Spots N Dots
The Daily News Of TV Sales
October 3, 2017
AMERICANS CAN’T GIVE UP DESTINATION TV
OTT CONSUMER SATISFACTION RISES
Despite growing satisfaction with streaming video services and widespread use of DVR and video on-demand, the number of hours spent watching regularly scheduled television programs has increased by nearly an hour between 2015 and 2017. That three-year high is attributed to continuing consumer interest in “destination television,” according to new studies by J.D. Power. In a typical week, households have spent an average of 17.4 hours watching regularly schedule programming this year, up from 16.6 in 2015.
Meanwhile, satisfaction with the overall streaming video service experience (7.91 on a 10-point scale) and performance and reliability (7.97) has slightly improved year over year. Conversely, overall satisfaction with traditional pay- TV services has fallen to 710 this year (on a 1,000-point scale) from 724 last year. Even so, the percentage of likely cord-cutters has declined slightly. The percentage of customers who say they plan to cut the cord on pay-TV during the next 12 months has declined to 8% this year from 9% in 2016.
“Although it seems like the world is consumed with the idea of cord-cutting in the wake of Hulu’s first Emmy and the proliferation of new shows on Netflix and Amazon, the number of current pay-TV customers who plan to cut the cord has actually declined, and the number of hours spent watching old-fashioned, time-slot television is growing,” said Power’s Peter Cunningham. “We’re seeing a trend toward the co-existence of traditional and alternative service providers, with each offering some lessons to the other on how best to drive an increase in customer satisfaction.”
The study found that satisfaction rises as people use a mobile app to watch content from their pay-TV provider. But currently only 6% use such an app daily and 65% never watch content from their provider via mobile app.
Power also released its annual consumer satisfaction ratings for MVPDs, residential Internet service providers and wireline telephone. It is the 16th year for the studies.
On a national basis, AT&T/DirecTV ranked highest with a consumer satisfaction score of 731 on a 1,000-point scale, barely edging Dish Network at 730. Charter Spectrum was well back at 694 and Comcast Xfinity at 690.
Verizon FiOS had the top score of all, 755, to win the East Region, but no longer has a national footprint as measured by Power. Dish won the South and North Central regions, while AT&T/DirecTV was on top for the West.
For Internet service, Verizon ranked highest in the East, AT&T in the North Central region, Charter Spectrum in the South and Cox Communications in the West.
And for telephone service, Verizon won the East, AT&T North Central and South, and Cox in the West.
ADVERTISER NEWS
There had been some encouraging news last week about a possible end to the strike in Canada at the plant that makes the popular Chevrolet Equinox, but now reports have turned pessimistic again. Two weeks into the strike the union has turned down GM’s latest offer, calling it “fluff.” As we have reported, supplies of GM’s best-selling crossover are starting to get thin at dealerships…….. Volkswagen is expanding warranties on its lineup of 2018s to a six-year/72,000-mile bumper-to-bumper transferable warranty for all models except the battery electric e-Golf. Automotive News notes most competitors’ warranties are not transferable to subsequent owners……Is there an upper limit to what buyers would pay for a pickup truck? Ford introduced the F-450 Limited at the Texas State Fair, the most expensive luxury pickup ever from a major automaker, which could actually go over $100,000 if most of the available options are desired. Auto News notes Ram has introduced a Laramie Longhorn Southfork edition at the fair with a base price of $83,110, and the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra can price out in the low-to-mid $80,000s when fully optioned……Cars.com has kicked off what it calls an aggressive fourth quarter marketing campaign to build awareness for new pricing tools on the site and a database of more than five million reviews…… Pie Five Pizza, whose numbers selling pizza haven’t been strong recently, will add wings to its menus. Right now just two stores in Texas and one in Oklahoma will offer the alternative, but plans are to roll out to all stores by the middle of next year……Finish Line is in talks to sell itself to a British retailer, Sports Direct, which owns brands such as Everlast and Kangol and has a footwear chain in Europe. Finish Line currently has 573 mall-based stores and another 300+ inside Macy’s stores and mostly sells Nike products……This Week In Consumer Electronics says RadioShack is “alive, if not quite kicking.” What’s left of the chain plans to emerge from bankruptcy before the end of the year based around a web-based business, more than 400 independently-owned stores, and 27 company-owned stores in Colorado, Texas, and New York……Sears created the idea of keeping stores open on Thanksgiving back in 2010, and the idea has obviously caught on with many other retailers deciding to get their holiday selling season off to a strong start with Thursday hours. (Walmart started staying open in 2011 and Target in 2012). While most major departments stores will be open on Turkey Day, a wide variety of specialty stores won’t open—just a sampling of those that will close include Burlington, Cabela’s, Costco, Home Depot, HomeGoods, Lowe’s, Marshalls, Petco, Publix, and Tractor Supply.
NETWORK NEWS
Following the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, the CW has decided not to air the two-night iHeartRadio Music Festival, scheduled for this Wednesday and Thursday. “Out of respect to the victims of last Sunday’s terrible tragedy in Las Vegas, and their families, The CW Network and iHeartMedia will be postponing this week’s TV broadcast of the iHeartRadio Music Festival,” the network said in a statement. “New broadcast dates will be announced at a later time.” Deadline.com notes both the shooting and the iHeart Festval occurred in Las Vegas.… ABC’s Dancing With The Stars opened last night’s show with a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the Las Vegas shooting. DWTS was delayed, following a live, five-minute news update by World News Tonight anchor David Muir....Meanwhile, CBS has fired a vice president and senior counsel in the wake of a Facebook remark in which she said she is “not even sympathetic” to the victims of Sunday night’s mass shooting in Las Vegas because “country music fans often are Republican gun toters.” Hayley Geftman- Gold no longer works at the network...…Co-head writers of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, are stepping down after taking the show through it most successful season in more than 20 years. They’re leaving SNL to focus on a new Comedy Central pilot they are writing for Broadway Video, the production arm of Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels. The two will be replaced by Bryan Tucker and Ken Sublette, who were co-head writers with Kelly and Schneider last season. Kelly and Schneider have been with Saturday Night Live since 2011……Wisdom of the Crowd, the new drama on CBS starring Jeremy Piven, delivered the biggest audience for a scripted series on Sunday night, according to Nielsen’s overnight data. The show posted a 1.4 adult 18-49 rating and 8.9 million total viewers. While Wisdom of the Crowd had the biggest total audience, it tied in the demo with the new Fox series, Ghosted, that aired at 8:30 PM to 9 PM (ET)……The second season premiere of the NBC hit This Is Us jumped from a 3.9 adult 18-49 rating to a 5.68 rating once the Live +3 ratings were factored in. The delayed viewing added 4.8 million total viewers bringing the total to 17.786 million. It’s expected that the Live +7 ratings for the family drama’s second season premiere will set new highs as well. The performance put This Is Us ahead of The Big Bang Theory on CBS which finished with a Live +3 rating of 5.50 in the demo....Telemundo has raised more than $12.9 million for the Red Cross relief efforts for the victims of recent natural disasters in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida, and the Caribbean islands. Under the banner of Todos Unidos (All Together), the Telemundo Networks, The Telemundo and NBC owned stations raised more than $7.45 million for those affected. Comcast NBCUniversal and Telemundo contributed $500,000 in cash. Prior to the effort, the NBC and Telemundo owned stations together with the Telemundo Networks has raised nearly $5.5 million through multiple fund-raising efforts since Hurricane Harvey struck Texas.
AD AGE PRICE SURVEY
Advertising Age’s annual survey of pricing for primetime network TV finds the average 30-second spot for the 2017- 18 season costs $134,009, 6% higher than the $126,333 average last season. It won’t come as a surprise that primetime NFL football leads the pack with NBC’s Sunday night game averaging $669,602, and Thursday night games getting $550,709 for NBC’s games and $549,791 for CBS’ Thursday games. Ad Age notes that for the first time in four years, no new show made it to the top ten in average pricing. NBC’s This Is Us was the top non-football attraction, averaging $394,428, followed by Fox’s Empire ($305,369), and CBS’ Big Bang Theory ($285,908). The rest of the top ten were The Voice (Monday), $259,180; Modern Family, $239,782; The Voice (Tuesday), $229,956; and Grey’s Anatomy ($213,576). Fox’s late Sunday NFL games, not technically primetime, averaged even more than NBC’s Sunday games at about $716,000 for a 30, and ESPN’s Monday Night Football was tops for a cable network averaging about $425,000 per spot. The most expensive “new” show is actually a revival, Will & Grace with a $211,856 average for a 30.” American Idol’s midseason return on ABC will average $191,999, and the return of Roseanne will average $166,573.
BUSINESS BYTES
A poll done by BestBlackFriday.com says that holiday shopping is already over for about 8.3% of the population, roughly 21 million shoppers. In the poll almost 26% of respondents said they started their shopping in September and 13% plan to start this month. Over 22% will wait until early November, with almost 14% starting around Black Friday and almost a quarter staying on the sidelines until December. As to when people will finish their shopping, the vast majority will still be in the market into December. Over 53% expect to be finished in early to mid-December with another 20% waiting until the week just before Christmas. Another poll finding was that 51.4% prefer shopping online vs. in-store, but most people will do both.
A survey from the National Association of Realtors finds that homebuyer and seller optimism are both rising, but it remains unclear if that will actually translate into more sales. Potential homebuyers who are currently renting fear they’re be paying more to rent next year, but the NAR found about two-thirds of households believe saving for a down payment on a home is challenging. The Chief Economist of the NAR, noting that 80% of homeowners believe now is a good time to list their home, said, “The housing market has been in a funk since early spring because of the ongoing scarcity of new and existing homes for sale. The pace of new home construction has not meaningfully broken out this year and not enough homeowners at this point have followed through with their belief now is a good time to sell. As a result, home shoppers have seen limited options, stiff competition and weakening affordability conditions.”
ACCOUNT ACTIONS
AB InBev has named Dentsu Aegis Network’s Vizeum as its new agency for the U.S. and Canada. MediaCom, which previously handled the U.S., was awarded Mexico and parts of Latin America. Publicis Groupe’s Starcom will handle China, Japan and other countries. Omnicom was awarded Australia, Vietnam and India. The company spent an estimated $740 million in the U.S. on ads in 2016, according to Kantar Media, and an estimated $2 billion a year worldwide....Southwest Airlines has named Spark Factory as its media agency of record following a review, succeeding independent Camelot, which had had the $200 million account for 30 years. Spark Factor, a Publicis Groupe agency, will now handle media planning, buying, analytics, performance and content marketing. GSD&M continues as Southwest’s creative AOR…… Adweek reports that Hotels.com has launched a competitive pitch for its North America media business. Billing is about $175 million per year.
GRAY STICKS WITH CBS
Gray Television has renewed all of its CBS affiliation contracts covering 39 stations, or approximately 5.9 million TV households. The deal will bring together all of GTN’s affiliation renewals that were set to expire over the next couple of years, bundling all the contracts into the same renewal cycle, says Wells Fargo.
DONE DEALS
Cox Media Group has named Ray Carter, currently CMG Pittsburgh’s VP/General Manager, as CMG’s Regional VP for Television. Carter will oversee the Boston, Charlotte, Memphis, and Seattle TV markets, in addition to Pittsburgh.
AVAILS
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