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sales@spotsndots.com Copyright 2020.The Daily News of TV Sales Thursday, September 17, 2020

REPORT: AD SURGE WILL OFFSET H1 LOSSES Despite dismal ad sales in the first half of 2020, the upcoming flood of political ads should ignite a recovery that will lead into a positive 2021, according to a new report. Total ad sales in the U.S. fell by 7.2% in the first half of the year, according to the latest Magna U.S. Advertising Forecast. The one silver lining was the 5.7% growth in digital media sales, even as linear media, encompassing broadcast, radio, print and out-of-home, posted a 23.1% decline. “Media consumption is really, at the end of the day, what prompts advertisers big and small to pick one channel over another. Dollars go where eyeballs go,” says Vincent Letang, executive vice president and managing partner at Global Market Intelligence, and author of the updated September forecast. Magna predicts that next year normal life will make a gradual return, which should stabilize the ad industry and encourage media buys, especially in sporting events. “All the key verticals are down this year, but we think eight of the top 10 will recover to a degree next year,” Letang says of total ad spend. Magna predicts that finance, entertainment, technology and restaurant verticals will experience the healthiest ad spending recoveries next year, seeing increases as high as the low double digits. The struggles of the automotive and travel industries are expected to continue next year. Ad spending will surge in the second half of 2020 as both Democrats and Republicans spend unprecedented amounts for political advertising going into November’s elections. This is expected to be a record-setting year for political at $5 billion, which would be a 32% surge beyond the 2016 presidential campaign. Adding to the ad spend is former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s promise to spend $100 million to help Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in Florida. Local TV networks, which saw airtime buys fall sharply earlier this year, should be the biggest beneficiaries. “For local TV, typically, in September or October, if it wasn’t an election year, they would run more commercials for local car dealers and retailers and so on,” Letang says. But, “up to 30% of commercials will be political in some areas [of the country].” The heaviest concentrated political ad spending will likely be in the swing states of Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona. With the late-year political ad push, 2020 should see a net decline of only 4.6%, according to Magna. Magna said digital advertising’s strength, at 55% of the total U.S. ad market, would soften the recession’s blow to the industry.

MAGNA: POLITICAL AD SPEND EXPECTED TO SET RECORDADVERTISER NEWS After six months of slumped sales because of the coro-navirus pandemic, Kohl’s Corp. said it was reducing its corporate workforce by around 15%. The retailer has taken a hit during the pandemic that closed all of its more than 1,100 stores this spring. Net sales were down 32.8% in the six months ending Aug. 1, the company reported in its second-quarter filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission... Online sales now represent more than 7% of Kroger’s total sales after the grocer saw digitally-based revenues jump 127%. An analysis by the Cincinnati En-quirer says Kroger’s online sales have risen to $5.8 billion over the past year with the likelihood they will top $7 bil-

lion by the end of 2020... Thrive Market, the online subscription service offering organic and other good-for-you products, has seen its sales increase 90% since the novel coronavirus pandemic hit. The e-tailer has tapped into an increased desire

to eat more nutritious products while offering a convenient shopping environment in sync with customers’ desires to avoid going to stores... Wayfair is making its annual sales extravaganza a two-day affair. The online home furnishings giant announced that Way Day 2020 will kick off Wednes-day at midnight (ET) and last two full days. The popular sales event will include free shipping and up to 80% off best-selling products across all major categories, with more than 200,000 items included, according to Wayfair... Dick’s Sporting Goods continues its push into the women’s sports marketplace. The country’s largest sporting goods retailer has partnered with Under Armour on a women’s-engineered basketball shoe. The UA HOVR Breakthru was designed and created by a cross-section of women in the industry, including professional basketball players and other athletes. The new shoe, which will be sold exclusively by Dick’s Sporting Goods and Under Armour, is designed to fit the components unique to a woman’s foot, including great-er flexibility and a narrower heel. It will retail for $109.99.

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

U.S. RETAIL SPENDING PACE SLOWS IN AUGUST U.S. consumers increased retail spending in August for the fourth straight month but at a slower pace than earlier in the summer as the economy tried to recover with the coronavirus pandemic still under way, The Wall Street Journal reports. Retail sales — reflecting what households spent at service stations, stores, restaurants and online — rose a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in August from July, the Commerce Department said yesterday. It was the third month that retail spending was above prepandemic levels. August is typically a big month for back-to-school shopping,

and spending on electronics rose 0.8%, with many school districts teaching classes online. Clothing purchases rose 2.9%, while furniture spending increased 2.1% from July. Spending at grocery stores dropped 1.6%. Sales at nonstore retailers, which include online merchants such as Amazon.com, were flat. The monthly gain came as employers added jobs, the unemployment rate declined and manufacturing output

picked up. Consumers increased spending despite the expiration of some extra pandemic-related unemployment benefits, though economists say future spending will be damped by benefits reductions. Retail sales, which make up about 25% of total consumer spending, have bounced back from the coronavirus-induced recession much more quickly than other sectors of the economy. They have been aided in part by extra federal unemployment benefits, which expired at the end of July.

GROCERY BASKET SIZE UP, STORE TRIPS DOWN Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. grocery shoppers are settling into a new routine, with the number of monthly store visits declining nearly twice as fast as spending has risen, according to digital marketing specialist Catalina. In August, grocery customer spending rose 6% from $310 to $330 per month on average, while shopping trips fell almost 11% versus a year ago, Catalina said yesterday. The U.S. declared coronavirus as a national emergency on March 13, two days after the World Health Organization declared the spread of the virus as a pandemic. Looking at the past six months of grocery purchase data, Catalina said shoppers made more trips than average in March as the health crisis set in and then slashed their number of store trips in April as they locked down at home. New patterns emerged in May that continue to the present day, with the number of grocery store trips down about 10% from May through August. Last month, grocery shoppers made an average of 6.7 retailer trips per month, down from 7.5 trips in August 2019, a decrease of nearly 11%. However, basket size has swelled 19%, with customers spending an average of $49.28 per trip compared with $41.38 a year ago, a trend that has been consistent since June, Catalina noted. On a monthly basis, the $20 uptick in average grocery spending in August followed more dramatic growth from March to May, which started to come down in June, Catalina said.

SURVEY: FOR CONSUMERS, DEALS ARE CRUCIAL Shoppers are actively searching out deals, including coupons and promo codes, amid the pandemic. Four out of five Americans (79%) said discovering a deal is even more important now than it was pre-pandemic, according to research by PayPal’s Honey service, which helps consumers save money when shopping online. The research also found that 58% of Americans have experienced a decrease in household income amid the pandemic. According to Honey, consumers are no longer aimlessly searching for coupons. Instead, savvy shoppers have adopted new behaviors for finding deals that help them buy what they love and need. “Deal seeking has become an integral part of online shopping culture and influences how we feel about the items we buy and when we buy them,” said Joanne Bradford, VP of Honey marketing at PayPal. The Honey study found that being thrifty can take time. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said they spend between one to two hours a week looking for coupons; 20% spend between three to four hours per week. The research also shows savviness for smart shopping may be worth adding to dating profiles. More than half (54%) of Americans say they find people who are thrifty to be attractive and almost a quarter (24%) may swipe faster as they find thriftiness to be “very attractive.” Twenty-one percent of Gen Z respondents said would rather find a deal than a perfect match.

GM TO DEVELOP ‘FAMILY’ OF EV DRIVE SYSTEMS General Motors said it plans to produce an interchangeable “family” of electric vehicle drive systems and motors, boosting manufacturing efficiencies as it transitions to a fully electric lineup, Reuters reports. The move, which follows earlier GM initiatives on next-generation batteries, comes as the automaker looks to build a vertically integrated electric car business, comparable to Tesla, inside its ongoing operations. According to a GM statement released yesterday, the automaker said it has designed and plans to produce on its own five interchangeable drive units and three motors, which it calls the Ultium Drive system. GM said its new electric drive systems, sometimes referred to as e-axles in the industry, will have a versatile enough power output to allow them to be used with vehicles ranging from beefy pickup trucks to performance vehicles. GM already has some EV partnerships, such as with truck startup Nikola Corp., but has chosen to design its own e-drive technology, rather than buy from suppliers that might be able to offer greater scale and lower cost. Adam Kwiatkowski, GM’s executive chief engineer for global electrical propulsion, said that by designing its own e-axles, GM could better integrate them with an EV’s battery and the rest of the car. E-axles combine gear, motor and power electronics into a single system and help convert the electricity from batteries efficiently to propel the vehicle.

9/17/2020

Larry The Cable Guy

You know those wristbands quarterbacks wear with

options for different situations? I’m going to start

wearing one of those with answers for my wife.

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

NEW BOTNET HITS CONNECTED TV PLATFORMS Fraudulent impressions for connected TV platforms that impact advertising dollars were revealed through a new botnet, according to DoubleVerify. The data and analytics software company says the botnet, called MultiTerra, is designed to create fake advertising inventory across CTV and mobile platforms leading to advertisers bidding on fake impressions. Some of the those unknowingly targeted in the scheme include advertisers and digital platforms that included brands such as Turner, HGTV, Bloomberg, TubiTV, AMC

Networks, NBC, Sling and CBS. DoubleVerify says MultiTerra generated more than 3 million fake impressions a day and is on track to see over a $1 million a month in ad dollars lost. The fast-moving MultiTerra could, via a single IP address, impersonate 16 different iPhone and Android phones, totaling nearly 50 impressions on at least nine different apps in just 20 minutes. DoubleVerify used machine learning and algorithms to shut down the MultiTerra

botnet. In a recent report, DoubleVerify said that in the first quarter there was 161% increase in connected TV ad fraud.

BIG TEN REVERSES COURSE ON FOOTBALL The Big Ten Conference said yesterday it will now play its 2020 season beginning in October, nearly a month after initially announcing it would postpone all fall athletics to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 14-team Big Ten will begin an eight-game season the weekend of Oct. 24, with a Big Ten championship game set for Dec. 19, said officials from the conference. Players and coaches will be required to undergo daily antigen testing, with results needing to be completed and reported prior to each practice and game, according to bigten.org. The Big 10’s move leaves the Pac-12 as the only “Power Five” conference not playing football this fall. Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said yesterday the conference is not planning to return to the field in the near future.

9/17/2020

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AIRLINES, UNIONS SEEK ANOTHER $25B IN AID Airline CEOs and labor unions yesterday again pushed for billions in additional federal aid as a ban on industry job cuts is set to expire in two weeks and a recovery in travel demand hasn’t materialized. Several airline executives plan to meet with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to discuss the situation today, people familiar with the matter tell CNBC. U.S. airlines could furlough or lay off more than 30,000 workers, starting Oct. 1. The terms of a $25 billion aid package for airlines that Congress approved in March as part of a larger coronavirus bill, prohibited job cuts through Sept. 30. “Despite the aggressive self-help measures the company has taken to bolster its financial position, and even with several thousand of our colleagues opting for voluntary leave and early retirement, nearly 20,000 American Airlines team members are facing furloughs in just two short weeks, and several markets in our domestic network are at risk of significant reductions in air service,” American Airlines’ CEO Doug Parker wrote to lawmakers and Trump administration officials yesterday in a letter that was also signed by leaders of labor unions that represent most of its workers. Airlines are pushing for another $25 billion that would preserve sector jobs through the end of next March. The proposal has won bipartisan support in Congress and from President Trump.

DONE DEAL Nexstar Broadcasting has appointed Tina Marie Castano to vice president and general manager of its broadcast and digital operations in Binghamton, N.Y. (DMA #161) and nearby Elmira/Corning, N.Y. (DMA #178), overseeing WIVT-TV (ABC), WBGH-TV (NBC), WETM-TV (NBC) and WETM.2 (ATV), and their related social media channels. Castano, a native New Yorker, is a graduate of Binghamton University. She will assume her new responsibilities immediately. Since 2018, she’s served as VP and GM of WLNE-TV (ABC), in Providence, R.I. (DMA #56), overseeing the long-term strategy and day-to-day operations of the station’s broadcasting, digital and mobile platforms.

THIS AND THAT Comscore says the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted its patent on Device Identification System and Methods. The patent covers Comscore’s method of using household router meters to anonymously identify individuals within a household. Comscore says the invention lets it draw more precise, granular insights into consumer behavior for its digital and cross-platform measurement... In the midst of rising connected TV businesses everywhere, streaming video platform fuboTV continues to thrive. The company, which has raised its subscriber estimate for the third quarter, also says revenues (from subscription fees and advertising) will grow 27% to 38% in the period to between $50 million and $54 million year-over-year.