Spots N Dots
The Daily News Of TV Sales
August 11, 2017

FACEBOOK TARGETS TV WITH THE NEW ‘WATCH’ TAB

LIVE & RECORDED SHOWS WITH COMMERICALS

They wear hoodies and come armed with two billion active monthly users. It’s Facebook, and it wants a piece of the television viewing audience. FB is redesigning and relaunching the video tab added last year to give users a spot beyond their Newsfeed to find a video, rebranding the tab as ‘Watch’. Facebook director of product Daniel Danker said Watch will be personalized to help users discover new shows, organized around what their friends and communities are watching. That includes sections such as “Most Talked About” which highlights shows that spark conversations. There are also sections dedicated to what’s making users laugh and what someone’s friends are viewing. “We’ve learned from Facebook Live that people’s comments and reactions to a video are often as much a part of the experience as the video itself,” Danker said.

So what will there be to view on Watch? Facebook says the tab will be made up of Shows, which similar to broadcast TV include live and recorded episodes that follow a consistent theme or storyline. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said some of the shows “will be made by professional creators and others from regular people.” And that’s where broadcasters may instead see Facebook as a distribution platform along the lines of how it already distributes local news stories. “Our goal is for Watch to be a platform for all creators and publishers to find an audience, build a community of passionate fans, and earn money for their work,” VP of media partnerships Nick Grudin said.

Over time, creators will be able to monetize their shows through Ad Breaks which can last up to 15-seconds. “We’ve been testing Ad Breaks over the past few months, and will be slowly opening up availability to more creators to ensure we’re providing a good experience for the community,” Grudin said. During beta-testing, the first ad break doesn’t kick in for at least four minutes. Grudin said show creators could also make money using Facebook’s branded content tag.

To help fill the Watch tab with content at launch, Facebook has struck a deal with Major League Baseball to broadcast one game a week. It’s also funded some shows that Danker said are examples of “community-oriented and episodic video series” that Facebook thinks is ideal. That includes a series hosted by “Dirty Jobs” veteran Mike Rowe showcasing people doing something extraordinary for their community. Candidates are nominated by Rowe’s fans on Facebook. Other series include a cooking show that puts professional chefs and kids in the kitchen together and a live program hosted by motivational speaker Gabby Bernstein. “We think Watch will be home to a wide range of shows, from reality to comedy to live sports,” Danker said.

Available on mobile, desktop, and on its TV apps, Facebook says Watch will be initially available to a limited group of people and content providers in the U.S. before its wider rollout in the coming weeks.

ADVERTISER NEWS

Business in the department store sector is still generally negative, but at least the declines are moderating. Macy’s second quarter comps were down 2.8%, but that was much better than the 5.2% decline the chain saw in the first quarter. And Kohl’s comps were off by just 0.4%, again a big improvement over the first quarter which had fallen by 2.7%. But beyond the tepid sales numbers, margins on what’s being sold have also been slipping due to promotions needed to compete with e-commerce competitors. Macy’s issued “soft guidance” for the rest of the year, suggesting tough times will remain for a while……Dillard’s same-store sales were down 1% but the chain lost $17 million in the quarter compared to a gain last year. It cited “significant markdowns led to a disappointing loss as we dealt with inventory”……A good quarter for Planet Fitness, with total revenue up 17.3% compared to last year’s second quarter and systemwide same-store sales up 9% (the 42nd straight quarter of positives). 37 new units were opened during the quarter bringing the total up to 1,403. Franchisees make up most of the locations, and franchised stores’ comps were up 9.3% compared to just 4.3% at company-owned units……While as we reported yesterday Wendy’s did have its 18th consecutive quarter of same-store sales gains, the company reported a net loss for the quarter due to resolving a longstanding dispute with former franchisee DavCo. Wendy’s had sued DavCo over the franchisee’s refusal to remodel locations and use Wendy’s point-of-sale systems and the parent ended up buying all of DavCo’s units and reselling them to NPC International, but taking a loss on the transaction…… Papa Murphy’s is accelerating its efforts to refranchise company-owned locations, shooting for 35 such deals this year instead of the originally-planned 15. Sam-store sales in the second quarter were down 6.6% at company-owned units and off by 4.1% at franchised locations. About 90% of the 1,550 locations are already franchised……Office Depot closed another 31 stores during the second quarter, now down to a total of 1,408 with many more slated to go dark in the next three years. Comp store sales were down 6% with both lower store traffic and a smaller average order value……The merged Ahold Delhaize reported its U.S. supermarkets had comp store growth of 0.3% excluding gasoline, helped by a return of some inflation. Stop & Shop New England was reported to have had a “great quarter,” with all company banners except Giant- Carlisle having gained market share. The company also said Food Lion has not been impacted by Lidl’s entry into its geographic area and knows how to react to newcomers in the market.

NETWORK NEWS

CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert has booked Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House Communications Director for an interview on Monday night’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The booking comes just a few days after Scaramucci canceled a planned visit at Politcon. Scaramucci posted to Twitter that he was going to focus on is family and “my work in the private sector”. The booking is another feather in Colbert’s cap, who has been getting improved ratings since he decided to go all-in on the presidency of Donald Trump. The Late Show has pulled ahead of NBC’s Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, winning last week by a margin of about 900,000 viewers…… Sugar Lyn Beard (Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates) has been cast as Rebecca Sharpe, AKA Hazard, for the fourth season of The Flash on The CW. Beard’s character will appear in the third episode of the new season. Recently, Hartley Sawyer was cast in a recurring role as The Elongated Man, Neil Sandilands will play the season’s villain The Thinker. Additionally, Kim Engelbrecht will star as The Mechanic and Danny Trejo will play the Earth-19 bounty hunter Breacher. The new season of The Flash will debut on The CW on Tuesday, October 10th……Phillip Winchester, star of the NBC series Chicago Justice, is staying with the Dick Wolf production family with a co-starring role on Law & Order: SVU. Winchester will reprise his role as Peter Stone, who was Assistant State’s Attorney in Chicago. He will now be Assistant District Attorney in New York City where Law & Order: SVU is set. Winchester’s character will first appear around the midway point of SVU’s upcoming 19th season. Winchester is the second series regular from Chicago Justice to move to another Dick Wolf series. Following NBC’s cancelation of Chicago Justice, co-star Jon Seda got the news that he will be returning to his previous show, Chicago PD, as a series regular. NBC and Winchester have a history that goes back to 2008 when he was cast as the lead in the drama series Crusoe……Executives from the Fox network revealed that the producing studio 20th Century Fox TV has started preliminary discussions with 24 executive producers Howard Gordon and Brian Grazer, and co-creator Joel Surnow about a possible reinvention of the show. Fox Entertainment president David Madden revealed that the new iteration of 24 may not be in the familiar set of CTU. He said, “It will have the same urgency but may not be set in the CTU, it will have the same style and urgency but in a different venue.”... NBC has cast Tony Award winner and Dear Evan Hansen star Ben Platt as a guest star on NBC’s Will & Grace. The episode will air on Thursday, October 5 at 9 p.m. ET....FOX has renewed Love Connection for a second season, and Andy Cohen Returns as host and co-executive producer. ... ”Live” co-host, American Idol (reboot) host, and syndicated radio star Ryan Seacrest has signed a deal with ABC Studios. The multi-year deal calls for the scripted division of Ryan Seacrest Productions to develop projects for broadcast, cable, premium and on-demand services, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The agreement returns Ryan to ABC Studios after a stint with CBS Television Studios.

ANA: “TRANSPAREMCY ISSUES EXIST”

In a story that has taken several months to reach this point, the Association of National Advertisers has now issued comments over questions of “transparency” on the production of commercials by their advertising agencies and agency groups. The thought had been that commercial production may have been kept within subsidiaries of agency holding companies and that the advertiser may not have been given the best possible rates for production.

Noting transparency issues do exist, the ANA says among other points “Production business processes marked by agency control of the bidding system…is sometimes dysfunctional and conflicted because the buyer can also be the seller of the services.” It adds “Non-transparent agency-controlled bidding can lead to costly, inefficient, and sub-optimal business decisions.” The report includes some recommendations for advertisers, including being aware of the names of agencies’ in-house production units, requiring agencies to disclose if their in-house units are being considered for production, and establishing a protocol to avoid conflicts of interest.

ECONOMIC NEWS

The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (known as JOLTS) showed an all-time record of 6.2 million job openings at the end of June, having grown by 417,000 jobs for private employers and 44,000 government jobs during the month. Job openings of course vary widely by industry with the biggest current needs in education, health-service, and professional and business services. Construction and manufacturing continue to lag behind other sectors. In a related note, the National Federation of Independent Business monthly survey reveals small business hiring is rising, with plans to add workers now at the highest level since 1999. The Chief Economist of the NFIB reported a net 19% of small business owners are planning to add more jobs.

DONE DEALS

Adam Ostrow is joining TEGNA as chief digital officer. Ostrow, who was previously chief strategy officer at Mashable, will be responsible for creating, evangelizing and implementing TEGNA’s digital vision and strategy. Ostrow had been with Mashable since 2007 and was the company’s second employee. He most recently served as chief strategy officer and board member...Jonathan Mitchell has been named vice president and general manager of WMC, Raycom Media’s NBC affiliate in Memphis, TN. Mitchell has been working as an adviser and consultant for ExiteM in Sunnyvale, CA, after a very successful stint at KNTV, in San Francisco, CA as vice president of news. Mitchell previously served as news director and marketing director in Spokane, WA, and before that, as news director in Toledo, OH and executive producer in Cincinnati, OH.

VR WILL BE BANDWIDTH HOG

If you think video streaming is making huge demands on wireless networks, just wait until virtual reality becomes mainstream. A new report from Juniper Research forecasts that wireless VR headsets (smartphone-based and standalone) data consumption will grow by over 650% over the next four years. The research found that data consumption will reach over 28,000PB when combined with traffic generated by VR headsets tethered to PCs and consoles, placing significant additional strain on both wired and wireless networks.

VR requires fast data speeds to stream content effectively and, by 2021, the data demand of each VR device is expected to exceed that of 4K, according to Juniper. This will be driven by the need for higher image quality, a developing problem as VR becomes more mainstream.

In order to make VR more accessible, the Juniper report recommends bringing network operators and broadband providers into the VR standards conversation now. In addition, technologies which reduce the amount of data processing, like foveated rendering, need to be rolled out and become universal.

The research also found that social VR is on the rise. Facebook and WeChat are currently developing VR platforms and several VR games, most notably Star Trek: Bridge Crew, have social elements. These platforms are designed to bring more users into the VR ecosystem by offering new social interactions.

AVAILS

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