generate advertising revenue.

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What happened: During the 2020 presidential election, political advertising hit an all-time high with $9.02 billion in spending.

Meanwhile, November’s midterm elections are the focus of many voters, with inflation, economic headwinds and abortion being key factors that will affect votes. Although not a presidential election, as of the end of July 2022, the election cycle is already overtaking 2020 by nearly $700 million, according to AdImpact.

CNBC’s The News With Shepard Smith reports that more than 59,000 political ads are broadcast across TV, radio and digital every day. Democrats focus on abortion ads, while Republican ads focus on taxes and inflation.

Why it matters: In the 2020 presidential election, 19% or $1.73 billion of election spending went to digital advertising, to companies such as alphabet Google and meta platforms META.

As more people go off-wire, connected television (CTV) advertising has already spent $300 million, or 13% of political ad revenue, on streaming services by 2022.

That figure is expected to account for at least $1.4 billion in CTV ads by 2022, which would put streaming giants such as Netflix NFLX and Walt Disney DISsince they now have ad-supported subscriptions.

Finally, traditional cable sockets such as Warner Bros Discovery Inc WBD Subsidiary CNN & Fox FOXA saw earnings fall in 2020, but that could…