www.cablespots.netPublished Daily

For Subscriptions,call 1-888-884-2630

subscribe@cablespots.net$300 Per Year

Copyright 2017

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

ADVANCED TV PLATFORM SELLING COMING TO LOCAL AD SALESWANTED: PREMIERE LOCAL VIDEO The number of advanced TV sales platforms has exploded in recent years and executives say it’s only a matter of time before it impacts what how local spots are bought and sold. A count by BIA/Kelsey shows there are now seven addressable TV platforms using 28 different data sources. It’s even more crowded in the programmatic TV space where there are 15 different platforms presenting ad buyers a smorgasbord of 24 different data sources. “Right now national is really taking off—and local is mak-ing inroads,” BIA/Kelsey EVP Mitch Oscar said on a webinar last week. He thinks video content companies including local TV stations can offer a compelling message since they can now ef-fectively tell advertisers that they reach the audi-ence they need and the data they require. “I see a number of things heating up in the next 12 months,” Nexstar Media Group EVP/chief revenue officer Tom O’Brien predicted. While vendors are focused on the technology, he said broadcasters’ focus is on ensuring operational rules are in place. “The next six to 12 months will be very formative for the initial launch of this and I think it will be scaling up very quickly after that,” O’Brien predicted. Tremor Video VP of advanced TV advertising Tim Ware said there’s already a “big appetite” for premium local video such as what local TV stations offer—especially tied to lo-cal news. “It all comes back to local targeting.” Ware said. How big the opportunity grows, he said, will depend on how much of an uptake there is from stations in local markets. For O’Brien, it’s a no-brainer. “A lot of this is about reducing friction in the sales process,” he said. “We have 100 markets and 170 stations and coming up with the infrastructure that allows people to do business with us is critically important.” O’Brien said the ability to marry data with inventory only makes the sales pitch easier. He also predicts it will also have an impact on spot TV’s revenue. “This positions us, along with some other like-minded broadcasters, to see more money move into the local space because that’s where the transactions are happening,” he said. How granular the data driving buy-sell decisions will become remains a work in progress. But TiVo SVP/GM of analytics and advertising Walt Horstman said the one thing is clear is that Nielsen numbers will only be part of the equation. “Now that we are moving beyond Nielsen we don’t have the challenges where there are three of four households that are representing viewership in a DMA,” he said. Horstman said Tivo and other companies can tap into a wealth of set-top box data that offer “robust insights” into viewership across each of the DMAs. (Continued on Page 2)

ADVERTISER NEWS Hibbett Sports issued a preliminary sales and profit warning for its upcoming second quarter results, now expecting quarterly comp store sales to be down about 10% due to “very challenging sales trends.” With poor sales and the expenses involved in a website launch, the company now expects to lose money for the quarter instead of a profit that had been anticipated by analysts……WebMD is being acquired by private equity firm KKR for $2.8 billion and will become part of KKR’s Internet Brands Inc. KKR

has a wide variety of investments including stakes in FanDuel and Go Daddy, plus brands such as Academy Sports, Lyft, and Toys R Us…… Research from The NPD Group confirms restaurant traffic was negative in the latest quarter, the fourth consecutive quarter of weak headcounts. The problem: “It’s too much price, not enough value,” NPD analyst Bonnie Riggs said. “Not enough incentive to appeal to lower income groups, people who are still very cautious.” Riggs added the average quick-

service restaurant “deal check” came in at $5.84, just 16 cents less than the average non-deal check, and that’s not enough to be a huge incentive to increase customer visits. NPD did see some growth however in the Coffee/Donut/Bagel, Asian, and Mexican categories……Del Frisco Restaurant Group reported a blended 2.2% same-store decline in the second quarter and admitted a decline in the average check was “self-inflicted by some programs we rolled out over the past 12 to 14 months that we’re correcting.” The company plans to use its Double Eagle Steakhouse brand as its primary growth vehicle, utilizing a new smaller prototype……The Wall Street Journal reports plaintiffs’ lawyers are demanding Fiat Chrysler buys back more than 100,000 diesel-powered pickup trucks and SUVs that allegedly used illegal software to cheat on emissions tests, an action that could cost the company billions of dollars if it were to happen. FCA continues to deny it used illegal software and has proposed a fix for affected vehicles it claims will satisfy government regulators.... (Continued on Page 2)

www.CableSpots.net

PAGE 2

PLATFORM SELLING (Continued from Page 1) ....Brian Wallach, an SVP at Comcast-owned Audienc-eXpress, calls it “an exciting time” for programmatic TV’s future. “The marketplace is receptive to thinking about le-veraging access to inventory differently,” he said. Wallach believes automation will be “anchor” to how the business evolves. “There’s a lot of potential with advanced TV from a performance and measurement aspect with lots of dif-ferent data providers to help the marketers achieve what-ever KPIs (key performance indicators) they’re looking to achieve to get their message in front of existing or poten-tial customers.”

ADVERTISER NEWS (Continued from Page 1) ...Restaurants aren’t the only businesses hurting from lack of traffic. Convenience Store News says its segment is also seeing problems. “Gas volume is up, but there are fewer visits inside the store” and that creates “reduction of in-store traffic without understanding why” according to Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog…Casey’s General Store has missed its target of adding 4-6% more stores yearly, but it’s reiterating its desire

to do so. Management is focused on more stores in smaller communities, mostly in the Upper Midwest. AUTO LOAN DEFAULTS AT NEW LOW There has been some talk of warning flags from longer loan terms and easing credit restrictions for car loans, but there’s so far no evidence of any bubble bursting. In fact, the auto loan component of the S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices has dropped again—hitting a new 10-year low for June a month after tying the previous record in May.For June, auto loan defaults decreased three basis points from the previous month to settle at 0.82%. May had been at 0.85%—tying the previous post-recession low point in June 2015. Along with establishing a new low point, the June auto default rate made it three consecutive months where it landed below 1%.Looking beyond just auto loans, analysts for S&P/Experian noted that the composite rate—which represents a comprehensive measure of changes in consumer credit defaults—dropped four basis points from May to settle at 0.82% in June. That also set a new 10-year low. The composite rate of consumer credit defaults has been below the 1% threshold since March 2015. How bad had it been back in the Great Recession? The composite rate’s high point arrived in May 2009 at 5.51%.

ECONOMIC NEWS Supply and demand continues to shape the housing market. Existing-home sales fell to an annualized 5.52 million pace in June according to National Association of Realtors data as demand was strong but supply was very limited. That was still 0.7% ahead of the rate from June, 2016, but 1.8% lower than in May. Of course when demand is strong and supply is limited, prices go up and the median sales price nationally rose to $263,800, the highest ever, 6.5% higher than a year ago. It was the 64th straight months of increases, and those increases are making it tougher on first-time home buyers who were just 32% of buyers during the month, compared to a long-term average of 40%.

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

CABLENET CHATTER Syfy’s Wynonna Earp has been renewed for the third season by the network. The announcement was made during the show’s panel at the San Diego Comic-Con. The show, which debuted in 2016, follows the title character as she attempts to put down demonic types in the small town of Purgatory. Wynonna Earp stars Melanie Scrofano in the title role along with Shamier Anderson, Tim Rozon, Dominique Provost-Chalkley, Katherine Barrell, Varun Saranga and Tamara Duarte. Season three of the series will return in 2018……When TNT canceled Cold Justice in the fall of 2015, series host Kelly Siegler noted that a lot of victim’s families were left hanging. “A lot of hopes were up that we were going to be able to do something to help local law enforcement move forward, but then it went away. We were surprised and disappointed”, said Siegler when commenting on the show’s end. But then she got good news, Oxygen Media picked up Cold Justice for a new season to help them re-brand as a 24-hour crime channel. Kelly said, “It’s wonderful that we’ve been able to call (those victim’s families) back now and say ‘Can we still come?’ and move forward to try to solve some cases.” Cold Justice premieres on Oxygen Saturday, July 22 at 8 PM……TBS is rolling out three new animated series. Never-before-seen clips of Close Enough, Final Space and Tarantula were shown at the San Diego Comic Con. In addition, Matt Weitzman, the co-creator of American Dad showcased scenes from the upcoming season. New episodes of American Dad will premiere on Monday, July 24th at 10 PM (ET). The slate of the new animated comedies on TBS is expected to debut in the 2017-2018 season……Nickelodeon gave the audience during its panel at San Diego Comic Con a first look at the reboot of its beloved cartoon Rocko’s Modern Life. The TV movie of the cartoon is entitled Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling and will pick up with Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt returning to Earth after being blasted into outer space in 1996. The TV movie is set to air on Nickelodeon in 2018. The network also shared a first look at its new TV movie Hey Arnold: From Hillwood to the Jungle! The movie will pick up where the original series left off in 2004, following Arnold and his friends on a quest to achieve his ultimate dream of finding his missing parents......MTV has begun the official countdown to the 2017 Video Music Awards with the release of the first teaser video, which harks back to some of the most iconic moments of the Video Music Awards. In the video, viewers are instructed to “brace for impact” as a voice initiates a countdown sequence. The 2017 Video Music Awards will air on MTV Sunday, August 27th at 8 PM (ET) from the Forum in Inglewood, California. The host for this year’s awards show has not been announced……Enrique Murciano (Bloodline) and Lily Rabe (American Horror Story) have been cast in lead roles in the new TNT drama pilot Deadlier Than the Male (working title). The pilot follows a trio of characters, each with a mysterious and troubling past.

FunnyTweeter.com

It’s Sunday morning. My 80-year-old neighbor has

hiked and weeded her garden. I spent ten minutes trying to reach the remote

with my foot.