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AMAZON SECURES ‘THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL’ The National Football League, television’s biggest programming franchise in terms of revenue and viewership, has struck a new round of 11-year, long-term deals with TV networks, according to the league. It will total a massive $100 billion in sports-right fees over the time span, according to reports. Three of the TV networks will witness an eye-popping 100% increase in yearly sports-rights fees — Fox, NBC and CBS — which had been anticipated. The exception being ESPN, which will see a 30% to 35% rise. Also expected, Amazon gained exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football for $1 billion per year, according to reports — a package that will only be available to consumers with an Amazon Prime Video monthly subscription. NBC will continue to air Sunday Night Football. Fox and CBS air Sunday afternoon NFL games. Fox has the NFC conference games, and CBS runs the AFC conference games. ESPN will continue to air Monday Night Football. ESPN’s sister network, ABC, will get to air two Super Bowl games over the length of the 11-year deal, as well as some exclusive regular-season games. NBC, Fox, and CBS will each get to air three Super Bowl games over the length of their deals. Key in the deal for TV networks is the right to air games simultaneously on their respective streaming platforms, including Peacock for NBCUniversal, Paramount+ for ViacomCBS and Tubi for Fox. According to The Wall Street Journal, the new contracts show the balance the league is trying to strike by embracing digital platforms, as younger audiences migrate to them, without alienating fans used to watching games on TV. “This is about the future,” Robert Kraft, the New England Patriots owner who chairs the NFL’s media committee, said in an interview with the newspaper, adding that the deals allow the league and its partners to adapt to an “environment that’s changing so fast.” In turn, NFL marketing partners can take advantage of those new streaming outlets with new messaging opportunities. NFL Network will continue to televise a select schedule of exclusive games on a yearly basis. For the just-completed year, regular-season NFL games averaged 15.4 million Nielsen-measured viewers, down 7% from the year before. According to the Journal, Amazon is paying an average annual fee of around $1 billion. The company is betting that the addition of exclusive NFL games will drive people to sample its original content.

NFL STRIKES 11-YEAR, $100 BILLION MEDIA RIGHTS DEAL ADVERTISER NEWS Amazon is diving deeper into providing health care ser-vices — and not just for its own employees. The company is expanding its on-demand telehealth service, Amazon Care, to other companies based in its home state of Washington, with a much bigger rollout to come this summer. Amazon initially piloted the service in September 2019, with availabil-ity limited to its employees (and their families) in Washing-ton State... 7-Eleven is commissioning local mural artists to bring its creative vision to life at select stores. The conve-nience retailer has teamed up with The Ammersion Group, a new Dallas-based creative agency, to identify artists to create neighborhood-specific murals on interior and exterior walls of existing and new 7-Eleven stores... Volvo Cars will

temporarily stop or adjust production in China and the U.S. for parts of March due to a glob-al shortage of semiconductor chips, it said this week. “We expect the situation to become criti-cal during the second quarter and have therefore decided to take measures to minimize the impact on production while working daily to improve the situation,” Volvo Cars said... Hyundai will offer its redesigned 2022 Tucson N Line model, followed by a Plug-in Hybrid variant come summer. The 2022 Tucson N Line joins the Veloster, Elantra and Sonata in Hyundai’s N and N Line lineup. Hyundai’s N performance brand is made up of

models that receive performance upgrades and visual en-hancements (N) and those that merely receive the latter (N Line)... Designer Brands, parent of footwear retailer DSW, is optimistic that the economic recovery will bring a shift back to seasonal fashions and less casual dressing, CEO Roger Rawlins said. The company expects its focus to shift from kids’ shoes and sneakers to dressy and special occa-sion styles… Starbucks plans to start testing Cold Pressed Espresso in some cafes by the end of the year as consum-ers increasingly stick to cold drinks for their caffeine jolt. The drink was already available in Starbucks’ upscale Reserve locations. Cold beverages, favored by younger customers,

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NBCU EYES PRIMETIME RATES FOR PEACOCK ADS NBCUniversal has confirmed that it will seek primetime TV rates for ads on its Peacock streaming service, Television News Daily reports. NBCU has made significant investments in Peacock’s reach, in special ad formats, and in delivering a non-cluttered, impactful ad environment by running only five minutes of ads per hour on the service, the network’s President of Advertising Sales and Partnerships, Laura Molen, told Variety. “We are committed to building this space for marketers and keeping consumer engagement around their ads. Our pricing is going to reflect this,” she said. NBCU is not alone. As streaming expands while linear TV ratings decline, and ad dollars follow viewers, all legacy media companies are expected to push hard for premium rates for streaming ads — including during this year’s upfront, as Variety points out.

WELLS: AMAZON TOP U.S. APPAREL RETAILER Amazon has surpassed Walmart as the top apparel retailer in the U.S, according to research by Wells Fargo, CNBC reports. Amazon’s apparel and footwear sales in the U.S. rose approximately 15% in 2020 to more than $41 billion, outdistancing Walmart by 20% to 25%, the report said. “This represents highly impressive 11%-12% share of all apparel sold in the U.S. and 34%-35% share of all apparel sold online,” Wells Fargo analysts Ike Boruchow and Tom Nikic wrote in a note. The two analysts estimate that Amazon will surpass $45 billion in apparel/footwear sales in 2021, according to the report. Wells Fargo noted that Amazon’s massive growth in apparel was fueled by a boom in e-commerce shopping brought on by the pandemic.

SINCLAIR STARTS MARKETING PUSH FOR RSNs Sinclair Broadcast Group is preparing to rebrand its regional Fox Sports networks in the U.S. under the banner of Bally Sports, taking the name of casino operator Bally’s Corp. as sports media continues to establish closer ties with the gambling industry. The TV-station giant has begun a marketing campaign promoting the role the regional television networks play in delivering fans live games and other sports content about their local teams and players, The Wall Street Journal reports. Sinclair will spend more than $10 million this year on marketing the renamed Bally Sports networks, including the launch campaign as well as other programs throughout the year, according to Sinclair CMO John Zeigler. It will complement that spending with promotion on other Sinclair properties, including broadcast TV stations that overlap geographically with the sports networks, the Tennis Channel, the digital sports network Stadium and the streaming service STIRR, Zeigler said. Sinclair will seek to mine its other assets to promote the new Bally Sports networks more than it did in their previous incarnations, he added.

JOBLESS CLAIMS HOVER NEAR PANDEMIC LOWS Worker filings for jobless benefits are hovering near the pandemic’s lowest levels, adding to evidence of recent economic improvement. Jobless claims rose last week to 770,000 — still elevated above the pre-pandemic peak of 695,000 — but have declined since January. The four-week moving average, which smooths out weekly volatility, fell last week to about 746,000, near November’s pandemic low. An increase in Texas accounted for about half of last week’s overall rise in claims, which could reflect delayed effects from last month’s winter storm, some economists said. Declining jobless claims are one sign of economic improvement. U.S. employers added 379,000 jobs in February, and the unemployment rate ticked down to 6.2%. The U.S. manufacturing industry has exhibited steady signs of expansion. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s tracker of credit- and debit-card transactions showed consumer spending climbed in early March.

AMC BEGINS REOPENING MOST U.S. THEATERS AMC Theatres, the largest theatrical exhibitor in the world, says that beginning today more than 98% of its U.S. screens will be open at 25% capacity. AMC expects that by March 26, 99% of its 11,000 U.S. screens will be open. More than 40 AMC locations in California are reopening beginning today, including all 25 locations in Los Angeles County and all eight locations in San Diego County. As of Monday, AMC expects that 52 of its 54 locations in California will be open. The company is preparing to resume operations at its remaining California screens once the proper local approvals are in place. AMC will only reopen its theaters once approved to do so by state and local authorities.

3/19/2021

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

NEW HOMES: PRICES JUMP FOR WOOD, BRICKS Prices are surging for the raw materials used to build American homes, The Wall Street Journal reports. Lumber, one of the biggest costs in home-building after land and labor, has never been more expensive and is more than twice the typical price for this time of year. Crude oil, a starting point for paint, drain pipe, roof shingles and flooring, has shot up more than 80% since October. Copper, which carries water and electricity throughout houses, costs about a third more than it did in the autumn. Prices for granite, insulation, concrete blocks and common

brick have all pushed to records in 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ producer-price index, which measures the change in prices that producers receive for their output. Drywall and ceramic tiles are short of records but have also climbed. Materials producers like paintmaker Sherwin-Williams and flooring manufacturer Mohawk Industries as well as builders D.R. Horton and Hovnanian Enterprises have been

raising prices to pass along higher costs.

ADVERTISER NEWS(Continued from Page 1)have played a crucial role in growing the chain’s same-store sales in recent years... Apple could release new iPads as soon as April, Bloomberg reports. The new iPads will be part of Apple’s high-end iPad Pro line and could feature improved cameras, a faster processor, and a new type of Mini-LED display on the largest iPad with improved brightness and contrast. Apple’s iPad business has been boosted by people looking for computers during the pandemic... Anheuser-Busch is boosting production of its latest hard seltzer offering after the beverage, developed alongside rapper Travis Scott, saw furious demand, CEO Michel Doukeris tells CNBC. The drink — called Cacti Agave Spiked Seltzer — launched this week. It comes in three flavors — pineapple, lime and strawberry — and has 7% alcohol by volume.

3/19/2021

Wells Fargo

Amazon’s apparel and footwear sales in the

U.S. rose approximately 15% in 2020 to more than $41 billion, outdistancing Walmart by 20% to 25%.

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SHOPIFY: SHOPPERS 18-35 DRIVE ONLINE RETAIL The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the growth of e-commerce, especially among consumers under 35. According to the Future of Commerce 2021 study from e-commerce platform Shopify, 84% of global consumer respondents have shopped online since the start of COVID-19, compared to 65% who have shopped in-store during that time. Of those who have shopped in-store, 38% are doing less often than earlier in 2020. In addition, more than half of respondents have avoided busy shopping times or crowds in the past six months, and 46% said they feel uncomfortable shopping in person. Eight in 10 (79%) respondents will shop online regularly in the next six months, compared to 57% who will shop in-store regularly. Fifty-four percent of all respondents shifted more of their spending to online shopping since the pandemic was declared. Young consumers 18-35 led the trend, with 67% shifting more of their spending to online shopping compared to before the pandemic, ahead of older age groups (57% for consumers 35-54, and 41% for 55 and up). The study also found that 28% of respondents younger than 35 said they purchased via social media, compared to 20% of respondents age 35-54 and 8% of respondents age 55 and up.

SURVEY: FOR NOW, PARAMOUNT+ NOT SO VISIBLE Less than half of 500 U.S. consumers recently surveyed by CordCutting.com (46%) even know a service called Paramount+ just launched. And only 13% of those polled said they had plans to sign up for the ViacomCBS subscription streaming service, which launched earlier this month. The response seems to throw at least a little cold water on the notion that Paramount+ might come close to matching the incendiary start of Disney+, which signed up 10 million users on its first day, setting the bar for all SVOD services that launched after it. Paramount+ had 8,000 subscribers on its first day, the result of legacy ViacomCBS SVOD service CBS All Access transitioning into the newer, broader platform. But it’s unclear as to how many new customers the broadened service is bringing in.

THIS AND THAT Retail video impressions increased 63% on a year-over-year basis in February, driven by a 212% jump in programmatic audience buying and a 159% increase in connected TV, according to data from the Innovid iQ dashboard. Overall video impressions rose 35% in comparison with last February. By device, CTV impressions grew 62% overall, followed by mobile (23%) and PC (3%)... More than one-third of Americans age 65 or older who live in households with broadband are using smart speakers or smart displays, belying the perception that seniors don’t take easily to advanced technology, Parks Associates reports. Nearly half of all U.S. broadband households have embraced the technology, the market research firm notes.