Spots N Dots
The Daily News Of TV Sales
June 28, 2016
HOME SALES ARE HOT; CHALLENGES REMAIN
AFFORDABLE RENTALS IN SHORT SUPPLY
The national housing market has now regained enough momentum to provide an engine of growth for the US economy, according to the latest The State of the Nation’s Housing report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard.“Robust rental demand continues to drive the housing expansion, and sales, prices, and new construction of single-family homes are on the rise. Even more important, income growth has picked up, particularly among the huge millennial population that is poised to form millions of new households over the coming decade,” the report’s authors say.
At the same time, however, several obstacles continue to hamper the housing recovery—in particular, the lingering pressures on homeownership, the eroding affordability of rental housing, and the growing concentration of poverty. The report notes that the national homeownership rate has been on an unprecedented 10-year downtrend, sliding to just 63.7% in 2015.
“Tight mortgage credit, the decade-long falloff in incomes that is only now ending, and a limited supply of homes for sale are all keeping households—especially first-time buyers—on the sidelines,” says Harvard’s Chris Herbert. He notes a large backlog of foreclosures still being dealt with and an increase in households earning under $25,000 per year. “The question is not so much whether families will want to buy homes in the future, but whether they will be able to do so,” Herbert says.
For those with the financial wherewithal, the market is hot. The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales rose 1.8% in May—putting sales at the fastest pace since February 2007. Also, the median sales price grew to an all-time high of $239,700. Once again, the Realtor’s group complained of a lack of inventory, although new home construction has been creeping up.
The rental market is also surging, but also moving toward the high end. With vacancy rates down sharply and rents climbing, the Harvard report says multifamily construction is booming across the country. “But with strong growth among high-income renters, so far most of this new housing is intended for the upper end of the market, with rents well out of reach of the typical renter making $35,000 a year,” the report states.
The median asking rent for a newly-constructed apartment built in 2015 rose to $1,381 per month. That’s more than 70% higher than the median contract rent for all multifamily units.
MarketResearch.com projects that residential construction will grow at an annual rate of 7.7% through 2020. The largest segment, single-family homes, is expected to expand by 8.9% annually.
ADVERTISER NEWS
The monthly forecast of new vehicle automotive sales from J.D. Power and LMC Automotive says dealers will sell 1,206,700 units in June, a 0.5% decline from June, 2015 on a selling-day adjusted basis (although for the factories, higher fleet sales are expected to offset lower retail sales and produce a small overall gain). For the first half of the year dealers will have sold 6.8 million units, 0.2% below the first six months of 2015. “Year-over-year growth is evaporating,” LMC’s senior VP of forecasting said……There’s also downbeat news from another key category—The Wall Street Journal says upcoming data from the NPD Group will show restaurant visit growth has “completely stalled” in the last three months. One reason cited is a growing disparity between restaurant prices and the cost of eating at home—restaurants have generally been raising prices while lower prices for some commodities have been passed on by supermarkets via lower prices……PepsiCo announced changes to revive sales of its slumping diet colas. It will re-introduce aspartame-sweetened Diet Pepsi in September while continuing to offer a sucralose-sweetened version and it is renaming Pepsi Max as Pepsi Zero Sugar. Sales had declined after sucralose replaced aspartame last year……Another retailer is mentioning “the challenging retail environment”—this time it’s Finish Line, which reported a 1.5% same-store sales increase, a steep decline from the 4.6% increase the chain had seen in the prior quarter. It is, however, optimistic about the rest of the year, forecasting a 3-5% gain for the full fiscal year……GE appliances (now a unit of Haier Group) is introducing a “smart” air conditioner that offers an app facilitating remote operation. Among other uses, owners can turn the unit on to cool off their home before they get there……Pilot Flying J and Speedway are forming a joint venture to operate 120 travel plazas, mostly located in the Southeast. Much of the effort will be geared to upgrading current Speedway locations……Coca-Cola has bought a minority stake in L.A. Aloe, maker of Aloe Gloe, an organic aloe water. Fortune notes Coke will expand the company’s distribution (including getting it into Kroger and Safeway) as part of Coke’s Venturing & Emerging Brands unit……Retailing Today says a report from the Boston Consulting Group finds that e-commerce may be over its growth spurt and is now expected to slow considerably. BCG found that in most of the 41 categories studied, respondents said they do not expect to increase their online spending in the next three years and in many categories at least a quarter of respondents said they expect to spend less online.
NETWORK NEWS
Blake Shelton and his NASCAR friends are "Bringing Back the Sunshine" for NBC's second season of NASCAR coverage under its new television deal.The country singer is once again performing the song—with slightly new lyrics—that will serve as the introduction ahead of each race televised on the NBCUniversal family of networks. The spot was filmed during the spring race weekend at Texas Motor Speedway in April. It will premiere this Saturday, July 2, as NBC airs the Coke Zero 400 from Daytona, FL, with pre-race coverage beginning at 7:00 pm (ET)……ABC is celebrating the launch of its new “Sunday Fun & Games” block. Celebrity Family Feud drew 7.8 million viewers, The $100,000 Pyramid 8.0 millionand Match Game 6.7 million.
SUNDAY RATINGS
Univision won the demo competition on Sunday night with the Copa América Centenario Final (Chile beating Argentina). The Nielsen Fast Nationals showed Univision with a primetime average 1.7 rating in Adults 18-49 and 1.9 in Households, with an average audience of 4.009 million viewers. ABC, with the premieres of Celebrity Family Feud, The $100,000 Pyramid and Match Game, was at 1.3 18-49, 4.1 HH and 6.602 million; NBC, with U.S. Olympic Trials, 1.1 18-49, 2.8 HH and 4.640 million; CBS, with Big Brother, 0.7 18-49, 2.8 HH and 4.350 million; FOX 0.5 18-49, 0.7 HH and 1.264 million; and Telemundo 0.3 18-49, 0.6 HH and 0.993 million.
JULY 4TH WEEKEND: BEER AND BBQ
Americans spent an estimated $1 billion on beer to celebrate Independence Day last year, according to the Beer Institute, and that tradition is expected to continue this July 4th Weekend. 64% of Americans of legal drinking age are planning to attend a cookout or barbeque this weekend—and beer is the drink of choice for the hot summer celebration.
"From being the drink of choice whenThomas Jeffersondrafted the Declaration of Independence to its place at our picnics and barbecues this holiday weekend, beer is an important part of American history and our economy," saidJim McGreevy, president and CEO of the Beer Institute, trying to put a patriotic spin on popping the top of a can of brew.
The beer industry is a major employer. Roughly 1.75 million Americans have jobs as a result of the American beer industry, according to the Beer Institute. These jobs are contributing nearly$79 billionin wages and benefits each year to the American economy.
LastJuly 4thweekend AAA estimated that about 35.5 million Americans took a trip in a car. “We all share the roads, and we all share in the responsibility to keep them safe,” said the holiday announcement from the Beer Institute, so it is urging people to “drink responsibly thisFourth of Julyweekend as well as throughout the year.”
FOX SPORTS TO STREAM NHL
Sports Business Journal reports that Fox Sports has an agreement in principle with the NHL to stream local games in-market for the hockey teams for which it holds local TV rights. That would be 12 NHL teams: Anaheim, Arizona, Carolina, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis and Tampa Bay. Fans will be able to stream the games online, provided they have authentication credentials from a cable or satellite subscription. Fox Sports now has streaming deals with three leagues for in-market streaming, having previously cut deals with the NBA and MLB.
CBS AND THE CW WRAP UPFRONT
CBS is the first broadcast network to essentially wrap-up its Upfront advertising sales. And The CW, owned 50% by CBS, was close behind. Adweek and Deadline report that the Eye Network made good on CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves vow to win double-digit CPM increases. Volume is also up. With just a few deals to get across the finish line, Deadline projects that CBS will finish the Upfront with about $2.5 billion in total sales—up about 5% from last year.
Upfront interest for CBS was strongest from the retail, financial, pharmaceutical and telecom categories, according to Adweek. Buyers were particularly interested in football broadcasts: the NFL on CBS; Thursday Night Football and the SEC. Deadline added that there was strong demand for the CBS Evening News and CBS This Morning.
For The CW, Deadline estimates the total haul at around $500 million—a volume increase in the 12-14% range. CPMs were also reported to be up in the low double-digits. The network is projecting a ratings boost as Supergirl—coming from CBS for its second season—and joins The Flash and Arrow as a major audience draw for The CW.
Viacom, on the cable side, was the first to finish its Upfront sales over two weeks ago. Adweek had reported that Viacom booked CPM gains of around 8%. That’s despite ratings difficulties and the drama of a boardroom fight for control of the company.
Who’s next? Deadline says ABC is getting close to finishing its Upfront deals. NBCUniversal has a much larger group of networks to deal with, in both broadcast and cable, but Media Life reports that it has been getting low-teens gains, including cable.
VOLKSWAGEN SETTLEMENT JUMPS TO $15B
Volkswagen AG is due to file its diesel emissions test cheating settlement in a San Francisco federal court today—and Bloomberg reports that the total tab has jumped to $15 billion, up sharply from the $10 billion figure circulating last week. The report says car owners will get just over $10 billion—covering both the value of their vehicles and compensation payments of as much as $10,000 each.
The rest of the price tag comes from settlements with government agencies. VW will reportedly pay $2.7 billion in fines to the U.S. EPA and the California Air Resources Board, plus some $400 million in settlements to be announced with other states. The automaker will be required to spend an additional $2 billion on clean-emissions technology, the report says.
WHEELER: KEEP OWNERSHIP LIMITS
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is circulating the Commission’s 2010/2014 Quadrennial review of its ownership rules. Essentially, Wheeler says the status quo is fine and all of the existing limits on TV ownership and media crossownership remain in the public interest, with the exception of some very minor tweaking.
The NAB immediately blasted Wheeler for defying the courts and Congress by seeking to retain rules that have “long ago outlived their usefulness.” The NAB called it “shocking” that the FCC would bless mammoth mergers like AT&T/DirecTV and Charter/Time Warner Cable, but still bar common ownership of two TV stations or broadcast/newspaper combinations in a local market. “Ultimately, NAB hopes the five-member FCC, Congress or the courts end this indefensible FCC charade, and that meaningful ownership reform is adopted for the benefit of the millions of Americans reliant on free and local broadcasting,” said NAB EVP Dennis Wharton.
DONE DEAL
Justin Antoniotti, News Director since 2012 at Hearst Television's WTAE (ABC) Pittsburgh, has been named President and General Manager of Hearst’s WPTZ/WNN (NBC) Plattsburgh, NY-Burlington, VT.
AVAILS
WCVB-TV, the Hearst ABC affiliate in Boston, has an opening for an experienced Research Director that will analyze all ratings and research information to design compelling stories for our sellers and outside promotion. The ideal candidate will be proficient in Nielsen software, Marshall Marketing, Kantar and Wide Orbit Media Sales and has LPM market experience including a good working knowledge of the Local People Meter process. CLICK HERE for more information and qualifications, or to apply now.EOE
Raycom Media’s WAFB CBS 9 in Baton Rouge, LA, has a wonderful opportunity for an experienced LSM or senior AE who is ready to move up to our open LSM position in the 93rd market.Come sell LSU Tigers Football, The New Orleans Saints, CBS Prime and outstanding WAFB News and Digital products in a fabulous city!. College degree preferred. 5 or more years of successful experience in television and digital sales expected. Qualified applicants, please APPLY HEREand attach resume/cover letter.No calls please. EOE-M/F/D/V
KTVU/KTVU+ (SF Bay Area) seeks an Account Executive to maintain & improve existing client list & generate new business on our FOX stations/websites.Involves local travel to call on regular and prospective clients.Bachelors’ Degree plus 4 years major market experience in transactional & online advertising is required. Must have a valid CA driver’s license with a good driving record. Qualified candidates should submit their resume and cover letter via the on-line process at EOE/M/F/Disabled/Veteran
Account Executive: Fox Chicago is looking for a motivated salesperson to join our local sales team. Candidate must have a strong track record of increasing station revenue/share on existing business in addition to developing new business and digital sales.Candidate must have excellent communication and presentation skills, solid computer skills, knowledge of industry software, and 3-5 years sales experience. For consideration or to apply online please visit:No phone calls please!EOE/M/F/Veteran/Disabled.
Spectrum Reach, the advertising sales division of Charter Communications has an opening for a GSM in Goleta, (Santa Barbara) California.The GSM is responsible for providing direction to Local Sales Managers and Account Executives to ensure the location sales budgets and objectives are achieved. 5 years media sales experience and 2 years sales management experience required. Bachelor's degree in sales and marketing or related field, or equivalent experience required. All applicants must visit to apply.EOE.
SNN - the Suncoast News Network, located in beautiful Sarasota, FL is looking for an experienced Account Executive. The ideal candidate is a motivated self-starter who enjoys the challenge of developing new business in a competitive environment, as well as being a consultive partner with existing clients. Must have strong organizational, written and presentation skills, be proficient in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Please send cover letter and resume to Charles Cusimano, Station Manager at . EOE
WVIT, NBC Connecticut in West Hartford, CT is looking for a dynamic, aggressive Account Executive who will develop a solid understanding of our ad products and have solid consultative selling skills to be able to best develop solutions to meet client needs and close deals. Revenue closure, account relationship building, customer satisfaction, and product implementation success are key responsibilities.Minimum 1 year sales experience and a Bachelor’s degree required.CLICK HERE for more info or to apply now.EOE.
Some private companies are now taking over the reporting of local news. I read all about it in this week’s issue of US News & Zesty Cool Ranch Doritos.
--Conan O’Brien
New guidelines say infants need up to 16 hours of sleep each day. As the parents put it: ‘Hey, tell that to the baby.’
--Jimmy Fallon
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SPOTS N DOTS
The Daily News Of TV Sales
June 28, 2016
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