www.cablespots.net Published Daily For Subscriptions, call 1-888-884-2630 [email protected] $300 Per Year Copyright 2019 Thursday, December 12, 2019 TV MAKER VIZIO BUILDING AN AD BUSINESS OF ITS OWN REPORT: COMPANY TO HIRE AD SALES EXECUTIVES ADVERTISER NEWS Vizio, a major maker of TVs in North America, wants to sell Weeks after cutting its sales forecast for 2019, Home Depot some of the ads that appear on its TV sets’ screens. announced lower expectations for its performance in 2020, The Wall Street Journal says the company is forming a Reuters reports. The home improvement giant says its unit called Vizio Ads to sell advertising on its SmartCast One Home Depot omnichannel strategy has not yet begun internet-connected TV operating system. Today those ads generating the revenue the company expects... Sales at are largely sold by other companies whose programming GameStop fell 26 percent in the third quarter due to what the appears on SmartCast. video game retailer’s CEO described as an “unprecedented The company plans to hire about two dozen ad sales decline in new hardware sales,” The Dallas Morning News executives across the U.S. through 2020 to work in Vizio Ads, reports. The company’s share price plunged on the news... which will reside alongside Inscape, Vizio’s Flip’d by IHOP, a new fast-casual dining TV data operation, within the company’s concept, will launch in Atlanta next year. “platform” business, said Mike O’Donnell, The restaurant will be about half the size of senior vice president of the platform group. a standard IHOP and will have neither staff Vizio will offer marketers ad inventory such or seating, CNBC reports. Customers will as commercial time on the company’s free streaming service, order from the restaurant’s menu including Pancake Bowls, WatchFree, and display advertising units on SmartCast’s breakfast sandwiches and Buttermilk Crispy Chicken, using home, search and discovery screens. It also has the right a kiosk... Former Lululemon executive Stuart Haselden to sell some inventory within various ad-supported apps that has been named to take over as the CEO of the consumer- viewers access via SmartCast. direct luggage brand Away. Haselden replaces former It can sell ads on roughly 13 million TV sets using SmartCast CEO Steph Korey, who stepped down after her abusive and previous operating systems. behavior toward employees became public... Old Navy is The connected TV advertising market is becoming crowded teaming up with on-demand delivery provider Postmates as OTT viewing skyrockets. Other OTT ad sellers span TV to offer same-day delivery during the holiday season. Old networks, digital video programmers and tech giants such as Navy is seasonally expanding its buy-online-pickup-in- Amazon.com and Alphabet. Rival TV manufacturers such store service so customers can receive home delivery of as Samsung Electronics are also in the game. online purchases. To participate, customers select the Streaming video ad revenue on TV screens in the U.S. BOPIS option when checking out an online order. When is expected to hit $4.4 billion in 2020, up from $3.4 billion they receive the “ready for pickup” email, they click on last year, according to a forecast by Magna. “It’s our largest same-day delivery, fill in their information, and then a growth driver,” said Molly Finnerty, senior vice president Postmates driver will pick up the order at the store and of strategic investment for Magna. “Our connected TV and deliver it... Ascena Retail Group saw mixed results in the OTT ad spend is starting to come from traditional linear most recent quarter, including growth driven by improved investment as consumption is shifting.” efforts to gather shopper data in its plus-size business Vizio believes it can carve out a slice of this ad market, in that includes Lane Bryant and Catherines. MarketWatch part because it sells many of the connected TVs itself. The reports the company also saw strong pants sales at Ann company’s platform business has revenue in the mid-eight Taylor... Ahold Delhaize USA will spend $480 million over figures, according to a person familiar with the matter. This the next three years to update and grow its East Coast includes Vizio’s cut of ad and subscription revenue generated supply chain. The company will buy three C&S Wholesale by its platform, as well as revenue from Inscape’s data deals. Grocers distribution facilities, build two automated frozen TV manufacturers might be newer entrants into streaming facilities and lease two more buildings... Kohl’s stores will ad sales, but they’re valuable because of the data and remain open 24 hours during the holiday shopping home relationships they have with people who buy their TVs, stretch, Chain Store Age reports. The department store Finnerty said. “Think about how close their relationship is retailer will keep stores open beginning at 7 AM local time to people who are actually watching the glass,” she said. on Friday, Dec. 20 through 6 PM local time on Christmas “Through attribution and [automatic content recognition] Eve, Tuesday, Dec. 24... Not every growing retail trend is a technology, we are able to understand who is consuming positive one. According to the 15th annual organized retail media on the glass, what they’re watching and how to crime (ORC) report from the National Retail Federation, attribute it to sales.” more than two-thirds of surveyed retailers have seen an For Vizio, an ad business could improve tight margins for increase in ORC during the past year. The report found TV sets, which frequently get sold at a discount, O’Donnell that 97 percent of retailers had been victimized by ORC in said. the past year and that 68 percent had seen an increase in Vizio was the second-biggest shipper of TVs in the U.S. ORC activity. Losses averaged $703,320 per $1 billion in during the third quarter of 2019, with a 16.5 percent market sales, marking the fourth straight year the figure topped the share, according to market research firm IHS Markit. $700,000 per $1 billion mark. CABLENET CHATTER PREDICTION: FEWER BIG MEDIA DEALS AHEAD This week’s Monday Night Football game – a Philadelphia One of the media industry’s most prolific dealmakers is Eagles’ 23-17 overtime victory over the New York Giants predicting a slowdown in big acquisitions over the next – averaged 11.443 million viewers on ESPN and ESPN decade, The Wall Street Journal reports. Deportes, according to Nielsen. The telecast helped ESPN Aryeh Bourkoff, whose company, LionTree, has helped win the night among all networks, broadcast or cable, in shepherd about $500 billion in transactions since its founding households, viewers and key male and people demos (18-34, in 2012, expects the next decade to be defined by the biggest 18-49, 25-54, 55+). MNF was also the highest-rated telecast media companies — like Disney, Netflix and AT&T — of the night across all broadcast and cable networks among building out direct-to-consumer operations and developing key male and people demos. On ESPN, Giants-Eagles other strategies that won’t always require huge deals. averaged 11.36 million viewers. The audience peaked from “The last decade has been characterized by frenetic [mergers 9:30-9:45 PM (ET) with 12.459 million. ESPN Deportes and acquisitions] to reach scaled platforms,” said Bourkoff, added 83,000 viewers, an increase of 13 LionTree’s founder and chief executive. percent vs. Week 14 last year... Lifetime “That mountain has been climbed. Now, has set a premiere date for its sequel we are going to be level-setting into 2020 documentary series Surviving R. Kelly and over the next decade, when we’ll Part II: The Reckoning. The follow- Toast is just God have a slowdown of that trend.” up to the much-watched Surviving R. giving terrible bread Bourkoff said there will still be plenty of Kelly series debuts Jan. 2 and will air a second chance. deal activity, despite the slowdown. Some on three consecutive nights. Part II: The of the biggest media conglomerates Reckoning will feature interviews with could try to strike deals for companies in new survivors, supporters, psychologists adjacent industries — think Amazon’s and cultural and legal experts. Lifetime Conan O’Brien $13.7 billion deal for grocer Whole Foods will air a six-hour marathon of Part 1, Market in 2017, or Alphabet’s Google’s in its entirety, starting at 3 PM Jan. 2. recent $2.1 billion deal for the wearable The marathon leads up to the two-hour fitness products company Fitbit. premiere of Part II at 9 PM. The two-hour second episode of Part II begins at 9 PM Jan. 3, with the 90-minute conclusion UAW WORKERS RATIFY LABOR DEAL WITH FCA set for 8 PM Jan. 4... Oxygen will debut the crime-themed Fiat Chrysler Automobiles workers have a new labor docuseries Murdered by Morning on Sunday, Jan. 19 at 7 contract, the Detroit Free Press reports. Almost five months PM (ET). The series showcases stories where individuals after talks officially launched with ceremonial handshakes are unaware that the night in question will be their last. between the UAW and FCA, the company’s U.S. workers From a girls’-night-out gone bad to an overnight shift at a OK’d a new four-year deal, following approvals of similar local toy store that takes an unexpected turn, Murdered by agreements at General Motors and Ford. The contract Morning recounts how an average night can quickly turn covers an estimated 47,200 workers. into a nightmare... TLC will launch the docuseries Hot & The UAW said the deal was ratified by 71 percent of the Heavy, which follows three couples, on Tuesday, Jan. 7 at voting members — 74 percent hourly, 59 percent skilled 10 PM (ET). The show focuses on three men who defend trades and 67 percent of the salaried-worker bargaining unit. the honor of their significant others and face judgment due to their mixed-weight relationships... A+E has ordered a THIS AND THAT new docuseries called Eight Days that will offer alternative Comcast said that since it launched a commercial telling ways to fight cancer. Director Charles Mattocks, Executive the story of E.T. returning to earth for a reunion with Elliott, Producer Matthew Knowles and Chief Medical Officer Dr. more than 1 million Xfinity subscribers have watched the Antonio Jimenez of Hope4Cancer Treatment Centers, original 1982 film E.T. The Extra Terrestrial on demand. have teamed up to change the way we understand cancer. The new commercial and full four-minute film was launched The show will give viewers an inside look at what healing on NBC’s coverage of the Thanksgiving Day parade. It was from the disease is really like, as well as highlight new designed to show how people can use Xfinity’s connectivity integrative cancer treatment options. Eight Days premieres technology to bring family and friends together during the on A+E on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020... The new Nickelodeon holidays... NBC and Fox RSN have vanished from AT&T series It’s Pony will launch Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020 (and TV Now, Cord Cutters News reports. It wasn’t immediately internationally in April 2020). The series features the voice of clear if it was a short-term bug or a contract issue. Jessica DiCicco (Adventure Time) as Annie, an optimistic and determined farm girl living in the city with her family and BLOOMBERG CAMPAIGN AD SPEND NEARS $100M best friend... Sakina Jaffrey (House of Cards) and Damian Billionaire Mike Bloomberg, the former New York City Young (Ozark) are set for recurring roles alongside Jennifer mayor who only recently joined the race for the Democratic Connelly and Daveed Diggs on the second season of presidential nomination, has already spent $58.4 million TNT’s Snowpiercer. Season 1 premieres in spring 2020 on TV/radio ads (including advance bookings), plus $1.3 and also stars Alison Wright, Mickey Sumner, Susan million on Facebook ads, Ad Age reports. Park, Iddo Goldberg, Katie McGuinness, Lena Hall, Meanwhile, Tom Steyer, the San Francisco hedge fund Annalise Basso, Sam Otto, Roberto Urbina, Sheila Vand billionaire, has burned through an astonishing $77.1 million and Jaylin Fletcher. on TV/radio ads (also including advance bookings), plus $14 million on Facebook ads to date. For those keeping PAGE 2 score, that adds up to $91.2 million. Steyer trails the biggest Facebook spender, President Thursday, December 12, 2019 Trump. Steyer has handed Facebook $14 million to date www.CableSpots.net vs. Trump’s $16.1 million.