www.spotsndots.comSubscriptions: $350 per year.

This publication cannot bedistributed beyond the office

of the actual subscriber. Need us? 888-884-2630 or

sales@spotsndots.com Copyright 2020.The Daily News of TV Sales Friday, May 1, 2020

STUDY: NEWS CONSUMPTION, INCOME LINKED The reach and trust among adults toward local TV news as a source for COVID-19 information will continue once the pandemic is over. That’s according to a survey by Pittsburgh-based Marshall Marketing, which finds 45% of adults nationally say their increase in local news viewing will continue even after the coronavirus situation lessens. Just over a third (35%) will go back to viewing levels similar to those prior to the pandemic. “Local TV news effectiveness in delivering information is laying the groundwork for adults to be more engaged news viewers in the future,” says Marshall Marketing Vice President Bruce Hahn. “The increases in future local TV news viewing can be found in many consumer segments.” Among Millennials, 46% will watch more local TV News, along with 49% of Gen X and 46% of Baby Boomers. “Millennials mirror the overall adult response for watching more local news in the future,” Hahn tells Spots n Dots. “In our local market research, we find that older Millennials (28-38) watch more news than younger Millennials. If that holds nationally, the 28- to 38-year-old segment will be the Millennials that consume more local TV news in the future.” The higher the income, the more often local TV news will continue to be viewed. In households earning $75,000 to $100,000, 46% will watch more and 49% of $100,000+ households say they will tune into local TV news more after COVID-19 lockdowns are lightened. “The adults that will be watching more news are also active consumers,” Hahn says. “Plus, they will be donating to help their community. These folks will be charitable, while also making purchases for their homes.” The data shows the segment that will watch more news indexes high for using stimulus money for donations to help relief efforts for COVID-19 and also for home improvement items. Other items the more engaged news viewers index high are for those that are planning to purchase a mobile device, new vehicle, used vehicle, an elective cosmetic procedure, furniture, mattress and appliances. “As companies allow employees to work from home, daytime television and streaming are likely to increase as well compared to before COVID-19,” Hahn says. “There are numerous sources that are capturing those increases now. We expect that to drop off from April/May 2020 levels as more people leave the house to go to work, but those still working from home will increase daytime viewing to levels higher than before COVID-19. This should be great news for TV stations. It will increase demand on that programming and increase rates. The typical 6 PM news viewer will be available between 9-5 PM.”

LOCAL TV NEWS VIEWING POST-VIRUS WILL BE STRONGADVERTISER NEWS Macy’s will reopen 68 of its more than 700 stores on Monday, with partial staffing and restrictions against becoming too crowded with customers at one time. CEO Jeff Gennett said he hopes to have all stores open within six weeks if the COVID-19 problems are stabilizing and local authorities permit… McDonald’s quarterly same-store sales in the U.S.

were essentially flat after a March decline of 13.4% pulled down the quarterly number. Almost all units in the country are open for drive-thru, delivery and takeout, although as we have previously reported, all-day breakfast has been cut back to simplify operations for franchisees… Boston Market has had an up-and-down history with several ownership changes (McDonald’s owned

it from 2000 to 2007). It’s now getting new ownership again in Engage Brands, part of a real estate firm that also owns more than 100 restaurants. The chain consisted of more than 1,000 locations during the 1990s but is now below 400 units… Brinker International’s last day of positive sales for its Chili’s and Maggiano’s chains was March 8, but from a start where comps were down about 65% initially, off-premise sales have improved to getting back 57% of comp sales last week. For the quarter, company-owned comparisons were down 5.3% at Chili’s and 9.9% at Maggiano’s. Dining rooms are reopening as states allow… Dunkin Brands’ two U.S. chains fell into a familiar pattern, where a weak March wrecked what had looked like a positive quarter. Dunkin’ (Donuts) comps finished down 2% when a negative 19.4% in March pulled down positive 3.5% for the first 10 weeks of the quarter. Baskin-Robbins was +11% for 10 weeks, but down 23.3% for the last three weeks of the quarter…Blue Apron’s first quarter showed net revenue up 8% and the number of customers up 7%. The COVID-19 problems likely helped, but the CEO also noted a reacceleration of marketing efforts as a reason for the gains… Kellogg got a big boost across varied product lines as people stocked up. Organic (same brand excluding acquisitions) cereal sales

(Continued on Page 3)

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

RETAILERS TAKE LEAD ON COVID-19 TESTING America’s largest food retailers are tackling the COVID-19 pandemic head-on by taking the lead on expanded testing, Progressive Grocer reports. Kroger, one of the country’s first retailers to launch testing for the virus in March, is expanding its testing services to more than 12 states. This expansion will allow Kroger Health to conduct as many as 100,000 tests by the end of next month, the company said. So far, Kroger says, the unit has conducted almost 8,000 tests at 30 locations in six states — Colorado, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan,

Tennessee and Ohio. Walmart is now supporting 20 testing sites in 12 states — opening more every day. By the end of May, the retailer anticipates operating more than 100 sites, assuming there is adequate lab capacity. CVS Health says that starting in May it “will offer self-swab tests to individuals meeting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria.” The move comes in addition to large-scale testing

the company has been offering at some locations in five states since March. The new free self-swab testing will take place at up to 1,000 CVS locations by the end of May, which equals more than 1 in 10 of the company’s stores. Patients will schedule tests online and will get tested in CVS parking lots or drive-thru windows. The company won’t conduct testing inside its stores. The company said its goal is to process up to 1.5 million tests monthly. Walgreens says it’s opening free drive-thru nasal-swab testing sites in 49 states and Puerto Rico. It was not immediately clear how many stores would offer tests, but the company said it expects to test more than 50,000 people weekly once it’s fully operational. Walgreens already has 18 drive-thru testing sites open in 11 states. Patients must make an appointment online and meet CDC criteria.

NIELSEN REPORTS SPIKE IN KIDS’ TV VIEWING With kids remote learning and parents trying to work from home, TV viewing among the youngest demos has skyrocketed, especially during daytime, according to a new report from Nielsen. Adult viewing had risen, but those gains are drafted by the increases among kids 6 to 11 and teens 12 to 17. In the top 25 markets, Nielsen found a 300% jump in TV usage among 6- to 11-year-olds during the quarantine, compared to a year ago, Broadcasting & Cable reports. “While the magnitude of the percent increases differs by age, the data shows that kids 6-11 are outpacing all other demos for streaming gains, while teens 12-17 give the biggest boost to broadcast TV,” Nielsen said. The increases in kids viewing also varies by market. Cities in the Northeast jumped the most, with notable gains in Washington, D.C. — viewing by kids 6-11 up 550% — Boston and Baltimore. Outside the East there were substantial increases in kid viewing in Dallas and Houston, but the rises were more modest in West Coast markets.

AMID PANDEMIC, STREAMING VIDEO IS SHINING Streaming video is surging during the coronavirus crisis: Nearly half (49%) of the 2,200 adults in an April 16-18 survey say they are now streaming more. Clear differences in the frequency of streaming appear across generations, education levels and income lines, as well as across the communities in which subscribers reside, Morning Consult reports. Much of the increased usage is likely to be short-lived: Prior research shows that most adults (66%) say they’re streaming more now because this is something they always do during more normal times, and 51% of those streaming more now, for whatever reason, expect to revert to pre-pandemic streaming levels once the crisis is over. But at a time when much of America is stuck at home and as such embracing streaming as a new pastime, it’s also important to consider adults who’ve newly subscribed to streaming services and the nature of their post-pandemic streaming activity. Twenty-one percent of adults report subscribing to a new streaming service since the COVID-19 outbreak, but again, clear demographic differences exist: Younger generations are much more likely than older ones to have subscribed to a new service; those with higher levels of education and higher incomes have subscribed to new services more than their less-educated and lower-income peers; and more urban dwellers and those in the West have subscribed to new services more than other regions. New subscribers have predominantly flocked to a few streaming providers in particular: About a quarter or more of new subscriptions were with Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video lead in paid subscriptions. But new subscribers to smaller streaming services are more likely to access those services via a free trial.

THIS AND THAT A bipartisan group of Nebraska lawmakers wants AT&T to carry local stations for some areas that currently only receive distant networks through DIRECTV. The group notes that the current pandemic has highlighted the importance of local news coverage, while AT&T has said it is negotiating with networks for the rights to offer their content... ViacomCBS laid off at least 100 members of its staff this week as part of the continued streamlining in the wake of its merger. Bob Bakish, the company’s chief executive officer, told employees that cuts were necessary to manage costs and keep ViacomCBS competitive, especially as it faces the impacts of the pandemic... Sales of DVD and Blu-Ray players were both up 27% in unit sales for the week ended April 18 compared with the same week last year, according to data from the NPD Group. Meanwhile, streaming player sales jumped 42%... Jobless claims continue to rise. New claims reached 3.84 million last week, the Labor Department said, bringing the total to 30.3 million for the last six weeks. The number of total claims makes this the worst unemployment crisis in U.S. history. Claims hit a record 6.87 million for the week of March 28 and have declined each week since then.

5/1/2020

Larry The Cable Guy

I remember my first broken heart. I dated a girl who was

in a street gang. I thought she really loved me until I found out that dating me was just

part of her initiation.

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

ADVERTISER NEWS(Continued from Page 1)(a category that had been weak for several years) were up 2.9%. Its snacks business was up 10.8%, with frozen foods up 8.6%. Snacks (including Pringles) now account for 49% of the company’s business while the cereal division that started the company is down to 37%... Kraft-Heinz got a similar boost from consumers stocking up early in March, with a 6.4% increase in U.S. quarterly sales. Along with Kraft’s cheeses and Heinz’ legacy products, the company also saw gains from brands like Oscar Mayer and

Planters... Costco will return to regular operating hours at all locations starting Monday with customers required to wear a mask when entering the store… Five Below has reopened more than 100 of its stores this week and expects to have most of its stores open by the end of the month. It still expects to open 100-120 new stores this year, although that’s down from the original plan of 180 new units… Convenience Store News says spending at c-stores was

down 5% for the week that ended April 19, a significant improvement compared to a 12.1% decline in the previous week. It attributes the improvement to the beginning of customers receiving stimulus checks… It’s no surprise that Reckitt-Benckiser would have a record first quarter in sales (it makes Lysol) but some of its other brands like Mucinex, Vanish and Finish are also showing gains. Its CEO poses a question that other manufacturers also have to consider, saying “the split between defensive buying and higher levels of underlying consumption is unclear”… Mattel is developing a new line of Fisher Price hero toys of nurses, doctors, delivery drivers and EMTs. The action figures will be priced at $20 each... Following a month-long shutdown, BMW next week plans to crank up the lines at its largest assembly plant in the world, the automaker says. BMW’s plant in Spartanburg, S.C., which employs 11,000 people, joins Hyundai and Kia in hoping to restart after efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus shuttered auto manufacturing across the nation. Toyota and Volkswagen were expected to restart their factories on Monday, but they have since pushed back that start date.

5/1/2020

FunnyTweeter.com

I’ve never seen anyone go through drug withdrawal, but I once hid my son’s

iPad for 10 minutes.

WEDNESDAY NIELSEN RATINGS - LIVE + SAME DAY

OUTLOOK: BRUTAL NEW-VEHICLE SALES IN APRIL April will be a record down month for the auto industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with 633,260 new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. for an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7.7 million. That’s according to Edmunds, which says its forecast reflects a 52.5% decrease in sales from April 2019, and a 36.6% decrease from March 2020. Edmunds analysts say this is the lowest-volume sales month dating back to at least 1990; the second worst month for sales in the past 30 years was January of 2009, when 655,000 vehicles were sold. “April auto sales took the biggest hit we’ve seen in decades,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ executive director of insights. “These bleak figures aren’t just because consumers are holding back on their purchases — fleet sales are seeing an even more dramatic drop as daily rental business has dried up. Like many other industries, the entire automotive sector is struggling as the coronavirus crisis continues to cripple the economy.” Edmunds says plans for easing shelter-in-place orders across the U.S. in May could open up opportunities, but there is still economic uncertainty ahead. “April is likely the bottom for auto sales, so hopefully there’s only room for improvement from here,” said Caldwell. “But with employment and consumer confidence at new lows, the question remains: Will people be in the position to purchase new cars? Although automakers are doing their part by offering landmark incentives, those might not be enough if consumers cannot recover financially from this crisis.”

STREAMING ON CTVs INCREASES DURING COVID-19 When looking at the average number of daily streaming households and hours each week, it is clear that there was a sharp increase in both since schools closed and social distancing practices were implemented, Comscore says. By the week of April 13, the average number of daily households streaming entertainment over OTT devices had grown 11% since the week of March 9, from 45 million to 50 million. Even more telling was the 24% spike in average daily streaming hours seen over the same timeframe – 297 million hours per day during the week of April 13 vs. 240 million hours per day during the week of March 9. Additionally, growth in daily streaming hours exceeded growth in daily streaming households, meaning the average household is spending more hours on OTT devices each day, up to nearly 6 hours per day per household for the week of Apr 13, vs. 5.3 hours per day per household for the week of March 9. Another trend is a gradual shift in favor of streaming through connected TVs (vs. other platforms like streaming boxes/sticks or gaming consoles). While household reach for streaming boxes/sticks grew 4% the week of March 9 vs. the week of March 2, it has declined each of the subsequent five weeks. Streaming boxes/sticks still dominate the OTT landscape overall, but connected TVs have closed the gap considerably since the week of March 9, largely due to share growth in four of the past five weeks.