Spots N Dots
The Daily News Of TV Sales
August 23, 2016
OLYMPICS FALL SHORT OF TARGET, STILL OK
LIVE STREAMING PICKS UP SOME SLACK
NBC Olympics delivered an average 27.5 million primetime viewers for the Rio Olympics—an impressive number, but only second place to the 2012 London Games for a non-U.S. Summer Olympics. Still, NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus says “Rio was the most successful event in media history.” That’s not necessarily an overstatement, due to the multi-platform expansion of the coverage effort across the NBCUniversal portfolio of broadcast, cable and digital assets.
According to Advertising Age, NBCU came up two full points of the 18.0 Household rating it had guaranteed advertisers for its “total audience delivery” in prime across NBC, six cable networks and digital streaming. Even so, most media buyers told the publication that NBCU took care of the under-deliveries and kept advertisers happy. Those shortfalls that couldn’t be made up during the Olympics will likely result in offers of Sunday Night Football or Thursday Night Football—Ad Age said—and those are as primo as you can get for make-goods. Keeping advertisers happy this year will be remembered by clients when NBCU wants to talk about the upcoming Olympics in South Korea (Winter 2018) and Japan (Summer 2020), said one TV buyer.
The biggest change for the 2016 Summer Olympics from the TV point of view was the shift of viewing to digital streaming. While TV remained its top priority, Citigroup told The New York Times that it boosted digital advertising by 25% from the London Olympics. The live streams opened more opportunities to advertisers, with sports such as badminton and archery that wouldn’t draw large enough audiences for primetime TV. NBCU had emphasized broadcast/cable/digital packages in its ad sales, which is another reason why advertisers were not too upset about linear TV not meeting audience expectations. One buyer told the Times it was important to be on the digital platforms because ads were disproportionately likely to be watched by 18-34 year-olds.
“Our streaming on the NBC Sports app and on NBCOlympics.com, powered by our Playmaker Media platform, was the largest streamed event in history, surpassing the previous highs for any event. Our end result will be well over 3 billion minutes streamed, shattering anything previously in the category,” said Lazarus.“We monetized our streaming at a very high level, and will continue to develop more ways to monetize this ever-growing method of consumption,” he added.
On NBC as well, the network said its primetime rating in that young demo over the first 15 days in primetime, 5.5, was five times greater than (400% above) the other broadcast networks combined (1.1 on ABC, CBS and FOX). Also, Rio Olympics primetime viewership in the Adult 18-34 demo (5.3 rating for all 17 primetime NBC nights) was nearly five times greater (382% higher) than the average of the four broadcast networks (1.1 for NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX) for the 2015-16 TV season.
ADVERTISER NEWS
Sales of automotive dealerships are down this year but of those sales, the number of multistore deals are up. There were 106 transactions in the first six months compared to 127 from January-June, 2015, but 32 of this year’s deals were for multiple stores compared to just 21 such deals a year ago. And Automotive News is reporting sales of luxury-brand dealerships are the segment that’s most difficult now as luxury brands have seen declines in both sales and margins this year……As if Volkswagen dealers haven’t had enough problems, Automotive News now points out those dealerships are also having problems keeping good employees and are being forced to hire and train new people. One dealer told the publication salespeople used to make $200-$250 more selling diesels because the discount was not as big as gasoline vehicles. With dealerships now unable to sell diesels, total VW sales were down 14% through July in an overall market that was up 1.1%...... There’s more price-changing for data plans in the wireless business. T-Mobile will stop selling plans with monthly data limits and replace them with a higher-priced unlimited data plan while Sprint lowered the price for unlimited data for one phone from $75 to $60. And AT&T changed some rates, essentially raising prices for low-data users and lowering the cost of some high-data plans……It’s official! Alimentation Couche Tard announced a deal to buy CST Brands. Couche-Tard operates the Circle K convenience store chain in the U.S. and will take over CST’s banners, Corner Store,Nice N Easy, and Flash Foods……Sales in Toro’s residential business segment were down 4.6% in the latest quarter with the CEO citing weather challenges in some key markets for its mowers. He does however see “positive retail sales” in the current quarter……A good commercial tagline can have a very long life. Nestle’s Tombstone Pizza is launching a new Roadhouse pizza line and will bring back a phrase used in 1990s creative, “What do you want on your Tombstone?”……Speaking of Macy’s announcement of 100 upcoming store closings, a retail analyst said “Over the next few years, store closures and downsizes are expected to continue, especially for big-box stores with extensive square footage. The department store industry is poised to decline at an annualized 1.6%.” Macy’s itself has had about a 12.6 share of the $167.8 billion department store market...... Home Depot’s recent results showed 2.2% growth in comp transactions combined with a 2.5% growth in average comp ticket. Also interesting: 42% of online orders used physical stores for fulfillment, and 90% of online product returns used physical stores when returning items.
NETWORK NEWS
Willie Geistwill be turning over his duties on the 3rdhour ofTheToday ShowtoBilly Bush. Geist made the announcement onThe Today ShowMonday. Geist will continue to hostSunday’s Today Showand co-anchorMorning JoeforMSNBC……ABCannouncedMonday that Olympic gold medalistGabby Douglasand musician and actressLauraMoranowill join the judges panel for the2017 Miss Americacompetition.Chris Harrisonreturns as host of the live broadcast and will be assisted bySage Steele.The Miss Americacompetition will be broadcast from Atlantic City on September 11thonABC……Telemundohas lined up someimpressive sponsorsfor its 2016 edition ofPremiosTuMundo.Allstate,Anheuser-Busch, SamsungandWalmartare just some of the major sponsorsof the broadcast that honors the year’s best Hispanic actors, singers and TV moments.PremiosTuMundowill air onTelemundoThursday at8 PM (ET)……It was widely expected that whenNBChiredMikeTiricofromESPN, that theMonday Night Footballplay-by-play announcer would serve in the same role forNBC’s Thursday Night Football. However, theNFLeffectively bannedTiricofrom doing the Thursday night games saying the league preferredAl MichaelsandChrisCollinsworthfromSunday Night Football. The NFL said in a statement that the contract withNBCrequires that the Sunday night team also does the Thursday night game.
SUNDAY RATINGS
TheNielsenovernight ratings for Sunday show thatThe Closing Ceremony for the 2016Summer Gamescontinued the downward trend forNBC. The adult 18-49 rating for the closing ceremony was 4.0 with 16.9 million total viewers. That was the second-lowestratings performance of thisOlympiad.NBC is still claiming victory with the Olympics, saying 78% of U.S. TV homes tuned into NBC Olympics’ Rio Games coverage. The 15-day event had a TV-only audience of 198 million viewers, according to national data provided by Nielsen. The Closing Ceremony lead-in was not all that helpful toThe Voice Special. The half hour presentation drew a 2.7 18-49 rating. Big Brother onCBSfollowed up with a 1.8 18-49 rating.All three ofABC’sgame shows improved against the previous week.Celebrity Family Feuddrew a 1.1 18-49 rating.The $100,000 Pyramidimproved over the previous week by 25% to a 1.0 rating andTheMatch Gamejumped29% over its last performance with a0.9 at 10 PM (ET). For all of primetime Sunday NBC scored an average 3.5 18-49 and 8.5 Households, with an average audience of 14.526 million. ABC was at 0.9 18-49, 2.9 HH and 4.553 million; CBS 0.8 18-49, 2.8 HH and 4.278 million; FOX, with all reruns, 0.5 18-49, 0.7 HH and 1.247 million; Univision, led by Va Por Ti, 0.4 18-49, 0.9 HH and 1.428 million; and Telemundo, with the 2012 movie The Avengers, 0.2 18-49, 0.3 HH and 0.569 million.
MOST SOCIALLY DOMINANT TV NEWS
Local television stations jumped into social media early on with their news operations and continue to be huge locally on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. Share Rocket, whose business involves social media ratings and performance measurement, is out with its latest listing of the local TV news operations with the largest shares of social media activity (7/13-8/12) in their markets.
These share behemoths tend to be in medium and small markets, where there are a limited number of TV news operations slicing up the social media engagement pie. The biggest social share, 91%, is by WNEP (ABC) Scranton, PA. It has two news competitors in its market, as do the next two: WMAZ (CBS) Macon, GA, 85%; and WTOC (CBS) Savannah, GA, 82%. In 4th place, but with only one in-market competitor, is KSBW (NBC) Monterey, CA, 75%.
From there the markets get larger and more competitive. Even so, #5 WILX (NBC) Lansing, MI commands a 73% social share. There’s a three-way tie for sixth at 70% by KGMB (CBS) Honolulu, HI; WHIO (CBS) Dayton, OH; and WECT (NBC) Wilmington, NC.
Share Rocket notes that when it comes to large markets, only one station in a Top 20 DMA makes the list: WTVT (FOX) Tampa-St. Pete, FL, DMA #11, claiming 18th place with a 58% social share. Just missing the top 21 (due to a three-way tie for #19) list is WJBK (FOX) Detroit, MI, which is DMA #13.
CLINTON CAMPAIGN BUYING MORE TV
While Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has finally begun running TV ads in four states (details in yesterday’s issue) for $4.8 million, Democrat Hillary Clinton is continuing to dwarf Trump’s TV effort. The New York Times reports that Clinton has reserved an additional $80 million in TV time on top of the $70 million already spent.
The Clinton campaign is targeting the four states where Trump is now running TV spots—Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvaniaand Ohio—plus Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and Nebraska. An additional $3 million of TV time has been booked this month, with $77 million for September and October. Clinton is also running ads nationally on cable and plans to air $15 million on radio, the Times reported.
With a fundraising advantage and a lead in most polls—although a couple have recently given an advantage to Trump—Clinton has the luxury of being able to advertise in more battleground states than she actually has to win to get to 270 electoral votes. Her campaign has recently pulled back from running ads in Virginia and Colorado, where polls show her with a double-digit lead over Trump. Ad placements could change if those or other states become competitive.
DEALERS RANK BEST LENDERS
Mercedes-Benz Financial Services ranks highest among lenders in the prime retail credit segment for a second consecutive year in the J.D. Power 2016 U.S. Dealer Financing Satisfaction Survey. The German luxury car maker’s finance unit got a score of 961 from dealers on a 1,000-point scale. Following in the rankings are BMW Financial Services (959); Alphera Financial Services (941); Lincoln Automotive Financial Services (936); and Infiniti Financial Services (930).
Mercedes-Benz Financial Services also ranks highest among lenders in the retail leasing segment for a second consecutive year, with a score of 982. Following in the rankings are BMW Financial Services (958); Ford Credit (913); Volvo Car Financial Services (912); and Subaru Motors Finance (911).
The winner for floor planning lenders is—you guessed it!—Mercedes-Benz Financial Services. In this case, it’s the sixth consecutive year at the top, with a score of 986. Following in the rankings are BMW Financial Services (975); Huntington National Bank (969); Hyundai Motor Finance (945); and Kia Motors Finance (945).
“Dealers value a lender that can help them handle the tough issues and solve those ‘outside-the-box’ situations,” said Power’s Jim Houston. “This is where having the right people focused on their dealers and helping them execute their strategic plan is essential.”
THIS AND THAT
Three more car dealers have agreed to pay civil penalties to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that their TV ads concealed sale and lease terms. The Dallas area dealerships—New World Auto Imports Inc., New World Auto Imports of Rockwall Inc. and Hampton Two Auto Corporation—collectively known as Southwest Kia—agreed to pay $85,000 to settle the FTC allegations……Ryan Lochte is losing endorsement contracts after admitting he lied about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio during the Olympic Games. The swimmer has been dropped by Speedo, Gentle Hair Removal and Japanese mattress maker Airweave, while the Ralph Lauren fashion brand says his contract will not be renewed.
AVAILS
Sinclair’s ABC and FOX duopoly in Charleston-Huntington WV, the 67th DMA, is looking for a strong General Sales Manager to help guide our overall sales efforts. This position requires an individual who possesses strong leadership skills who can lead the way as we adapt to a multi-screen, integrated marketing approach to selling.Must have strong leadership capabilities and a successful track record in sales management and staff development. 3-5 years’ experience in TV sales management required.Qualified candidates, CLICK HERE to apply. EOE/Drug Free Workplace.
Sales Manager: WLFI, conveniently located between Indianapolis and Chicago offers an excellent opportunity to grow your management experience with a great Media General station. The Sales Manager is responsible for leading, teaching, and motivating the sales team along with growing local revenue, (core and digital). Strong leadership and team-building skills, analytical, problem solving, communication, writing, and presentation skills preferred. Prior management experience a plus but not required.CLICK HEREfor more info or to apply now, requisition #16-01237.EOE/M/F/V/D
KOLD, the Raycom-owned CBS affiliate in the top 75 market of scenic Tucson, AZ seeks a dynamic leader to serve as the Vice President and General Manager. Find out why Tucson is a great place to work and play! From hiking/biking to a great food scene to beautiful weather with hardly any humidity, this market is a great opportunity! Te General Manager will be responsible for providing leadership, a forward-thinking vision and driving innovation to improve station performance. We offer competitive compensation and benefits programs. APPLY HERE. No calls please. EOE-M/F/D/V.
KOAT-TV, the Hearst-owned ABC affiliate in Albuquerque, NMis seeking an energetic, passionate, and analytical National Sales Manager who is up to the challenge of setting new records across multiple platforms. The NSM works with national rep firms to sell advertising and leads and motivates the national sales team to exceed revenue goals. Candidate should have the ability to work in a fast paced environment and be excellent in broadcast sales negotiation. CLICK HERE to apply. EOE
Capitol Broadcasting Company seeks a New Media Digital Client Services Coordinator to assist in digital marketing customer fulfillment by providing support to local clients. As part of the Client Services team, this person is responsible for executing digital marketing services such as website design, social media management, reputation management, and certain PPC and display campaigns. Experience in digital marketing preferred.Candidates must apply online at EOE M/F.All Capitol Broadcasting Company properties are tobacco free. CBC participates in E-Verify.
Turns out the proper response to ‘How’s it hanging?’ is NOT ‘via a complex network of pulleys and trusses.’
--Conan O’Brien
I've spent the better part of the weekend exercising or hanging out with married couples. It's either time for a boyfriend, or a joint.
--Chelsea Handler
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SPOTS N DOTS
The Daily News Of TV Sales
August 23, 2016
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