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sales@spotsndots.com Copyright 2020.The Daily News of TV Sales Friday, March 13, 2020

MOVE COMES AFTER MAJOR PROGRAMS SAY NO In an announcement that came just hours after major NCAA conference tournaments were cancelled, the NCAA’s March Madness month-long basketball event — for both men’s and women’s tournaments — has been cancelled due to coronavirus concerns, Television News Daily reports. This came a day after the college sports group said the games would continue but would be banned from attendees/sport fans. Earlier yesterday, major college basketball powerhouses Duke and Kansas said they would decline to play in the tournament. The NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball event in 2019 pulled in more than $910 million in national TV advertising televised by ViacomCBS’s CBS Television Network and WarnerMedia’s TNT — down from $943 million in 2018, according to Kantar Media. General Motors was the biggest NCAA advertiser a year ago at $75 million, followed by AT&T with $64 million; Berkshire Hathaway (Geico) at $42 million; Capital One, with $40 million; and Coca-Cola at $31 million. The NCAA has also cancelled all winter and spring championships for other sports, including men’s ice hockey, men’s and women’s gymnastics, indoor track & field, wrestling, baseball, softball, golf, tennis, outdoor track & field, and men’s and women’s lacrosse.

NBA, NHL ALSO CAUSING PAIN FOR NETWORKS Major sports on TV networks could see big hits with millions of advertising dollars in jeopardy if game cancellations continue due to coronavirus concerns — especially for the NBA and NHL. Both leagues — the NBA on Wednesday night and NHL yesterday — said they’re suspending regular-season games temporarily. Major League Baseball, meanwhile, has cancelled the remainder of its 2020 Spring Training schedule and says its regular season will — at a minimum — start at least two weeks later than originally planned. Around $700 million in advertising deals would hit ESPN, ABC and TNT should the NBA cancel the rest of its season, according to MoffettNathanson Research. The NBA says it is suspending the season “until further notice.” MoffettNathanson says Walt Disney’s ESPN could lose around $241 million for the rest of the regular season, with ABC giving up $240 million for expected NBA playoff games. TNT could lose an estimated $211 million in advertising for the rest of the season, including playoffs. For all of 2019, Disney networks collectively pulled in $884 million in advertising revenue. Twenty-one percent ($644 million) of ESPN’s total advertising revenues ($3.03 billion) comes from NBA programming, with 36 percent of TNT’s total advertising revenue ($1.55 billion)

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NCAA MARCH MADNESS CANCELLED; $1B IN TV ADS LOSTADVERTISER NEWS Modell’s Sporting Goods, the century-old family-owned sporting goods chain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will be closing its remaining 115 stores, The Associated Press reports. It becomes the latest traditional retailer to succumb to a fast-changing environment. In recent years Payless ShoeSource, Toys R Us and children’s chain Gymboree have filed for Chapter 11 reorganization or liquidated their operations. A Modell’s spokeswoman said that as of this week the company had 3,623 employees.

The New York-based retailer known to New Yorkers for its “Gotta Go to Mo’s” advertising slogan, says it will start liquidation sales at the remaining stores today… FedEx is making significant moves to become a major competitor in the e-commerce market

by reducing its dependence on the U.S. Postal Service, ending its relationship with Amazon and transferring some packages between its Express and Ground divisions. The Wall Street Journal reports the changes have been prompted in large part by Chief Operating Officer Raj Subramaniam, a marketing expert who is likely to eventually take on the CEO role... Clorox is stopping ads on Amazon and working with the e-commerce giant to curtail price gouging of its products by third-party sellers amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a company spokesperson. “Our priority right now, and the best way to address this at the moment, is to continue to work with our retail partners to replenish our inventory with regularly priced disinfecting product as fast as possible,” Clorox said in a statement, according to Ad Age... Seventy percent of the shoes sold in the U.S. are imported from China. The amount of footwear imported from the Asian nation fell 15.7 percent in January as the coronavirus outbreak disrupted manufacturing and distribution, CNBC reports… Chick-fil-A is going to test sales of its signature sauce along with Garden Herb Ranch, Honey Mustard and Polynesian sauces at Publix, Target, Walmart and Winn-Dixie stores in Florida. First Coast News reports proceeds from the sale of the bottled sauces will go to a Chick-fil-A’s team members scholarship fund... Dollar General ended its fiscal year on a strong note, reporting another year of record sales and earnings that included its 30th consecutive year of same store sales growth, Chain Store Age reports. The deep discounter will maintain its aggressive real estate strategy in 2020, with plans to open 1,000 locations and relocate 80 existing stores... Publix Super Markets is debuting its first membership program, Club Publix, which combines digital features including the ability to pay by scanning the Publix app, easier reordering, personalized coupons and early notifications of upcoming sales, Progressive Grocer reports. “Customers who join the free program will enjoy a more seamless shopping experience, one that’s more personalized to their individual needs and preferences,” said Publix executive Mark Irby.

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

AVAILS The Delta News has an opening for a News Director for WABG-ABC, WXVT-CBS, WNBD-NBC and FOX 10, in the Greenwood-Greenville, Miss., market. CALA Broadcasting is looking for a progressive and hands-on News Director who is not afraid of change and is willing to roll up his/her sleeves to get the job done. The right candidate will be an experienced news manager who likes to be actively involved in all facets of the news operation. A minimum of one year of experience

in broadcast management is required. Send resume, cover letter and salary requirements to jturnbough@deltanews.tv. WESH 2, the Hearst-owned NBC affiliate in Orlando, Fla., is looking to add a second Local Sales Manager. Orlando is one of the fastest-growing markets in the U.S., and our sales team is growing with it. 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. Ideal candidates will have a high level of performance, accountability, leadership and the desire to win. APPLY HERE. EOE.

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NRF: CORONAVIRUS WEIGHING ON IMPORTS The retail industry expected that the coronavirus outbreak would cause supply chain disruptions, but the latest report from the National Retail Federation (NRF) indicates that these effects will be larger, and last longer, than had originally been forecast, Retail Touchpoints reports. Even as some Chinese factories restart their operations, logistics, transportation and personnel challenges could continue to slow down imports for at least the next six to eight weeks. The Global Port Tracker report, prepared by Hackett Associates, estimated that U.S. ports handled 1.42 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEU) in February, a 12.6 percent drop from the same month in 2019 and significantly lower than the 1.54 million TEU forecast before the coronavirus began to affect imports. March is forecast at 1.32 million TEU, down 18.3 percent from 2019 and less than the 1.7 million forecast prior to the virus’ spread. A TEU is one 20-foot-long cargo container or its equivalent. “Now that we are in the coronavirus environment, uncertainty has expanded exponentially,” Ben Hackett, founder of Hackett Associates, said in a statement. “Our projections are based on the optimistic view that by the end of March or early April some sort of normalcy will have returned to trade.” A separate NRF member survey revealed that 40 percent of respondents said they are seeing disruptions to their supply chain due to the virus, and another 26 percent expect to see disruptions as the outbreak continues to affect the world economy.

DISNEY, OTHERS JOIN XANDR INVEST PLATFORM Battle lines are being drawn in the ongoing quest to lure advertisers to new kinds of TV commercials, Variety reports. AT&T’s Xandr ad-tech unit says AMC Networks, WarnerMedia and Walt Disney have joined its Xandr Invest, a buying platform that allows advertisers to define narrower audience segments and reach them with TV programming. The company said the Xandr technology would be available in time for TV’s 2020 upfront ad sales market. In joining Xandr, the media companies are setting off a battle of sorts. NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, Fox Corp and Univision are part of a separate consortium, Open AP, which is also working to accelerate the advertising practice known as “audience buying,” or the placement of commercials more precisely across networks and programs so they reach lucrative audience segments like first-time car buyers or expectant mothers. WarnerMedia, which is, like Xandr, owned by AT&T, pulled out of that group in April of last year. “We are seeing high demand from our clients, even coming out of [last year’s] upfront,” says Evan Adlman, senior vice president of advanced advertising and digital partnerships at AMC Networks. “A lot of our scatter buys are also looking for this type of targeting. So we plan on this being part of every conversation that we are beginning to have for the next upfront.”

E-COMMERCE: AMAZON STILL UNDISPUTED NO. 1 It’s little surprise that Amazon once again ranks as the No. 1 U.S. e-commerce retailer — and by a huge margin, eMarketer says. “What’s surprising is that despite accounting for nearly four in 10 e-commerce dollars, the company continues to gain market share and extend its lead,” said Andrew Lipsman, eMarketer principal analyst. The research firm forecast that Amazon’s 2020 U.S. retail e-commerce sales will rise 17.2 percent to $260.86 billion — 4 percentage points higher than the expected overall growth rate for U.S. retail e-commerce sales. As a result, Amazon’s market share will increase from 37.3 percent in 2019 to 38.7 percent this year while expanding its lead over the No. 2 player from 31.7 points to 33.4 points. eMarketer expects this momentum to continue into 2021 when it will reach 39.7 percent market share. The e-commerce giant manages to continually outpace the market by a wide margin because it stays several steps ahead by investing in the future, eMarketer says. Recently, that investment has been to double-down on its already best-in-class online delivery by rolling out next-day Prime delivery nationwide. It appears to have paid off quickly, as topline growth surged on the e-commerce side of the business in Q2 when the rollout began. The efforts culminated in Q4 2019 when Amazon blew away even the most optimistic forecasts. The improved delivery times also help unlock the biggest opportunity in e-commerce today — online grocery. 2019 represented an inflection point in the adoption of grocery ecommerce, and Amazon’s advantage in logistics positions the company to dominate this next growth phase.

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NBA, NHL ALSO CAUSING PAIN FOR NETWORKS(Continued from Page 1)coming from NBA programming ($562 million). Concerning the potential advertising loss, Michael Nathanson, media analyst of MoffettNathanson Research, writes: “It seems clear that advertisers would not be charged for units that never run. Given the premium value of these commitments, we would assume that advertisers would not move these commitments into regular run of schedule[d] ad buys. “Due to the importance of high-profile sports to these ad

buyers, we have a hard time seeing why and where these dollars would be re-deployed.” For the NHL, national TV advertising on NBC, NBCSN and NHL networks is estimated to have pulled in around $85.4 million so far this year, says iSpot.tv. Last year, national TV advertising from all NHL national TV exposure pulled $559.8 million, per iSpot.tv, from all regular-season and playoff games.

CORONAVIRUS LOOMS OVER HOUSING MARKET The lowest mortgage rates on record are colliding with the prospect of an economic downturn prompted by the coronavirus outbreak, setting the stage for an unpredictable spring housing market, The Wall Street Journal reports. Early indications suggest that rock-bottom borrowing costs may not be enough to lure many home buyers amid the uncertainty. Economists are tamping down expectations that cheap rates and a strong job market would boost the housing market in 2020 following years of sluggish growth. The National Association of Realtors had anticipated about 5.5 million sales of previously owned homes in 2020, up from 5.3 million a year in 2019 and 2018, said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. “I thought that there would be a steady increase from January pretty much throughout most of the year,” Yun said. “Obviously, we hit a major speed bump” due to the epidemic.

3/13/2020

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GULD: WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH IN BUSINESS You’ve heard all the headlines: “Consumer confidence down, retail sales stagnant, stock market declines...” So how do you process all this stuff when the going gets tough? You may be familiar with the answer: “The tough get going!” If there’s going to be a recession, choose not to play. Here’s a plan of action:1. Live by the Serenity Prayer – “Accept the things you cannot change, have courage to change the things you can and the wisdom to know the difference.” Remain calm.2. Ignite the passion for what you do – Remember why you got into your given field. Passion creates positive energy.3. Commit yourself to personal and professional goals – Write your goals down, visualize achieving these goals, and live for them every day.4. Have a plan – Make sure the energy you exert has an economic benefit.5. Work the plan – Your plan should include sales, marketing and PR components to attract the business that you deserve.6. Refine and live your value proposition – In these days of hyper-competition, you have to have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that translates to a UBA (Unique Buying Advantage). If you’re not unique, you can’t compete.7. Provide a world-class customer experience – Focus on the unique value that you provide through an outstanding customer experience, with value-added benefits.8. Focus on new business development – If per-account spending is affected by a slowdown, expanding your customer base can make up the difference.9. Brand extend – Consider new revenue sources that you can capitalize on within your business. What add-on products and services would be of interest to your existing clientele? Michael Guld is an author, speaker, entrepreneur and radio commentator. He is the president of System 21, a sales and marketing consultancy.

CW FOLLOWS SUIT, CANCELS LIVE UPFRONTS The CW has followed NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS in canceling its live upfront presentation in May, Broadcasting & Cable reports. “In light of recent developments and the current guidelines being set by health officials regarding COVID-19, The CW Network has decided to forego its traditional live upfront presentation scheduled for Thursday, May 14 at City Center Theater in New York, as we join the community’s efforts to ensure that everyone’s health and safety is our top priority,” the network said in a statement yesterday. “As a result, we are currently exploring alternative and innovative ways of communicating The CW’s overall strategy, showcase our new and returning programming and present our upcoming fall schedule to advertisers, press, the industry and our fans. We will be sharing additional details as we move forward,” the CW said. The CW is a joint venture of ViacomCBS and AT&T. AT&T’s WarnerMedia and Xandr units have also canceled their joint May upfront presentation. Earlier, presentations were eliminated by Fox News, A+E Networks, AMC Networks and Comcast’s FreeWheel unit.