BROADBAND FCC/Net Neutrality The FCC voted to repeal the 2015 net neutrality rules, which called for broadband providers to treat all of their web traffic equally.
CABLE Charter/Comcast/NY Cablers Charter and Comcast reached a preliminary agreement to form a new Interconnect Interconnect in the New York market that will provide marketers, agencies and advertisers an enhanced way to reach over 6.2 million households across TV and digital platforms. Launch: 2Q18.
CORPORATE Disney/Fox Disney finalized a deal to acquire a significant portion of 21st Century Fox’s assets for $52.4 billion. The deal, as reported by The Wall Street Journal: Disney + Fox Assets Disney Fox Assets Revenue $55.1 billion Revenue $19.0 Film/TV studio Star/Sky Regional sports networks Hulu stake Cable networks: FX Nat Geo Fox (remaining assets) Revenue $10.0 billion Fox News Fox broadcast FSI&2 sports channels Local TV stations Big Ten Network
DATA comScore/Plan Metrix comScore introduced Plan Metrix Multi-Platform planning tool that combines Multi-Platform consumers’ desktop and mobile behavior with detailed information about their lifestyles, interest, attitudes, demographics and behaviors.
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FAST FOOD Kellogg’s Café Kellogg’s NYC, a cereal café, opened last week in Manhattan’s Union Square neighborhood. The 5,000 square foot space offers customers the opportunity to enjoy their cereal with toppings that range from candied kumquats to rum-roasted bananas to peanut butter chips. Seating options: couches, beanbag chairs and even hammocks. Also, the venue offers Nintendo, board games and free Wi-Fi. Note: This store replaces a 1,000-square-foot store that was launched by the partnership between Kellogg and hospitality firm Co.create NYC last year in Times Square area and shut its doors this past summer.
GAMING Loot Boxes Loot Box is an in-game reward that is also now for sale. Like packs of baseball cards, loot boxes hold a random assortment of mostly generic though sometimes rare virtual goodies such as decorative weapons and souped-up skills. They are doled out to players who accomplish certain tasks, or they can be purchased with in-game currency usually for the equivalent of $1 or $2 a pop. The Wall Street Journal reported that critics are complaining because they say loot boxes give gamers with deep pockets an edge, particularly in multiplayer games. The more significant charge comes from people who liken loot boxes to slot machines – pay money, hope to win a valuable item, repeat.
GLOBAL Carbon Dioxide Top carbon dioxide emitters (in millions of metric tons, 2016) according to Global Emitters/Top Carbon Atlas, as reported by USA Today: Countries Country Metric Tons (Millions) Country Metric Tons (Millions) China 10,151 Germany 802 U.S. 5,312 Iran 656 India 2,432 Saudi Arabia 634 Russia 1,635 South Korea 595 Japan 1,209 Canada 563
Indonesia/Sex In March 2016, The Family Love Alliance, a group of conservative scholars, asked Indonesia’s Constitutional Court, to expand an existing law that bars married people from having sex with anyone but their spouse, arguing that it should apply to all sex between unmarried people. The Court rejected the petition last week. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.
HEALTHCARE Hospitals Hospital systems giants Ascension and Providence St. Joseph Health are contemplating a merger, which would create an entity of enormous reach, with 191 hospitals in 27 states and annual revenue of $44.8 billion. The deal would dethrone the nation’s largest pure hospital operator, HCA Heathcare, which owns 177 hospitals and ended 2016 with revenue of $41.5 billion. (cont’d)
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HEALTHCARE(cont’d) Hospitals (cont’d) Top hospital systems in the U.S., by number of hospitals, as reported by The Wall Street Journal: Hospital System Hospitals Revenue (Billions) HCA Healthcare 177 $41.5 Ascension 141 $22.6 Community Health Systems 127 $18.4 Catholic Health Initiatives 100 $15.5 Trinity Health 93 $15.2 Tenet Healthcare 77 $19.6 LifePoint Health 71 $6.4 Povidence St. Joseph Health 50 $22.2 Dignity Health 39 $12.9 Kaiser Permanente 39 $64.6
HOME Paint Companies Largest paint companies by enterprise value, according to FactSet as reported by The Wall Street Journal: Company $ (Billions) Sherwin-Williams $48.8 PPG $32.0 Akzo Nobel $24.2 Axalta $11.3 Nippon Paint $10.5 RPM $9.0 Kansai $7.8
LEGISLATION Eggs/California A dozen states want the U.S. Supreme Court to block a California law requiring any eggs sold there to come from hens that have space to stretch out in their cages. The suit claims that the California requirement violates the U.S. Constitution interstate commerce clause and are preempted by federal law. Litigants: Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah and Wisconsin.
MUSIC Rock & Roll Hall of And the latest induction class for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the 33rd annual Fame/Inductees ceremony scheduled for April 14, includes Radiohead, Sister Rosetta Tharpe (rock and roll godmother), Nina Simone (jazz icon), the Moody Blues (very classic rock), Dire Straits (80’s hit makers), the Cars (new wave group) and Bon Jovi (stadium rockers). How it works: ballots are sent to a voting group of 1,000+ artists, historians and music industry professionals. To be eligible for the Rock Hall, an artist or band must have released its first recording at least 25 years prior to consideration for inclusion.
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MUSIC(cont’d) Sirius XM/ The federal Copyright Royalty Board decided that satellite radio company Sirius XM License Fees will have to pay almost 41% more for the music it plays on its platform commencing next year – roughly 15.5% of gross revenue through 2022.
UnitedMasters UnitedMasters is a new music venture backed by funding from Google parent Alphabet, Andreessen Horowitz and 21st Century Fox and News Corp. to the tune of $70 million. Its mission is to help up and coming artists get their music on streaming platforms like Spotify and Pandora and utilize online tools to market the musicians and help them reach fans. How it works: musicians will pay UnitedMasters “the lowest price for distribution” to get their songs to stream on music sites and the company in turn will pay the streaming companies. In some cases, UnitedMasters will get a small percentage of the money the artists make when their songs are streamed. In some situations, UnitedMasters will get a percentage of merchandise or ticket sales.
PERSONALITIES Christmas Trees Research company Arraf estimates that 95 million American homes will house Christmas trees this year, 81% of which will be made from synthetic material.
Penguins USA Today reported that scientists announced the discovery of a new species of an ancient giant penguin, Kumimanu Bicease, in New Zealand’s South Island, one that was nearly 6 feet tall, weighed about 220 pounds and lived about 55 million years ago. In the Maori language of New Zealand, Kumi means monster and manu is the word for bird.
Searches/Top Top 10 Google searches in 2017: 2017 Rank Generic People News 1 Hurricane Irma Matt Lauer Hurricane Irma 2 Matt Lauer Meghan Markle Los Vegas shooting 3 Tom Petty Harvey Weinstein Solar eclipse 4 Super Bowl Michael Flynn Hurricane Harvey 5 Las Vegas Shooting Kevin Spacey Bitcoin price 6 Mayweather vs. McGregor Fight Bill O’Reilly North Korea 7 Solar eclipse Melania Trump Hurricane Jose 8 Hurricane Harvey Kathy Griffin Hurricane Maria 9 Aaron Hernandez Milo Yiannopoulos April the Giraffe 10 Fidget spinner Gal Gadot DACA
Viagra/Pfizer Drugmaker Pfizer announced that it will knock off its own premium priced blue colored erectile dysfunctional brand Viagra with a white version for half the $65 per pill cost when its patent protected monopoly ends.
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PUBLISHING Business Insider Business Insider, a 10-year old publisher focused on corporate and financial news, is expanding its coverage to social media and will change its name as of January to Insider Inc. Business Insider was acquired by German media conglomerate Axel Springer for about $450 million in 2015.
Newsweek/ Newsweek is launching a travel tours business and a dedicated travel vertical. Travel Newsweek Travel will host 15 different trips and excursions in 13 countries and four continents in 2018 including Egypt, Mexico, Cuba, Britain, Washington D.C., Russia, China, Holland, Jerusalem and Poland. The venture will include airfare, accommodations, meals and excursions to a variety of sites and landmarks ranging in cost between $5,000 to $8,000 per person.
RETAIL 7-Eleven Convenience chain 7-Eleven is testing an app, 7-ElevenNow, at 10 Dallas area stores that allows shoppers to place mobile orders for in-store pickup or delivery.
Target/Shipt Retailer Target acquired Shipt, which partners with a network of brick and mortar grocery chains to pick orders off of their shelves and deliver them to customer doors on the same day they are ordered. The deal is valued at $550 million.
Walmart/ Walmart is offering its employees the opportunity to receive portion of their wages Paychecks in before their next payday. How it works: instead of waiting two weeks between Advance paycheck, Walmart workers can now use an app to access a portion of wages for hours they have already worked.
SPORTS Boxing Pay Per Most purchased pay per view events of all time, according to industry sources, as View reported by B&C: Date Match Up Buys (Millions) May 2015 Mayweather – Pacquiao 4.6 August 2017 Mayweather – McGregor 4.4 May 2007 Mayweather – Oscar De La Hoya 2.4 September 2013 Mayweather – Canelo Alvarez 2.2 June 2002 Lennox Lewis – Mike Tyson 1.9 June 1997 Evander Holyfield – Mike Tyson II 1.9
Licensing Rights PricewaterhouseCoopers projects that sports media rights from TV, radio and internet platforms will climb 5.6% to $20.1 billion in 2018.
SOCIETY Rehab/Mandato Massachusetts is contemplating a new statute that will allow hospital staff to send ry 3 Days overdose patients to treatment centers against their will for up to three days. Goal: buy more time for addicts facing imminent risks to accept longer-term treatment. Note: Massachusetts calculated that the opioid crisis has taken an estimated 8,000 lives in the last 5 years.
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SOCIETY(cont’d) Rotten Apples Rotten Apples is a searchable database introduced last week that informs users which films and television shows are connected to those accused of sexual harassment.
TRAVEL Holiday AAA projects that a record number of people – 107.3 million – will travel to celebrate year-end holidays: 97.4 million by road, 6.4 million by air and 3.6 million by trains, buses and cruise ships. Holiday travel already set records this year for Memorial Day, Independence Day and Thanksgiving.
VIDEO Altice/Placemedia Programmatic TV platform Placemedia has been acquired by cabler Atlice, the parent of Cablevision, Suddenlink, Teads and Audience Partners.
Bloomberg/TicToc Bloomberg announced that it would launch its new 24-hour Twitter based streaming news channel, TicToc, on December 18 exclusively on Twitter. Advertising opportunities are said to resemble rival business news service Cheddar: sponsored segments and the occasional incorporation of brands into editorial segments, such as an interview series conducted in a Volvo.
Condé Nast/ Nielsen Condé Nast announced that it has struck a licensing deal with Nielsen Catalina Catalina Solutions Solutions to utilize within Spire, its proprietary data and optimization platform, which launched in 2015.
Condé Nast/Prime Condé Nast unveiled two advertising initiatives to run within the video that it produces: 1) Condé Nest Prime, an “upfront” buying opportunity, and 2) 1 Billion Views, which will partner with one advertiser to create “an innovative publishing brand under the company umbrella.”
Facebook Facebook unveiled a shift in its video-ad strategy. The social network is pushing publishers to create longer videos for the website, by raising the requirements that need to be met before ads can be inserted in those videos. Also, it is tweaking its news-feed algorithm to reward pages with video programs that draw regular viewers, testing pre-roll six-second ads on Watch, announced that mid-roll ads on the platform now need to last at least three minutes, and it’s also updating its News Feed Watch algorithms to prioritize videos from creators and publishers that users regularly search for and watch. iSpot.TV/Vizio Analytics entity iSpot.TV signed a new 7½ year agreement with Vizio’s data business Inscape (7.7 million active TV devices). iSpot tracks TV advertising in real-time, uses screen level behavioral data from Inscape to provide closed-loop attribution and attention measures to brands, networks and agencies.
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VIDEO(cont’d) NBA/Twitch Amazon owned video service Twitch, which claims 15 million users, signed a licensing deal with the NBA to stream up to six minor league games per week during the current season. The broadcast of NBA G League games will include interactive statistics overlays, a fan loyalty program to reward engagement and a co-streaming option for select Twitch personalities to provide their own live commentary. Note: The NBA G League, which was previously known as the NBA Development League (the D-League) but morphed into the Gatorade League starting with the 2017-18 season under a sponsorship deal with the sports drink brand, includes 26 teams with direct affiliations with NBA franchises.
Pandora Pandora, the largest ad supported music streaming service in the U.S., will allow listeners to pick and choose songs as long as they sit through a 15-second ad. One 15-second listening will allow for queuing up specific songs for 15 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour. Pandora also has a premium on demand tier for $9.99, which was introduced in March.
Redbox/On Demand The video kiosk company Redbox launched a public beta of its new on demand service called Redbox on Demand, which will complement its existing physical disc rental kiosks, allowing consumers to digitally purchase or rent movies and TV shows. Pricing for new release video on demand rentals starts as low as $3.99 for 48 hours with electronic sell through transactions for as low as $9.99. Redbox On Demand is available through the Redbox website as well as apps across multi devices.
T-Mobile/Layer3 TV T-Mobile acquired Layer3 TV, a nascent multichannel video programming distributor that has launched pay TV services in a handful of markets. The mobile operator plans to launch a video service next year.
Verizon/NFL The National Football League and Verizon extended their streaming agreement through 2022. The deal will cost Verizon more than $2 billion during the next 5 years, giving the telco the right to stream games across its variety of digital media brands, including Yahoo Sports, Complex and go90. In addition, fans will no longer have to be Verizon customers to gain access to the games, which they can watch regardless of which company is their mobile provider. Now Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile customers will also be allowed to stream NFL games, as long as they go to the Verizon owned apps or websites. CBS, NBC, ESPN and Fox currently pay the NFL some $5 billion a year for the rights to televise those games. Note: Since 2010, Verizon Mobile customers have been able to stream NFL games for free through the NFL Mobile app.
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VIDEO(cont’d) YouTube/Most The chart below delineates the most viewed YouTube video ads in 2017: Viewed Ads 2017 Rank Brand Commercial 1 Samsung We’ll Take Care of You, Wherever You Are 2 Clash of Clans Last Second 3 Oreo Ping Pong Trick Shots 4 Dior The New Eau de Parfum 5 Budweiser Born the Hard Way 6 Kia Hero’s Journey 7 Adidas Original Is Never Finished 8 Apple The Rock x Siri Dominate the Day 9 Levi’s Circles 10 Mr. Clean Cleaner of your dreams
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AMERICA’S TOP COMPANIES (1917 VS. 2017)
1917 2017 ASSETS ASSETS RANK COMPANY INDUSTRY RANK COMPANY INDUSTRY (BILLIONS) (BILLIONS) 1 U.S. Steel Steel $2.500 1 Apple Tech $768.2 2 American Tel & Tel Telecom $0.762 2 Alphabet Tech $604.7 3 Standard Oil (NJ) Oil & Gas $0.574 3 Microsoft Tech $600.0 4 Bethlehem Steel Steel $0.382 4 Amazon Tech $474.5 5 Armour Food $0.314 5 Berkshire Hathaway Conglomerate $431.9 6 Swift & Co. Food $0.306 6 Facebook Tech $401.2 7 Intl Harvester Heavy Equipment $0.265 7 Johnson & Johnson Medical $357.5 8 E.I. Du Pont de Nemours Chemicals $0.263 8 Exxon Mobil Oil & Gas $339.1 9 Midvale Steel & Ordnance Steel $0.256 9 JPMorgan Chase Financial Services $326.1 10 U.S. Rubber Rubber $0.250 10 Wells Fargo Financial Services $267.9 11 General Electric Conglomerate $0.232 11 Wal-Mart Retail $241.1 12 Intl Mercantile Marine Shipping $0.231 12 AT&T Telecom $239.5 13 American Smelting Mining $0.222 13 Bank of America Financial Services $237.6 14 Anaconda Copper Mining Mining $0.216 14 Procter & Gamble Consumer Goods $231.6 15 Standard Oil (NY) Oil & Gas $0.204 15 Visa Financial Services $222.3 16 Phelps Dodge Mining $0.187 16 General Electric Conglomerate $221.7 17 Singer Manufacturing Textiles $0.182 17 Chevron Oil & Gas $206.9 18 Jones & Laughlin Steel Steel $0.168 18 Oracle Tech $206.5 19 Westinghouse Electric Conglomerate $0.165 19 Pfizer Medical $197.9 20 American Tobacco Tobacco $0.164 20 Verizon Telecom $197.4
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EMARKETER’S AVERAGE ANNUAL INCOME/SIZE OF U.S. HOUSEHOLDS BY GENERATION (2016)
GENERATION INCOMER BEFORE TAXES AVERAGE AGE REFERENCE PERSON PEOPLE IN HOUSEHOLD Millennials $65,373 27.9 2.6 Gen X $95,168 43.3 3.2 Baby Boomers $79,736 60.2 2.1 Silent Generation $40,230 77.1 1.7 Greatest Generation $31,272 91.0 1.3 Total $74,664 50.9 2.5
TOP PAY TV PROVIDERS (THIRD QUARTER 2017)*
CATEGORY COMPANY SUBSCRIBERS Cable Companies Comcast 22,390,000 Charter 16,982,000 Altice 3,430,000 Mediacom 823,000 Cable One 287,260 Other major private companies 4,220,000 Sub-total 48,132,460
Satellite Services AT&T/DirecTV 20,605,000 Dish 11,668,000 Sub-total 32,273,000
Phone Companies Verizon FiOS 4,648,000 AT&T U-verse 3,718,000 Windstream 1,017,400 Sub-total 9,347,000
Internet-Delivered Sling TV 1,680,000 DirecTV Now 787,000 Sub-total 2,467,000
Total - 92,219,460
Source: Leichtman Research Group
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: TOP 25 RANKING OF U.S. COMPANIES BY THE DRUCKER INSTITUTE
RANK COMPANY SECTOR 1 Amazon.com Technology 2 Apple Technology 3 Alphabet Technology 4 Johnson & Johnson Health Care/Life Sciences 5 IBM Technology 6 Microsoft Technology 6 Procter & Gamble Consumer Goods 8 3M Business/Consumer Services 9 Cisco Systems Technology 10 Nvidia Corp. Technology 11 Nike Consumer Goods 12 Accenture Business/Consumer Services 12 Dow Chemical Basic Materials/Resources 14 Intel Technology 15 Clorox Consumer Goods 16 Colgate-Palmolive Consumer Goods 17 Weyerhaeuser Real Estate/Construction 18 Exxon Mobil Energy 19 Marriott International Leisure/Arts/Hospitality 20 General Electric Business/Consumer Services 21 HP Technology 22 Intuit Technology 22 Southwest Airlines Transportation/Logistics 24 Kimberly Clark Consumer Goods 25 Starbucks Leisure/Arts/Hospitality
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