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sales@spotsndots.com Copyright 2017.The Daily News of TV Sales Friday, June 30, 2017

FAST GROWING ATTORNEY ADS UNDER SCRUTINY IN D.C.MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ARE AT STAKE Legal advertising is growing at a solid pace for many local TV stations, but now comes some rumblings in Washington that could make attorneys think twice about how they market themselves. That’s because some members of Congress say the legal spots that discuss specific medical ailments and prescription drugs are causing headaches for doctors. The concern raised by the House Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice is that legal ads are frightening people to the point where they stop taking lifesaving drugs prescribed to them. “They include a toll-free number like 1-800-Bad-Drug, visuals of an injury and a list of a drug’s side effects,” Subcommittee chair Steve King (R-IA) said. “The one bit of information that is not always included is a warning to patients about talking to their doctor before discontinuing use of a medication.” King pointed to a Public Opinion Strategies survey that found three-quarters of Americans have seen ads by a law firms about pharmaceutical lawsuits in the last year. And one-in-four people who see a trial lawyer ad about a medicine they currently take say they would immediately stop taking the medicine without consulting their doctor. The American Medical Association has reported similar survey results. Potentially millions of dollars of ad sales are at stake. “Lawyers are spending a lot of money. They have become a big category in local broadcasting,” TVB president Steve Lanzano said at the recent S&P Global TV & Radio Summit. The data backs that up. Kantar Media reports legal services companies spent $657.2 million on television commercials in 2016, a 4.2 % increase from a year earlier. But Kantar says lawyers spent $177.4 million during just the first quarter of this year. If that trend line holds it would deliver twice as fast a growth rate in 2017. Critics of reining in attorney advertising say lawyers overall spent just a drop in the bucket compared to $6.4 billion spent by pharmaceutical companies. “The real threat to consumers is drug advertising,” Rep. Steven Cohen (D-TN) said. “Our broadcast, print and online media are full of pharmaceutical ads and it’s impossible to escape the ads for everything from erectile dysfunction and a four-hour problem to constipation at any hour of the day—even when children may be watching. Those are areas that are more important to be looked at and screened.” Democrats have repeatedly introduced legislation to put limits on pharmaceutical advertising saying it’s running up the cost of health care, but those bills have failed to gain traction in a Republican-controlled Congress. For now no legislation targeting legal advertising has been introduced and a recent hearing may amount to a warning shot across the bow of attorneys looking to buy TV ads. Even if Congress does adopt any new restrictions experts say they’re likely to face legal challenges on First Amendment free speech grounds.

ADVERTISER NEWS After waiting since October, 2015 to get government approval for a merger with Rite Aid, Walgreens announced that deal (and a selloff of 865 stores to Fred’s) is now terminated in favor of a brand new deal in which it will just buy 2,186 Rite Aid stores (about half of Rite Aid’s store roster) and related inventory for $5.175 billion. The initial closing of the new deal is expected to occur within six months from now and if this one gets a green light, stores will convert to the Walgreens brand over time. Fred’s will receive a $25 million termination fee after it was cut out of the deal……At its retail stores, Walgreens

comp pharmacy sales were up 5.8% in its latest fiscal quarter, coming from an 8.3% increase in comp prescriptions filled, while comparable store front-end sales dropped by 0.4%......We reported yesterday of sales declines at General

Mills, and now Advertising Age is reporting the company plans to revive sales by increasing advertising budgets, particularly for the Nature Valley snack line, Old El Paso, and its yogurt and cereal products. That’s a complete reversal of last fiscal year’s strategy when the company spent about $130 million less than it had invested in the previous year……Four chicken-oriented formats are among the top ten fastest-growing restaurants chains based on total sales, according to Nation’s Restaurant News’ annual analysis of the top 100. Raising Cane’s, Wingstop, Chick-fil-A and Zaxby’s all made the list of top-growers along with two pizza formats (Marco’s and Domino’s), Dave & Buster’s, Jersey Mike’s, Starbucks and Panda Express. NRN remarks that it’s usually just smaller chains with few units that can produce high gains in percentage growth year-to-year making the increases by Starbucks (already over 13,000 units) and Domino’s (over 5,000 locations) noteworthy……Just yesterday we reported on Amazon’s growth to the number seven retailer, and one of its weapons for growth is Prime Day. The third annual special event will be held on July 11 this year with new deals being posted as often as every five minutes. Last year, Prime Day sales were up more than 60% over the initial event in 2015……Advertising Age’s 2017 Leading National Advertisers report says there were just two brands with U.S. measured media spending above $1 billion last year, Verizon and GEICO. While the latter often has more than one creative application on air concurrently, the Gecko first appeared in the 1999-2000 television season to become an advertising icon. The LNA report also notes all major categories increased spending last year except for telecom where AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint all cut back on their investments.

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

NETWORK NEWS Actor Paulo Costanzo (Royal Pains, The Night Of) will be joining the cast of ABC’s Designated Survivor in the second season. Costanzo will play the new White House Political Director, a next generation political operative, brought in to help the struggling presidency with its messaging and political strategy. Designated Survivor stars Kiefer Sutherland and Italia Ricci and is from the Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios……NBC’s breakout drama hit This Is Us has handed out its first major cast promotions to Alexandra Breckenridge (Sophie) and Jon Huertas (Miguel). The pair will be series regulars in the second season. Breckenridge, who appeared in five episodes of This Is Us last season, and Huertas, who was in eleven, will join the cast of eight series regulars who started in the pilot – Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Sullivan and Ron Cephas Jones. This Is Us returns to NBC’s primetime schedule on Tuesday, September 26th……Timeless, the NBC freshman drama will be moving production from Vancouver to California for the second season to receive a production tax credit from the state. Timeless has been conditionally approved to get a $9.9 million tax credit. The California Film Commission announced the move on Thursday and said the series would employ approximately 250 cast members, 220 crew, and 3000 extras and spend nearly $40 million in wages to below-the-line workers and payments to in-state vendors. Timeless joins Lucifer, Legion, and Mistresses in relocating from Canada to California under the commission’s Program 2.0……The Big Four networks have partnered with The Entertainment Industry Foundation to present an hour-long live roadblock special examining the future of high school education. EIF Presents: XQ Super School Live is billed as a look at “the past, present, and future of the American High School System.” The foundation said the special will include musical performances, comedy, and documentary segments with a goal to engage viewers to back reforms pushed by the XQ Super School project. The announcement from EIF said, “High Schools must be rethought and reshaped so every student can succeed in college, career, and life.” EIF Presents: XQ Super School Live will air on September 8th at 8 PM (ET) on the Big Four networks……Variety is reporting that FremantleMedia, the producer of the upcoming 16th revival season of American Idol on ABC has quietly brought several Idol veterans into the show’s orbit. Behind-the-scenes professionals returning for the ABC reboot include senior supervising producer Patrick Lynn, production executive Wylleen May, music supervisor Robin Kaye and co-executive producer Megan Michaels Wolflick.

AVAILS If you’ve ever wanted to work in one of America’s best places to live, here is your opportunity! WKOW, the ABC affiliate in Madison, WI has an immediate opening for an account executive. The successful candidate will help an established client list grow its bottom line with Green Bay Packers Football, Big 10 Football, local sports and news from the 2016 Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Station of the Year. This is your chance to live and work in the home of the Wisconsin Badgers! Resume to bbeer@wkow.com. No phone calls please. EOE.

Place a job in Spots n Dots! Do it ONLINE HERE, or send your listing to ads@spotsndots.com

SUV DEMAND MAY BE SLOWING After five straight years of market share gains, the SUV segment may be poised for a slowdown, according to a new analysis from Edmunds. While incentive spending overall is up 23% so far in 2017 compared to 2016,

incentives on SUVs are up as much as 47%. Despite the incentives, Edmunds reports that SUVs are now starting to linger longer in the showroom. Between January and May of 2017, an SUV sat for an average of 61 days on the dealer lot before it was sold, compared to 56 days for the same time period in 2016. “For the last few years, SUVs almost seemed to sell themselves. But as the market starts to level off, automakers are having to work a little harder and make the deals a little bit sweeter to hit their sales targets,” said Edmunds analyst Jessica Caldwell. SUV demand isn’t hitting the wall—it’s still a strong segment—but even SUVs aren’t immune to the dip the entire market is experiencing this year. Even though the auto market is softening, Edmunds expects that strong economic conditions and enticing deals will be enough to rally sales in the back half of the year. Edmunds analysts maintain their forecast that 17.2 million vehicles will be sold in 2017—a 2% decline from 2016’s record high, and the fourth best auto sales year in U.S. history.

DONE DEALS Wendy Bello (pictured) has been promoted to Vice President and General Manager of Nextstar Media Group’s WROC-TV (CBS) and associated digital services in Rochester, NY. Since 2011, she’s served as the station’s DOS. Bello replaces Louis Gattozzi who announced his retirement after 19 years with Nexstar.....Stefan Hadl, director of engineering and operations of Hearst Television’s WCVB-TV in Boston, has been promoted to director of engineering, eastern region, for Hearst Television. He succeeds Mike Keller, who will retire at the end of the year after a 25-year career with Hearst Television. Send your promotions/job announcements to editor@spotsndots.com

6/30/2017

Seth Meyers

According to new research, a press-on patch for the flu

vaccine works just as well as the flu shot. You just remove

the adhesive backing and place it firmly over your

co-worker’s mouth.

SPOTS N DOTS returns July 5th

Our staff works hard each day to find the most important stories for the TV industry. We’re rewarding them with an extra day off and a pack of sparklers! Enjoy the 3rd & 4th!

The Daily News of TV Sales @ www.spotsndots.com PAGE 3

ECONOMIC NEWS Here’s some good news to think about as we start a long holiday weekend: Consumers’ assessments of current conditions is now the highest it’s been since July, 2001, according to The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index. The Present Situation aspect of the index rose from an already-strong 140.6 in May to 146.3 for June. The Expectations Index, asking for consumers’ thoughts about their situation six months ahead, declined by a small amount, although the percentage of people expecting to make more money in the months ahead rose from 19.1% to 22.2%.

BUSINESS BYTES A new report from software provider Temando finds there’s a major disconnect between consumers and e-tailers on the shipping expenses for online orders. “The State of Shipping in Commerce” says shipping costs often cause shopping cart abandonment, with 54% of respondents saying they ended shopping due to expensive shipping, 39% abandoning carts when learning there was no free shipping, and 26% stopping due to slow shipping. The study also found 59% of shoppers said they would end up buying from a bricks-and-mortar store if shipping costs for buying the same item is too high, but when asked how much they would pay for same-day delivery, respondents indicated that charges as high as $18 could be acceptable to them. Returns also influence conversion rates for sellers—43% of respondents said they would do more online shopping if free and easy returns are offered. A survey done by American Express finds that restaurant delivery is a big deal to millennials, with 68% of survey respondents saying they have ordered delivery over just the past month (in comparison, only 36% of the Baby Boomer generation had used delivery in the same time frame). Takeout is also still a growing business for restaurants with 29% of respondents saying they prefer that method of getting their food, with millennials showing a preference to utilize a mobile app or website for ordering. 62% of that young adult generation says they have used an app or website over the past month, compared to just 28% for Boomers. DOES AT&T WANT CNN…AND ZUCKER? NewsCorp’s New York Post is reporting that CNN President (and the former head of NBC) Jeff Zucker might be “neutralized” by AT&T if the company gets approval for its proposed takeover of Time Warner. Sources told the paper the deal could get approval from the Justice Department within the next two months and one source added, “There was early talk about the way Zucker managed that wasn’t a good fit for the new organization.” One other scenario sees AT&T simply selling off CNN, with media analyst Craig Moffett commenting, “The news business doesn’t seem to be central to AT&T’s content strategy. They seem much more interested in the entertainment brands. If selling CNN would make regulators happy, they’ll sell it. I can’t imagine AT&T would let CNN stand in the way of securing approval for the merger.”

CONTINUED DROP FORECAST FOR MVPDs Traditional cable/satellite/telco pay-TV providers will continue to see subscriber losses, according to the latest findings from Kagan, a group within S&P Global Market Intelligence. The report says the traditional MVPDs are facing a video landscape in which streamed bundles, on-line subscription services, self-aggregation and over-the-air delivery are playing more prominent roles. “Changing viewing habits point to mounting losses for traditional video services, and challengers are lining up to capitalize,” said Ian Olgeirson, Research Director, S&P

Global Market Intelligence. “However, the operators are not without significant fortifications enabling expectations for preserving a majority share in the five-year outlook.” Looking ahead through 2021, the Ka-gan analysis sees accelerated declines of traditional multichannel subscriptions to 82.3 million, down 10.8 million house-holds over five years. Meanwhile, virtual MVPDs, a niche pioneered by SlingTV and Playstation Vue, is seen growing

to a mainstream option accounting for nearly 11 million households. And households relying solely on over-the-top delivery of self-aggregated online content are expected to reach nearly 18 million, or 14% of occupied households.

HBO MAY BE COMING TO HULU HBO is in late stage talks to provide content for Hulu, according to the NY Post. Hulu, which offers orignal programming and movies alongside a live TV service, is owned by Twenty-First Century Fox, Disney and Comcast. The proposed deal, if finalized, would be one of many HBO has sealed to up its online distribution on top of its traditional subscriber distribution via cable, telecom and satellite operators. HBO has 49 million domestic subscribers, and HBO Now passed 2 million subscribers in the fourth-quarter of 2016.

6/30/2017

Conan O’Brien

I’m trying to convince my Seattle in-laws the new travel

ban means we can’t visit them this summer.

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