www.cablespots.net Published Daily For Subscriptions, call 1-888-884-2630 [email protected] $300 Per Year Copyright 2019 Tuesday, August 25, 2020 SPORTS ARE BACK, BUT HOW ABOUT THE ADVERTISERS? IN A BIZARRE 2020, ONLY UNCERTAINTY IS CERTAIN ADVERTISER NEWS Sports are back — but they are far from normal. While Shortages of laptops and other supplies are among the many consumers are eager to sit back and watch a televised challenges that schools face as kids begin the new academic game, others aren’t as eager to jump into the distraction yet. year. “This is going to be like asking an artist to paint a pic- How are consumers responding, and what does that mean ture without paint. You can’t have a kid do distance learning for advertising? without a computer,” said Tom Baumgarten, superinten- Sports are a boon for networks, MediaRadar points out. dent of the Morongo Unified School District in California. The NFL alone created $4.6 billion in national TV ad rev- All 8,000 students in Baumgarten’s district qualify for free enue in 2019. But this year is unlike any other — and it’s dif- lunch and most need computers to participate in distance ficult to say with confidence if scheduled games will fully pull learning... Non-essential retailers face challenges getting through, how fans will engage, and which shoppers through their store doors so many advertisers will come back. are moving online to generate new sources For many fans, it’s strange — if not disturb- of revenue. Shopify, an online platform that ing — to watch a game with fake cardboard hosts e-commerce sites, reported a 71% or virtual fans in the stadium, or seats cov- increase in new merchants coming aboard ered in a blue backdrop with the Delta logo, in Q2… A growing number of retailers are reminding them of times when they travelled going to cloud computing to keep up with by plane. The consumer response will large- online sales demands that have increased ly impact TV networks and their sponsors. in parallel with the spread of the novel coro- According to some analysts, the return of sports will be navirus pandemic. Etsy migrated its information technology great for networks. systems to Google Cloud back in February. “We couldn’t “We believe that the return of seven pro sports in July and have predicted better timing,” said Mike Fisher, Etsy’s chief August plus the NFL in September suggests higher linear technology officer. Etsy has seen the amount of data it has TV sub ads in the second half, including by cord-nevers, and had to process double in recent months… CVS is following higher subscriber churn for streaming services,” explained other retailers, including Target and Walmart, in introducing Needham & Co. analyst Laura Martin. an in-house digital ad network. The CVS Media Exchange However, it might not be that simple. Others say that rat- platform is intended to enable the drugstore chain’s consum- ings have been all over the place — and for many reasons. er packaged brand suppliers to “efficiently reach existing and The lack of real human emotion in the stadiums, the strange potential customers” via in-store ads, website banners, online timing of the seasons, political advocacy at the forefront of video, social media and search engines. Norman de Greve, the games, all amid a pandemic don’t make an environment CVS Health’s CMO, said the data the retailer has on 74 mil- where sports feel as fun or relaxing as they normally do. lion consumers will be invaluable to advertisers… More than It gets even more complicated for college sports. For ex- 52,000 Hasbro Super Soaker XP 20 & 30 water guns sold ample, the University of North Carolina moved all classes by Target are being recalled over concerns that the stickers online for undergraduate students, but planned to continue on the toy exceed the government’s limit on lead content. football, raising questions asking which comes first: “stu- Consumers are being told to keep kids away from the wa- dent” or “athlete.” ter guns and return them for a full refund… The Food and College football generated $1.2 billion in ad revenue for Drug Administration is investigating a salmonella outbreak U.S. television networks last year, and if the season gets tied to bagged peaches that have sickened 68 people in nine cut, networks would experience big losses. states. The peaches, under the Wawona brand, were sold The cancellation of the season would have bigger impli- in Aldi, Walmart and Wegmans stores in 16 states. States cations than football advertising itself. Fourteen percent of where infections have been reported include Iowa, Maryland, cable-TV customers in a UBS Securities survey said they’d Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, cancel their service if college football didn’t happen. If the Virginia and Wisconsin… Estée Lauder has announced a seasons are cut short or don’t continue networks will have two-year post-pandemic Business Acceleration Program in less value to offer advertisers. conjunction with its Q4 earnings, which includes reducing its For the three major sports that have already returned physical footprint and shifting priorities online. The company (NBA, MLB, NHL), MediaRadar compared the advertisers aims to close 10% to 15% of its standalone stores globally running ads during the game pre-COVID to the advertisers as part of the effort, according to a company press release… running ads after games returned. Lord & Taylor is closing two-dozen stores for good as it con- Since sports came back to national TV, 527 companies tinues to search for a buyer to restructure under Chapter 11 have spent nearly $100 million on TV ads during games. bankruptcy protection and keep its business alive. Consid- Looking at the top 100 advertisers across all three sports ered the nation’s first department store chain when it opened its inaugural shop in New York in 1826, Lord & Taylor filed for (Continued on Page 2) Chapter 11 earlier this month. CABLENET CHATTER PARKS: PAY-TV IN 62% OF BROADBAND HOMES Syfy has set premiere dates for its first twoTZGZ animated Despite finding high-speed Internet service in almost original series. Magical Girl Friendship Squad and Wild every home, with weekly video consumption up more than Life will premiere Saturday, Sept. 26 with back-to-back 37 hours per household, new data from Parks Associates episodes. Magical Girl Friendship Squad will kick it off at contends 62% of U.S. broadband households still subscribe midnight, followed by Wild Life at around 12:15 AM (ET) to a traditional pay-TV service, down from 69% in Q1 2019. on Syfy’s late-night adult animation block TZGZ... The new “The explosion of online viewing options and video season of What On Earth? will open on Science Channel consumption came at the same time many shelter-in-place on Thursday at 9 PM (ET). Viewers will travel around the orders were enacted,” says research director Steve Nason. globe, discovering the truth behind mysteries thanks to Nason said as households rely more on OTT services, the state-of-the-art aerial imaging and analysis from the world’s spike in online video consumption and decrease in linear- leading investigators and scientists... The documentary only households, the gap between OTT and traditional pay- special Biography: I Want My MTV, TV is widening. “Traditional services are charts the rise of the cultural phenomenon looking to migrate to the cloud to get the that came to define a generation. It will best of pay-TV and OTT,” he said. debut on MTV on Tuesday, Sept. 8 and What’s the time of day that Nuno Sanches, GM, media & telecom focus on how the network evolved into if you haven’t showered at software company Kaltura, said the a reflection of American youth culture... by now, you might as well paradigm shift in the pay-TV consumption The live one-hour program The News wait until tomorrow? I’ll underscores the benefits of putting cloud- with Shepard Smith will premiere on go with 12:12 PM. based TV at the heart of the ecosystem. CNBC on Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 7 PM He says cloud TV combines the agility, (ET). The nightly newscast is described speed and multiscreen usability of OTT, with the reliability and scale of pay-TV. as “providing deep, non-partisan Larry The Cable Guy coverage and perspective on the day’s “Just five years ago it was considered most important stories.” Smith abruptly impossible to deliver operator-grade exited Fox News Channel last October... service from the cloud,” Sanches said. ESPN and Little League International have announced an “The economics was perceived to be too expensive, and eight-year, multi-platform media rights extension, effective it seemed that telecom operators would not accept the 2023 through 2030. Under the deal, ESPN will produce perceived loss of control involved in utilizing the open Internet and televise live Little League events as the exclusive to deliver pay-TV services. But today, we have multinational global media rights holder of Little League Baseball and pay-TV operators embracing online TV.” Little League Softball. ESPN platforms will exclusively carry more than 300 Little League live events annually. AMERICANS SWAP MASS TRANSIT FOR VEHICLES Additionally, ESPN and ABC will continue to produce and Cars.com found that more than a third of Americans are televise the entire Little League Baseball World Series telecommuting as commuting habits have changed over the from Williamsport, Pa. pandemic, placing more dependence on personal vehicles. The firm found that 66% of workers are saving valuable SPORTS ARE BACK, BUT ARE THE ADVERTISERS? time on their trips to work, with buses, subways and train (Continued from Page 1) platforms remaining mostly empty as more Americans are prior to COVID-19, 83% returned to advertising during the working from home, according to a press release. return to play. Cars.com found that 43% of Americans don’t trust other Of the 17 companies that haven’t yet returned to advertising, passengers to follow wellness and safety rules, and 57% at only five come from the top 50 prior to COVID-19. Notable least moderately trust other riders. Sixty-five percent of bus companies that didn’t return include Microsoft, LVMH, passengers have stopped taking trips or are taking trips less Expedia and Sprint. often, while 60% of commuter rail or subway passengers Brands that are running ads during the return to play, but have stopped riding or are riding less often. did not pre-COVID include Quibi, Biden for President and Approximately half (49%) believe it will be at least three Slack. months before public transit goes back to pre-pandemic There have been changes in the makeup of advertisers levels. A further 7% indicate they will never go back to their who are buying the ads. For example, financial firms and pre-pandemic public transportation levels. Also, 21% have alcohol brands are making up a larger share of the spending bought a car in the last six months. during the return to play. Noticeably absent are travel companies. Prior to DELTA PLANNING TO FURLOUGH 1,900+ PILOTS will furlough 1,941 of its pilots in October COVID-19, across the three major sports, travel companies Delta Air Lines unless it can reach a cost-cutting agreement with the accounted for 2.1% of ad spending. Since the return to play, employees’ labor union, the airline said yesterday. they account for only 0.2%, as companies like and Expedia U.S. airlines that accepted $25 billion in federal aid are have not returned their advertising. Marriott prohibited from cutting jobs through Sept. 30. Networks have done a good job retaining their top sports “We are six months into this pandemic and only 25% of advertisers, MediaRadar finds. Looking at the top 25 our revenues have been recovered,” said John Laughter, advertisers pre-COVID across each league, both MLB and Delta’s senior vice president of flight operations in a memo to the NBA have seen 23 return, while the NHL saw 24 return. pilots, CNBC reports. This summer, Delta warned 2,558 of its pilots about potential PAGE 2 furloughs. The number was lowered by more than 1,800 pilots who took early retirement packages, but Laughter warned it www.CableSpots.net Tuesday, August 25, 2020 is not enough to avoid the furloughs altogether.