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HOME FURNISHINGS RISE 16.2% VS. A YEAR AGO Online spending drove holiday sales this year, fueled by strong performances from the home furnishings and home improvement category. Total retail sales (excluding automotive and gasoline) increased 3% during an expanded holiday season, running from Oct. 11 through Dec. 24, according to preliminary results from Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks retail spending trends across all payment types, including cash and check. Online sales rose 49% compared to 2019. Total retail sales rose 2.4% during the traditional holiday season, Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, according to Mastercard. The National Retail Federation’s annual holiday forecast projected that sales would increase between 3.6% and 5.2%. The Mastercard SpendingPulse findings underscore the shift to online spending, with e-commerce accounting for 19.7% of overall retail sales – up from approximately 13.4% in 2019. The findings also showed that consumers continue to spend more time – and money – on their homes. Home furnishings, including furniture, experienced the strongest growth of any sector compared to 2019, up 16.2%. Online, the sector grew 31%. “American consumers turned the holiday season on its head, redefining ‘home for the holidays’ in a uniquely 2020 way. They shopped from home for the home, leading to record e-commerce growth,” said Steve Sadove, senior advisor for Mastercard and former CEO and chairman of Saks Incorporated. “And, consumers shopped earlier than ever before. Across our expanded 75-day holiday shopping season, sales were up 3%, a testament to the holiday season and strength of retailers and consumers alike.” In addition, home improvement was up 14.1%, with e-commerce sales up 79.7%. Meanwhile, apparel declined 19.1% year over year. Electronics and appliances were up 6% overall, and grocery rose 6.8%. Department stores saw an overall sales decline of 10.2% and online sales growth of 3.3%, reinforcing the importance of omnichannel offerings. According to Mastercard, U.S. consumers shopped far earlier than in years past, as retailers offered special promotions early and often. In addition, though Black Friday was down 16.1%, Thanksgiving weekend through Cyber Monday remained a key time for shoppers, with Black Friday being the top spending day of the 2020 holiday season. There were fewer last-minute shoppers this year. The Monday before Christmas (No. 3 last year) didn’t crack the Top 20 this year.

MASTERCARD: HOLIDAY SALES UP 3%, DRIVEN BY ONLINEADVERTISER NEWS Ford needs to install seat belts and conduct software checks on early-production F-150 pickups parked in lots around the Kansas City Assembly Plant, as well as thou-sands in lots around metro Detroit, while some dealers await deliveries of America’s best-selling truck, Ford confirmed to the Detroit Free Press yesterday. “As part of our commit-ment to delivering high-quality vehicles, we are conducting final quality inspections on trucks built before dealer ship-ments started last month to ensure they meet the quality ex-pectations of our customers,” said Kelli Felker, Ford global manufacturing and labor communications manager… Ap-ple’s iPhone is the best selling tech device for 2020. Sales

were up again this year as consumers upgraded their devices in order to work and learn from home. Apple also intro-duced four new phones during the year. Many tech categories were up in 2020,

including laptops and tablets, while some gaming devices were perpetually hard to find… CVS now has almost 200 of its Hispanic-focused stores in operation. Dubbed CVS Pharmacy y más, the locations feature bilingual staff and Spanish language signage. The stores also include 1,500+ items from Hispanic brands, plus lower everyday prices on some items. Most of the new stores are conversions from the traditional format… Former Walmart CEO Bill Simon says higher gift card purchases now may hurt retailers a lit-tle this year but help them in 2021. A Blackhawk Network survey expects an increase of 19% in purchases this year. Simon says it’s hard to measure holiday sales since gift card purchases cause liabilities on balance sheets now, but will help sales as they are redeemed… More than 190,000 ceiling fans sold at The Home Depot are being recalled in response to 47 reports of blades detaching from fans and two reports of people being hit. The fans recalled are the Hampton Bay 54-inch Mara Indoor/Outdoor model... Third-party sellers say they’re having issues with selling on Ama-zon Marketplace this holiday season. Complaints include

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

AVAILS WISN TV in Milwaukee seeks a proven Digital Sales Manager to provide energized leadership for our digital sales initiatives. The ideal candidate possesses a passion for new media and enjoys staying up-to-date with its evolution, understands digital marketing strategy and thrives in a customer-focused team environment. Required strengths include the ability to strategically plan; communicate effectively; and build and maintain internal and external customer relationships

and training. WISN TV is Milwaukee’s leading television station and one of the strongest ABC affiliates in the country. CLICK HERE for more info or to apply. The Victoria Television Group is looking for Account Executives to manage and grow transactional business as well as focusing on prospecting and closing new business in the Victoria, Texas television market. We’re looking for a self-starter with proficiency in cold calling and

creating and delivering presentations. Candidates must be willing to work near the Gulf Coast in the Victoria, Texas DMA, and must develop and maintain relationships with agencies to achieve monthly goals. Excellent negotiation and customer service skills required. To apply, send resume to: opportunity@victoriatelevision.com. EOE. WCSC-TV (CBS) Account Executive: Do you have a strong competitive drive and determination to win? Are you a natural relationship builder and collaborator? If so, a fantastic opportunity awaits at the top media outlet in the “No. 1 City in the World” — Charleston, S.C. You will have the opportunity to sell across all WCSC’s television and digital platforms, providing advertising solutions to new customers that will help them generate sales and increase profitability. Previous broadcast sales experience preferred. Please apply online HERE. EOE.

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THIS AND THAT Nexstar Media Group says KDVR-TV and KWGN-TV, Nexstar’s local TV stations serving the Denver area (DMA #16), have begun broadcasting with NEXTGEN TV, the new digital broadcast technology powered by ATSC 3.0. Denver is Nexstar’s 12th market to begin broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 this year, and the second top-20 market to do so... Over objections from media advocacy groups about the impact on localism and complaints from the Trump campaign about political bias, the FCC has approved the proposed sale of Univision Communications to Searchlight Capital Partners. The sale of three TV stations in Puerto Rico will be required to comply with cross-ownership limits, but the 58-station radio portfolio will remain intact... Overall video-game spending (in terms of platforms and games) is down sharply in December from a year ago, in national TV marketing dollars. Some $30.9 million was spent, with 5,381 airings and generating 1.5 billion impressions, versus $52.9 million spent with 8,686 airings and 2.7 billion impressions in December 2019, according to iSpot.tv.

NETWORK NEWS The NBC comedy Superstore, which is concluding its six-season run this spring, may live on via a spinoff series, Bo & Cheyenne. The potential new series would feature Johnny Pemberton and Nichole Sakura as they balance their big dreams with the harsh realities of being a blue-collar family in America. Superstore will return for the first of its final 11 episodes on Jan. 14... Despite the lack of audience interest in the recent revival on ABC, CBS is resurrecting this latest version of the comical reality series Kids Say the Darndest Things hosted by Tiffany Haddish. The original version of the series aired on CBS from 1998 to 2000 with Bill Cosby as host. Haddish will return as host and executive producer, with casting under way for the new season in 2021. The revival aired on ABC on Sunday evenings last season... Nine years following the conclusion of daytime drama staple All My Children comes news of a potential continuation courtesy of Pine Valley in primetime on ABC. The title of the proposed drama for 2021, which has been put into development, pays homage to the fictional suburb of Pine Valley, Pa., where the soap was set... The sitcom Carol’s Second Act with Patricia Heaton only lasted one season on CBS in 2019-20. But the network has bought two potential new sitcoms from its creators, Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins. The first is a put pilot commitment for The Smart One, which revolves around two sisters who are reunited when the smart one – who was supposed to be successful – moves in with the screw-up, who actually became a success. The second is Middle Class Murdochs, which focuses on the owner of a successful carpet store in Ohio who is retiring and must decide which of his four grown children will take over the family business.

FURNITURE, BEDDING SALES TO TOP $115B IN ’20 U.S. furniture and bedding sales reached an estimated $115.2 billion this year, according to Furniture Today estimates, which are based on consumption and expenditure data from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. According to Furniture Today’s estimates, furniture and bedding sales increased 0.6% this year, slower than usual growth. The primary brake on this growth is the COVID-19 pandemic. Furniture store sales took a hard hit in March, April and May. And while sales and demand have been strong in recent months, much of these gains are making up lost ground from this spring. Furniture Today, using estimates developed in conjunction with Easy Analytic Software, believes the U.S. furniture and bedding market will top $143 billion by 2025, a 24.4% growth over the next five years. Stationary chairs are slated for the largest growth during that period, with sales anticipated to jump from $2.4 billion this year to $3.1 billion in 2025, a 29.5% increase. As remote work continues to grow in popularity, desks should also have rapid growth over this same period, with sales expected to nearly reach the $7 billion mark by 2025. This 25.5% growth is the second highest, behind stationary chairs, of all furniture and bedding categories.

12/29/2020

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FOX TOPS FALL RATINGS; NBC MOST WATCHED Fall 2020 was unlike any start of a broadcast season. With the coronavirus pandemic grounding production for months, ABC, NBC and CBS’ first 2020-21 scripted originals started rolling out a month into the season, while Fox and the CW opted for fall lineups consisting largely of shows already in the can or acquisitions, except for Fox’s sports programming and a new season of The Masked Singer and the final episodes of the CW’s Supernatural. In a season that already carries an asterisk because of the pandemic, Fox topped the fall ratings in adults 18-49 (1.4

rating) on the strength of Thursday Night Football and The Masked Singer, while NBC, paced by Sunday Night Football and This Is Us, was the most watched network (6.11 million), according to the latest data from Nielsen. Excluding sports and breaking news, ABC, which does not have NFL football on the fall schedule, ranked as the No. 1 network with entertainment programming (1.0 rating) for the first time in five years and as the top entertainment network in

total viewers (5.1 million) for the first time in 20 years. All networks were down from fall 2019; ABC’s declines were single-digit in both 19-49 and total viewers; all other broadcasters were off by double digits.

ADVERTISER NEWS(Continued from Page 1)limits on the amount of inventory sellers can store at fulfillment centers, plus long shipping delays. Yet, Amazon says third-party sales for the season are up 60% versus last year, and some experts say Amazon is handling its supply chain better than UPS, FedEx or the USPS... Save A Lot continues its transformation to a wholesaler. The discount grocery chain announced the sale of its 51 company-operated stores in the Tampa, Fla., market to Ohio-based Fresh Encounter, a current Save A Lot retail partner licensee.

12/29/2020

FunnyTweeter.com

If you get an 8-year-old a drone, you’ll also need

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SKIERS, SNOWBOARDERS WATCH TV SPORTS The COVID-19 pandemic has consumers returning to sports they gave up, and that means more people may take to the slopes this winter. Nearly 52% of skiers and snowboarders plan to exercise more this year. Before they head out to their favorite mountain and the fresh powder, 16% of skiers and snowboarders will be switching gyms. At least 41% will extend their mountain time by staying at a resort this winter. When these consumers drive to their favorite resort, they’ll need ski racks, which explains why they’re 153% more likely on average to buy automotive aftermarket parts. And since their travels to mountainous regions could be treacherous, 28% belong to automobile service clubs. Being cooped up during the past year meant that 58.9% of skiers and snowboarders watched a minimum of three hours of TV every day. They like movies (62.4%), comedies (50.4%) and sports (45.9%). They’re also 91% more likely than other consumers to enjoy watching home-shopping programs. Nearly 46% of skiers and snowboarders believe TV is the medium with the most creative advertising in a time when 25.6% believe that advertising overall isn’t as creative as it used to be. Last year, 64.8% of these consumers were swayed by TV commercials while 56% took action after seeing a streaming TV ad. Source: AudienceSCAN from AdMall at SalesFuel.

NPD: U.S. TV SETS ARE GETTING BIGGER, NEWER Few things can drive television purchases and screen size upgrades more than a pandemic. That trend emerges in new data from The NPD Group that found in the last several years American TV screens have been getting bigger. Among installed TVs, 15% are 60 inches or larger, up from 11% a year ago — and newer — the average unit age is 4.9 years old, down from 5.4 years in 2019. According to NPD’s TV Ownership Trends Report, the average size of a replacement TV jumped to 51 inches from 49 inches in November 2019, and up from 47 inches in November 2018. “This year home entertainment became even more crucial as consumers spent more time at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” analyst John Buffone said in a statement. “TV sales, among other tech items, saw strong interest and as a result we saw notable shifts in the installed base.” Buffone attributed the surge in TV purchases to consumers housebound without the ability to go to the movies or live entertainment, including sports. “Americans shifted spending to technology that offered at-home opportunities to consume content,” he said. In 2020 year to date, TV sales are up 19% compared with the same period in 2019. Through Cyber Monday week, 65-inch TV sales increased 27% versus 2019, while 70-inch and above TVs increased by 82%. In total, 65-inch and above TVs made up 21% of sales, increasing from 18% in 2019 and 13% in 2018. NPD projects that by 2022, 65-inch and above TVs will be 27% of sales.

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