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Wednesday, July 19, 2017

NIELSEN ON TV: NO OTHER MEDIA COMES CLOSESIX HOURS AND 22 MINUTES That’s how long the average viewer spends consuming live and time-shifted television programming each day. Nielsen’s Q1 Total Audience Report shows no other me-dia option even comes close with the average American adult aged 18 and older spending three hours more time watching TV than using apps on their smartphone or ac-cessing the internet on a PC. On a weekly basis Nielsen says the typical adult watches 34 hours and 25 minutes of TV. Americans aged 65+ consume the most TV at 51 hours and 42 minutes with teenagers and twentysomethings watching the least. Yet television isn’t immune from the distrac-tions of all the other media options stacking up in front of consumers. The report shows TV viewing has dropped an average of 15 minutes per day during the past year and by 24 minutes compared to the first quarter of 2015. The declines come as Americans’ time with their smartphone has consistently ticked high-er. The average person spends 3 hours and 21 minutes on the mobile web or with smartphone apps. That’s an 81% increase—or an hour and a half more time with a smartphone—compared to 2015. But when Nielsen looks at the overall media landscape—including factoring in adults who never watch TV—it’s easy to see why television remains the king of all media. The average American spends as much time watching TV (4 hours and 55 minutes) as they spend with all other forms of media combined. TV usage is the most robust among old-er demos with a 95% weekly reach among Baby Boomers compared to 89% for Gen X and 83% among Millennials. Time-shifted viewing is helping television defend itself. But consumption of time-shifted TV programming has re-mained flat at roughly two hours per day for each of the past three years. Nielsen says 50 to 64 year olds time-shift the most programming—five hours a week. Millennials aren’t as prone to time-shift with Nielsen reporting 25 to 34 year olds watch an average of 2 hours and 55 minutes of time-shifted programming a day. Nielsen’s Q1 review also offers sta-tus report on how many households are unplugging from pay TV. It reports the number of broadcast-only homes jumped by nearly two million during the past year to 15.2 million. That rep-resents 13% of U.S. households. It remains an option disproportionately popular among minority groups. While 20% of Hispanics are unplugged just 12% of Whites are with Asian Ameri-cans (17%) and Blacks (16%) some-where in between. (Continued on Page 2)

ADVERTISER NEWS Stockpiles of yet-to-be-sold automotive units continue to grow, likely to bring about higher incentives and promotions and heavier advertising activity from factories and dealer associations. Automotive News reports U.S. inventory stood at 4,197,800 units on July 1, the highest amount at the start of July since 2004, and 9.4% higher than July 1, 2016. General Motors alone has 39% more unsold vehicles than it had at this point last year, with a 105-day

supply of vehicles to be sold and among the steps it’s taking is to extend a shutdown at a Chevrolet Bolt factory in Michigan, despite the fact the Bolt will go to national availability next month for the first time……Kelley Blue Book is launching a national TV campaign telling viewers its Price Advisor capability can value and appraise vehicles taking into account factors such as local demand, vehicle availability, buying trends and recent sales of similar vehicles……The motorcycle business is slowing down along with the car business.

Harley-Davidson said retail motorcycle sales were down 9.3% domestically in the second quarter and it lowered its projection for the rest of the year with worldwide shipments in the current quarter now expected to be down by 10-20%......McDonald’s will roll out a Signature Sriracha sandwich nationally with advertising support for the new offering due to begin at the end of the month. Nation’s Restaurant News says it’s the first extension of Mickey D’s Signature Crafted Recipes line, which was introduced to give consumers some ability to customize the menu with a more premium item……Meanwhile Chick-fil-A is testing meal kits called Family Style Meals in three widely scattered markets (Greensboro, Phoenix and San Antonio). With the test set to run through November, pricing will be about $30 with various sides part of the meal……Restaurants like Chick-fil-A and certainly a provider like Blue Apron will not like this: Marketwatch reports Amazon has filed for a trademark for a meal kit, using the phrase “We do the prep, you be the chef”…… (Continued on Page 2)

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NO OTHER MEDIA COMES CLOSE (Continued from Page 1) Nevertheless the vast majority of households subscribe to a pay service. Nielsen says 97.8 million have cable with another 35.9 million subscribing to satellite TV and 9.9 mil-lion paying for a telco-based service like Verizon Fios. What has many analysts buzzing are the latest num-bers of broadband-only households. They jumped 39% year-to-year with Nielsen reporting 5.4 million households are broadband-only. “The pace of growth of broadband-only homes is accelerating with a proportionate impact on pay TV households,” Barclays media analyst Kannan Ven-

kateshwar told clients in a report. He’s also worried about the trend showing fewer TV sets in U.S. households. The government reports 39% of households have three or more TVs and 58% have one or two sets. But the number of no TV households rose to 2.6% in 2015. That’s twice as many as in 2009. “The number of televisions in the U.S. is starting to fall which is likely to have a material effect on consumption patterns if sustained,” Venkateshwar said.

DISNEY TRYING TO RECOVER ESPN SUB LOSES Worries about the loss of subscriber revenue for ESPN (down 6% to 89% since 2013) have weighed on Walt Disney ’s stock price over the past two years. Soon, Disney will have a chance to do something about it. Disney can’t stop U.S. consumers from dropping pay TV. But it can offset the decline by boosting its annual price increases by using “minimum penetration guarantees”—provisions in its contracts that stipulate which TV packages ESPN must appear on and what portion of pay-TV subscribers must receive it. Disney is set to begin talks over its contract with cable operator Altice USA, which expires this fall. The deal will be the first of a series of new contracts Disney will negotiate with pay-TV providers that will allow it to offset subscriber declines at ESPN. Assuming Disney already increases the prices it charges cable and satellite companies for ESPN by 5% a year, bumping that up to 6% as it signs new deals would boost fee revenue by 4% a year to $12.56 billion from 2016 to 2022, MoffettNathanson estimates. This assumes its subscriber base declines at a compound annual rate of 2%. If Disney can use minimum penetration guarantees to add back 2.5 million of the subscribers it lost to skinny bundles, it could get an additional $400 million in fee revenue over the period, the firm says. Read the full story at wsj.com.

ADVERTISER NEWS (Continued from Page 1) …Same store sales at the Bravo Brio Restaurant Group were down 1% for the quarter that ended on 6/25, but on the bright side that was the company’s best performance since the fourth quarter of 2012. Its CEO said “we are gaining traction with our new menu and service orientation”……SpartanNash is the latest supermarket operator to start a click-and-collect plan with Fast Lane, which should be in about 25 stores before the end of this year, and double that number next year. Pricing for the service is $99 annually, $16.95 monthly, or $9.95 for an individual order. Fees are waived for the first three orders.Wednesday, July 19, 2017

CABLENET CHATTER Variety is confirming that filming for the eighth season of The Walking Dead is resuming following the death of stuntman John Bernecker. The production was shut down last week after Bernecker fell approximately 20 feet off a balcony onto a concrete floor during a stunt. According to the report, he attempted to abort the jump and grabbed onto the balcony with both his hands, but missed landing on a safety cushion by a few inches. He suffered a severe head injury and was transported to an Atlanta hospital. AMC said in a statement last Friday, “John Bernecker’s family had decided that he will be removed from life support following organ donation.” Bernecker was 33 years old……The summer season premiere of Freeform’s The Fosters increased its audience over its spring finale by double digits for a 6-month high in total viewers with 1.4 million. The critically acclaimed series scored big in the demos as well, delivering 444,000 viewers for a 0.6 rating, while the adult 18-49 total viewership was 739,000 and a 0.6 rating in that demo. The show continues to deliver females, with the 18-34 rating coming in at 1.0 and 334,000 demo viewers, and a 1.2 rating in female 12-34 with 535,000 viewers. The Fosters is also celebrating five nominations from the 2017 Teen Choice Awards including the nomination for Choice Summer TV Show. Freefrom’s new series, The Bold Type is also nominated for the same award and delivered solid numbers. It was the number one scripted telecast in its time period for Females 12-34 and Women 18-34……Oscar-nominated film maker Alex Garland (Ex Machina) has signed an exclusive overall deal to develop, write and produce television projects for FX Productions. Garland’s film credits include 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Never Let Me Go, Dredd and the forthcoming Annihilation……WE tv has given a greenlight to a reboot of Bridezillas. Casting is currently underway across the country for a 10-episode season premiering in 2018. The series will put the spotlight on women who have turned in Bridezillas as they prepare for their wedding. Viewers also get a peek into the background and relationship histories of the brides and grooms......A novel by Adam Mansbach, The Rage is Back, is being developed as an hour-long supernatural drama series by the Syfy channel. The series is set in 1987 during New York’s War on Graffiti where a young member of a graffiti crew is murdered. Actor Danny Hoch (White Boyz, Blackhawk Down, We Own the Night) is executive producing along with Mansbach……Rappers Tyga and C.J. Wallace have signed on as series regulars for the upcoming third season of Scream on MTV. The series will premiere with a three-night event on the network. The new season will be moving production from New Orleans to Atlanta and will feature an entirely new cast. The story will revolve around a local star running back whose tragic past comes back to haunt him at the worst time, creating threats to his hard-earned plans for his future and the lives of his friends. Queen Latifah is an executive producer of Scream along with Shakim Compere and Yaneley Arty of Flava Unit Entertainment.

Jimmy Fallon

More trouble for United Airlines. Rapper Schoolboy

Q says that they flew his dog to the wrong city. Then on the

flight back, the dog had a fight over a seat with

Ann Coulter.