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www.spotsndots.com Subscriptions: $350 per year. This publication cannot be distributed beyond the office of the actual subscriber. Need us? 888-884-2630 or [email protected] Copyright 2020. The Daily News of TV Sales Monday, May 4, 2020 ABSENCE OF MARCH MADNESS A KEY FACTOR National TV took an expected major decline in March down 12.8% to $3.8 billion, with the first quarter of 2020 sinking 5.4% to $10.8 million, according to Standard Media Index — due to COVID-19 issues that forced major cancellations from TV marketers. The scrubbing of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament was a major reason for the March decline. A year ago, the big event pulled in $648 million collectively on broadcast network CBS and cable TV network group Turner. This pushed CBS advertising revenues down by a massive 48% to $283.6 million. NBC was down 7.6% to $317.8 million for the month — remaining the top broadcast network overall, Television News Daily reports. But not all broadcast networks were lower: ABC and Fox saw ad revenues up vs. a year ago — 2.6% (to $271.4 million) and 3.7% to ($112.4 million) respectively. Looking at cable TV networks for March, ESPN — even without live sports (especially the NBA) — was up 2.7% to $166 million, leading all cable networks. But Turner’s TNT and TBS, which airs the March Madness NCAA tournament, took big hits. TBS sank 59% to $92.5 million (fourth place among all cable networks) and TNT, down 29% to $97 million (third place). Still, there was good news for another Turner network: CNN’s ad revenue was 18.7% higher, reaching nearly $72 million (seventh place). CNN has seen some of the highest- percentage viewing gains for any network. Fox News Channel posted a 4.8% gain — $78 million for the month, coming in sixth place for all cable TV networks. MSNBC was down 4.3% to $36.6 million. The biggest non-sports, non-news channel was Discovery’s HGTV, dropping 5.9%, with just under $100 million. It remained in second among all cable networks after ESPN. Looking at the broader picture for the first quarter, broadcast TV was down 4% to $4.24 billion; cable TV fell 7.3% to $6.16 billion, while syndication rose 7.1% to $435 million. Much of the changes in the national TV market took place in the last three weeks of March. Even without NCAA basketball, CBS remained the top broadcast network for national TV advertising — up 3.2% to $478.9 million in ad revenue. CBS was the only broadcast network to see gains for the entire Q1. A major element of those higher results was overall higher political advertising for all of TV in the first three months of the year. ESPN was up 6.7% to $587.3 million for the quarter. Well behind in second was HGTV, down 3.8% to $244.3 million. NATIONAL TV SINKS 13% IN MARCH, 5% IN Q1, SMI SAYS ADVERTISER NEWS It’s certainly no surprise that Amazon’s first-quarter sales were through the roof, up 26% to $75.5 billion. Profit, however, fell 29% to $2.5 billion, as the company needed to hire 175,000 new workers and dropped many items deemed non-essential to concentrate on more important items… Walmart has been running a test of Express Delivery at about 100 stores for a few weeks and now plans to expand the idea to 1,000 stores now and up to 2,000 stores in the next few weeks. It allows customers to choose from more than 160,000 items and get delivery in two hours… The huge success of Popeye’s chicken sandwich pre-pandemic wasn’t enough to keep Restaurant Brands’ sales in positive revenue numbers as it ended March with a 3% decline in total revenue. Despite the drop- off, Popeye’s still had a 26.2% same-store gain for Q1, but much larger Burger King was down 3.7% and Tim Horton’s was off by 10.3%... Denny’s is joining the growing list of restaurants offering to sell ingredients directly to the public by starting up Denny’s Market, a free delivery service offering grocery staples like bread, assorted meats and cheese, eggs and toilet paper, at participating locations nationwide. Orders for pick-up or delivery can be placed online or by phone. The chain is also offering make-at-home meal kits at participating locations… Like so many others, a bad March wiped out January and February gains at El Pollo Loco, which finished the quarter with same-store sales down 1.5%. But take-out and delivery has improved each of the last six weeks, and in the latest week, comps improved to more than 90% of last year’s total sales, including dining in… Molson Coors had a very tough quarter. The week before the pandemic hit, there had been a mass shooting that claimed five lives at its Milwaukee brewery, and the brewer lost more than a week of production. Once the COVID-19 problems started, there was a surge of pantry loading, but that didn’t continue into April. The company sees a shift to larger package sizes of brands people “know and trust” like Miller Lite and Coors Lite, while an analyst sees the industry in “consumer trade- (Continued on Page 3)

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Page 1: NATIONAL TV SINKS 13% IN MARCH, 5% IN Q1, SMI SAYSresume and cover letter, noting desired position, referral source and salary history to: jobs@kulr.com. ... Meghan Trainor, Joe Buck,

www.spotsndots.comSubscriptions: $350 per year.

This publication cannot bedistributed beyond the office

of the actual subscriber. Need us? 888-884-2630 or

[email protected] Copyright 2020.The Daily News of TV Sales Monday, May 4, 2020

ABSENCE OF MARCH MADNESS A KEY FACTOR National TV took an expected major decline in March — down 12.8% to $3.8 billion, with the first quarter of 2020 sinking 5.4% to $10.8 million, according to Standard Media Index — due to COVID-19 issues that forced major cancellations from TV marketers. The scrubbing of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament was a major reason for the March decline. A year ago, the big event pulled in $648 million collectively on broadcast network CBS and cable TV network group Turner. This pushed CBS advertising revenues down by a massive 48% to $283.6 million. NBC was down 7.6% to $317.8 million for the month — remaining the top broadcast network overall, Television News Daily reports. But not all broadcast networks were lower: ABC and Fox saw ad revenues up vs. a year ago — 2.6% (to $271.4 million) and 3.7% to ($112.4 million) respectively. Looking at cable TV networks for March, ESPN — even without live sports (especially the NBA) — was up 2.7% to $166 million, leading all cable networks. But Turner’s TNT and TBS, which airs the March Madness NCAA tournament, took big hits. TBS sank 59% to $92.5 million (fourth place among all cable networks) and TNT, down 29% to $97 million (third place). Still, there was good news for another Turner network: CNN’s ad revenue was 18.7% higher, reaching nearly $72 million (seventh place). CNN has seen some of the highest-percentage viewing gains for any network. Fox News Channel posted a 4.8% gain — $78 million for the month, coming in sixth place for all cable TV networks. MSNBC was down 4.3% to $36.6 million. The biggest non-sports, non-news channel was Discovery’s HGTV, dropping 5.9%, with just under $100 million. It remained in second among all cable networks after ESPN. Looking at the broader picture for the first quarter, broadcast TV was down 4% to $4.24 billion; cable TV fell 7.3% to $6.16 billion, while syndication rose 7.1% to $435 million. Much of the changes in the national TV market took place in the last three weeks of March. Even without NCAA basketball, CBS remained the top broadcast network for national TV advertising — up 3.2% to $478.9 million in ad revenue. CBS was the only broadcast network to see gains for the entire Q1. A major element of those higher results was overall higher political advertising for all of TV in the first three months of the year. ESPN was up 6.7% to $587.3 million for the quarter. Well behind in second was HGTV, down 3.8% to $244.3 million.

NATIONAL TV SINKS 13% IN MARCH, 5% IN Q1, SMI SAYSADVERTISER NEWS It’s certainly no surprise that Amazon’s first-quarter sales were through the roof, up 26% to $75.5 billion. Profit, however, fell 29% to $2.5 billion, as the company needed to hire 175,000 new workers and dropped many items deemed non-essential to concentrate on more important items…Walmart has been running a test of Express Delivery at about 100 stores for a few weeks and now plans to expand the idea to 1,000 stores now and up to 2,000 stores in the

next few weeks. It allows customers to choose from more than 160,000 items and get delivery in two hours… The huge success of Popeye’s chicken sandwich pre-pandemic wasn’t enough to keep Restaurant Brands’ sales in positive revenue numbers as it ended March with a 3% decline in total revenue. Despite the drop-

off, Popeye’s still had a 26.2% same-store gain for Q1, but much larger Burger King was down 3.7% and Tim Horton’s was off by 10.3%... Denny’s is joining the growing list of restaurants offering to sell ingredients directly to the public by starting up Denny’s Market, a free delivery service offering grocery staples like bread, assorted meats and cheese, eggs and toilet paper, at participating locations nationwide. Orders for pick-up or delivery can be placed online or by phone. The chain is also offering make-at-home meal kits at participating locations… Like so many others, a bad March wiped out January and February gains at El Pollo Loco, which finished the quarter with same-store sales down 1.5%. But take-out and delivery has improved each of the last six weeks, and in the latest week, comps improved to more than 90% of last year’s total sales, including dining in… Molson Coors had a very tough quarter. The week before the pandemic hit, there had been a mass shooting that claimed five lives at its Milwaukee brewery, and the brewer lost more than a week of production. Once the COVID-19 problems started, there was a surge of pantry loading, but that didn’t continue into April. The company sees a shift to larger package sizes of brands people “know and trust” like Miller Lite and Coors Lite, while an analyst sees the industry in “consumer trade-

(Continued on Page 3)

Page 2: NATIONAL TV SINKS 13% IN MARCH, 5% IN Q1, SMI SAYSresume and cover letter, noting desired position, referral source and salary history to: jobs@kulr.com. ... Meghan Trainor, Joe Buck,

PAGE 2 The Daily News of TV Sales @ www.spotsndots.com

AVAILS KULR-TV, a Cowles Montana Media station, is looking for a General Sales Manager for Billings, Mont. This position requires an individual with strong leadership abilities to direct our local sales team in creating new business and revenue streams through our multi-channel, multi-platform broadcast station. See complete posting at kulr8.com/careers. Candidate must possess a proven track record in client relationships, sales management, developmental skills and staff recruiting. Send

resume and cover letter, noting desired position, referral source and salary history to: [email protected]. KCWE, the Hearst-owned affiliate in Kansas City, Mo., is looking for a Local Sales Manager. We are looking for a leader with a proven track record of success across multi-platforms. The ability to impact the local market and business community, build relationships, and strategically plan to drive results to our clients is a must. Click HERE to

apply. EOE.

See your ad here tomorrow! CLICK HERE for details.

TOYOTA, HONDA, HYUNDAI SEE SINKING SALES Toyota Motor Corp., American Honda, Hyundai, Subaru and Kia posted sharply lower U.S. sales last month in what is shaping up to be the low point for automakers as the market reels from closed showrooms and government restrictions on household and business activity because of the COVID-19 outbreak, Automotive News reports. Volume dropped 54% at Toyota Motor, with demand down the same amount at the Toyota division and Lexus. Overall, the automaker’s truck deliveries slid 50% and car sales dropped 61%, even as the company’s average new-vehicle incentive rose 24 percent to $2,551 last month. “We’ve hit bottom,” Bob Carter, head of U.S. sales for Toyota, said Friday. “It was a much better month [across the industry] than we anticipated.” At American Honda, volume dropped 54%, with sales down 54% at Honda and 57% at Acura. The company said car demand dropped 55% while light-truck deliveries fell 53 percent. In another sign the market is rebounding, April deliveries fell 38% at Kia and 47% at Subaru, results that outpaced overall market projections. U.S. sales fell 39% at Hyundai, one of the hotter brands in recent quarters because of an expanded crossover lineup, with light-truck deliveries off 13% to 21,305 while car demand skidded 59% to 12,663. Overall, retail sales declined 28% and fleet shipments slumped 74%. Among other automakers, volume dropped 45% at Mazda and 50% at Genesis. Cox and Edmunds projected 620,000 to 633,000 vehicles were sold during the month, well below the 657,161 tallied in January 2009 in the depths of the Great Recession. The seasonally adjusted annualized sales rate was expected to tumble to 7.5 million to 7.7 million, according to forecasts. That would be the lowest sales pace in more than 40 years.

NETWORK NEWS Fox has greenlit non-scripted Celebrity Watch Party, which goes into the homes of celebrities and their families, as they watch and react to the week’s most interesting television shows. In the premiere episode on Thursday at 8 PM (ET), viewers will step into the homes of various personalities, including Rob Lowe, Meghan Trainor, Joe Buck, Raven-Symoné, Master P and Romeo, JoJo Siwa, Steve Wozniak, Curtis Stone, and Robert and Kym Herjavec. Additional talent participating in the series will be announced... ABC will air a 10-episode series called The Bachelor: The Most Unforgettable - Ever! beginning Monday, June 8 at 8 PM (ET). Each Monday, directly from the Bachelor mansion, Chris Harrison will reach into the vault and bring back one of his favorite seasons, highlighting some of the most devastating rose ceremonies, passionate proposals, unexpected new arrivals, dramatic meltdowns, biggest breakups, and, of course, the most romantic moments... The comedic game show Game On!, hosted by Keegan-Michael Key, will debut on CBS on Wednesday, May 20 at 8 PM (ET). Game On! pits two teams of three, captained by tennis champion and entrepreneur Venus Williams and Super Bowl champion Rob Gronkowski, alongside comedians Bobby Lee and Ian Karmel and rotating sports stars, comedians and celebrities, against each other in over-the-top physical challenges, absurd trivia and epic field competitions... CBS reality competition series Tough As Nails will premiere Wednesday, July 8 at 9 PM (ET). The series celebrates everyday Americans who roll up their sleeves and don’t think twice about working long hard hours and getting their hands dirty to keep their country running. Competitors who consider the calluses on their hands a badge of honor will be tested for their strength, endurance, life skills and, most importantly, mental toughness in challenges that take place at real-world job sites... The off-beat game show Don’t, hosted by Adam Scott, will premiere on ABC on Thursday, June 11. Ryan Reynolds, star of the Deadpool franchise, executive produces. Contestants team up with their family and friends for the chance to win up to $100,000 by tackling various tasks, each with the simple rule: Don’t. Among the challenges: Don’t blink, don’t look back and don’t play ball in the house., ABC says... The Byron Allen-driven comedy fundraiser for hunger relief organization Feeding America has a new air date, broadcast partner and additional guests. The fundraiser will now be held on Sunday from 7 PM to 9 PM (ET), with NBC broadcasting the show. The program has added the talents of Sebastian Maniscalco, JB Smoove, Jim Gaffigan, Judd Apatow, Jack Black, Cedric the Entertainer, Whitney Cummings, Jim Gaffigan, Brad Garrett, Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin James, George Lopez, Sarah Silverman and Kenan Thompson to its previously announced lineup of Kevin Hart, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Eddie Murphy and Billy Crystal... ABC has scheduled a second edition of its quarantine programming hit The Disney Family Singalong for Mother’s Day. The original special drew nearly 13 million people. Volume II will air Sunday at 7 PM (ET). Ryan Seacrest returns as host.

5/4/2020

Seth Meyers

I used to have an audience of human beings who

laughed at jokes. Now the only thing watching me are

the dead black eyes of a stuffed elephant rocker.

Page 3: NATIONAL TV SINKS 13% IN MARCH, 5% IN Q1, SMI SAYSresume and cover letter, noting desired position, referral source and salary history to: jobs@kulr.com. ... Meghan Trainor, Joe Buck,

The Daily News of TV Sales @ www.spotsndots.com PAGE 3

AMAZON’S AD SPENDING SURGES IN Q1 Advertising on Amazon has been volatile, as concerns over the coronavirus pandemic created a shopping frenzy for supplies. This drove many products out of stock, which, along with Amazon’s deprioritization of non-neccessities, caused advertising competition in multiple categories to dry up, eMarketer reports. Still, consumer appetite for goods on the e-commerce marketplace drove an ad spending surge for Amazon in Q1 2020. According to performance marketing agency Merkle, client spending was up 67.3% on Sponsored Product ads

and 118.3% on Sponsored Brand ads compared with Q1 2019. Tinuiti reported a 47% increase in client spending on Sponsored Brand ads, with Sponsored Product ad spending growing 24%. Last week Amazon reported 44% growth in Q1 2020 in its “other” sales line item, which primarily includes advertising revenues. Merkle and Tinuiti also found that prices were rising on Sponsored Brand ads — but by dramatically different amounts. Tinuiti reported that the costs per click

(CPCs) for U.S. Sponsored Brand ads rose just 1% year over year in Q1 2020, while CPCs for Merkle’s clients increased 52.4%. Amazon ad buying technology provider Pacvue reported relatively low growth in Sponsored Brand CPCs, at 5%.

ADVERTISER NEWS (Continued from Page 1)down” with economy brands outperforming full product lines... Sales figures for the furniture business are typically two months behind, but at least the February numbers (which are now being reported) are positive, with new orders up 6% and backlogs increasing. Of course, March numbers are expected to fall off dramatically… Tempur-Sealy reported a “major decrease” in sales with orders down 80% in early April and 55% for its fiscal quarter-to-date… Supermarkets are prospering. Albertsons, which reports sales as “identical store sales,” was up 47% in March and 21% in April, the first two months of its fiscal year… The Wall Street Journal reports J. Crew is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection. It is $1.7 billion in debt and had planned to use proceeds from a sale of its Madewell subsidiary to help pay down debt, but that deal fell apart in March… Tapestry, parent of Coach and some other smaller chains, reported quarterly sales down 20%. It reopened about 40 of its stores last Friday for curbside or storefront pickup and will follow a “phased approach” to allowing customers back into stores.

5/4/2020

FunnyTweeter.com

I’m not saying breakfast tacos are the cure, but

I’ve had breakfast tacos every day for two weeks and I’m COVID19 free,

you do the math.

SATURDAY NIELSEN RATINGS - LIVE + SAME DAY

VIEWERS ADDING MULTIPLE VIDEO PROVIDERS Consumers staying at home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus are increasing the number of TV providers they use, according to a new study. Hub Entertainment Research found that the number of homes with a streaming service increased to 78% from 72% last year. And the average household now has nearly five different services, including both traditional pay-TV and streaming services, up from 3.7% a year ago and three in 2018, Broadcasting & Cable reports. The major streaming services have seen increases in subscribers. Netflix moved up to 63% of homes from 62% a year ago. Amazon saw an even bigger jump, rising to 42% from 37%. Hulu increased to 28% from 26%. Disney+, which launched late last year, is already in 31% of homes. Apple TV+ was in 6%. Not all households are sheltering at home, and their behavior is different from those that are, the study found. The difference was even greater when there are kids in the households. Among those not self-isolating with no kids, 61% had a streaming service. Among those self-isolating, 82% had a streaming service. And among those self-isolating with kids at home, 94% had a streaming service.

MCDONALD’S DRIVE-THRU PROVIDES A LIFELINE The spending habits of McDonald’s customers have tilted not unlike other fast-food competitors in recent weeks. CFO Kevin Ozan said last week that 90% of sales are now coming via drive-thru business, up from roughly two-thirds. And in more recent days, QSR magazine reports, average check lifted significantly as solo diners exit the picture and routines get steamrolled by COVID-19. Mainly, you can see this unfolding at breakfast. People aren’t buying an item or two and heading to work anymore. Additionally, McDonald’s weekend sales have taken a bigger hit than weekdays as consumers leave their homes only when necessary, Ozan said. But much of this is a holding pattern right now. “From a customer perspective, we’re encouraged by some of our early learnings that lead us to believe customers will be seeking known brands and familiar routines,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said. “We’re also seeing a heightened focus on value and convenience.” Global same-store sales were surging in February — just north of 7% — before mid-March arrived and kicked all momentum sideways.

THIS AND THAT Investors opted to re-elect all of Tegna’s current directors despite a push from shareholder Standard General to control four of the board’s dozen seats, Reuters reports. Soohyung Kim, founder of Standard General, had put himself forward for a position but says he will respect the election results and remain involved in the organization... Some 36% of consumers have donated or made a purchase to support individuals in their community who are furloughed or out of a job, the National Retail Federation reports.