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sales@spotsndots.com Copyright 2017.The Daily News of TV Sales Friday, April 14, 2017

AUTO DEALERS ARE HIRING WHILE SALES PLATEAUDEALERS EMPLOY OVER 1.1M PEOPLE A report by the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA Data 2016) reveals that the number of persons employed at U.S. new-car dealerships continued to rise in 2016. New car-dealerships directly employed a record 1,131,900 workers last year, a 2.4% increase over 2015. NADA Chief Economist Steven Szakaly noted, “Total dealership employment has consistently risen every year since the Great Recession, in addition, hundreds of thousands of other local jobs are dependent on dealerships.” The average number of employees at a U.S. dealership was up to 69 in 2016 compared to 66 in the previous year. The average weekly earnings of dealership employees grew by 2.6% from 2015, with the total annual compensation now averaging $69,000 per employee, making dealership employees one the highest paid of any industry. Annual payroll was $65 billion, up 4.9%, or $3.9 million per dealership. The total dealership sales revenue, including new-car and used-car sales, F&I, parts, service and body shop came to $995.6 billion in 2016, a solid 6.1% increase over 2015. That works out to $59.6 million per dealership. Despite rising sales volume and back-to-back sales records, net pretax profit at new-car dealerships as a percent of total sales has been flat, around 2.5% for several years. There’s good news in the service departments as well. Patrick Manzi, NADA senior economist said, “More and more consumers are choosing new-car dealerships for their service needs. Express service, such as oil changes, and non-warranty repair orders at dealerships, on average increased by 10.9%, and 4.2%, respectively, in 2016. This means that consumers value the expertise of the highly-trained and factory-certified technicians employed at new-vehicle dealerships.” The number of repair orders grew at dealerships by 6.5% over 2015 to 259 million. Meanwhile, the SUV segment will continue growing, accounting for more than 45% of the non-premium U.S. retail industry in the next five to seven years. Ford says it will add five new SUVs to its lineup by 2020. It unveiled the 2018 Explorer this week at the New York Auto Show, including more high-tech safety features and an available 4G embedded modem that includes a Wi-Fi hotspot and supports as many as 10 devices at once—up to 50 feet away from the vehicle……Nissan is drawing attention at the show with the Nissan Rogue Dogue, an SUV concept specially outfitted for Fido, including an access ramp and a doggie shower.

ADVERTISER NEWS General Motors had an unusually high 97-day supply of vehicles (60 is considered ideal by some people) on hand as of April 1st, but that may have been planned rather than reflecting slower sales. Automotive News reports GM will close down several North American plants for a total of 10 weeks later this year to retool for upcoming models including redesigned pickups. As to the large backlog of inventory, GM’s North American president said

“We are absolutely where I want us to be”……Mercedes says it hasn’t yet decided if it wants to resume selling diesels in the U.S.—it has not yet received approval from the Environmental Protection Agency to sell its 2017s here. Fiat Chrysler is in the same boat with no EPA approval to sell its diesel-powered vehicles. Of

course, all this started after the Volkswagen scandal broke and VW is reiterating it has no plans to start selling diesels in this country again……Toys “R” Us fiscal fourth quarter same store sales were down 2.3% in the U.S. with declines in the entertainment and baby categories only partially offset by improvements in the learning, seasonal and toy categories. That completed a fiscal year that that was down 1.3% in domestic comps. During the year, TRU opened 29 domestic stores and closed 16 others……Destination Maternity had a poor fourth fiscal quarter with comp stores sales down 7.8% (compared to a previous year quarter that itself has been down 3.5%). That pulled full fiscal year comps down to 5.3%, following the prior year that had been down 1.5%. The company cited several “headwinds” including exits from Sears and Gordmans stores and closings at some Macy’s locations……Speaking in Europe to shareholders of the merged Ahold Delhaize, CEO Dick Boer said the integration of its U.S. supermarket banners “is going well and we remain on track to deliver our (half-billion dollar) synergy goal in 2019” Meijer seems pleased after its introduction of a home delivery partnership with Shipt in some Michigan locations; the regional superstore chain will expand the practice into four Ohio markets starting later this month…….(Continued on page 3)

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

NETWORK NEWS In the two months since it was announced that Megyn Kelly was leaving Fox News for a new role at NBC, Savannah Guthrie has remained silent on the move. During the Hollywood Reporters’ Anchor Roundtable, Guthrie finally weighed in on her new colleague for the first time. “She and I have a lot in common, actually.” Said Guthrie. She went on to say “We both went to law school and then ran screaming for our lives away from the law. We both came up in D.C. We are excited to have her.” Meanwhile, NBC has not yet announced Kelly’s official role, but chairman Andrew Lack has offered the journalist three new jobs at the network, including a chance to host her own daytime news and discussion program, anchor an in-depth Sunday night news show, as well as a taking part in the network’s special political programming and other big event coverage……Meanwhile, NBC News’ chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell is saying that she does not believe she was the target of a reprimand by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Moscow. Mitchell noted, “My colleague Carol Morello was the brave journalist who started asking questions. Lavrov was looking right at her.” Someone shouted out a question prompting Lavrov to ask, “Who was giving you your manners, you know?” Several news outlets reported that Lavrov appeared to be scolding Mitchell……An uproar was created on Wednesday because of a that night’s episode of the show Survivor (CBS). During a council meeting a contestant was outed as transgender by a fellow contestant. The footage created an uproar on social media, with some saying they were disgusted. Host Jeff Probst told Entertainment Weekly that he was stunned. “I’m pretty sure my reaction was the same as viewers at home.” He went on to say, “My brain has to rewind and play it back.”……Kris Bryant and Jake Arrieta of the Chicago Cubs, and Mike Tirico of NBC Sports will make guest appearances in the season five finale of Chicago Fire. In the episode, a young Cubs fan is in a serious auto accident, and is not only injured but loses his entire baseball card collection in the flames. David Eigenberg’s character (Christopher Hermann) attempts to cheer the boy up with an unforgettable experience. The episode will air on NBC Tuesday, May 16th.

ECONOMIC NEWS Initial claims for unemployment last week remained at histor-ically low numbers showing the labor market remains strong, countering a monthly report last week that showed fewer new jobs created than had been expected. Claims were 234,000 last week, the 110th straight week under the 300,000 thresh-old. Even though the March report of new jobs was consid-ered to be disappointing, it was the 78th consecutive month of gains……The Producer Price Index, essentially a measure of inflation at the wholesale level, fell 0.1% last month, the first decline since last August, with lower energy costs a ma-jor factor. Gas sold by wholesalers was down 8.3%--Market-watch comments that reflects a leveling off in global oil prices after a runup that began last year.

AVAILS WWBT/NBC12 Richmond, VA seeks positive, “can-do” Traffic Coordinator to join our Sales Team. The ideal candidate should have excellent organizational skills, be detail oriented, be a problem solver, and be able to work quickly and accurately in a fast paced, deadline driven environment. Responsibilities include: Working closely with account executives, ad agencies, creative services, master control, and our traffic hub to secure advertiser commercials and traffic instructions. Qualified applicants only, APPLY HERE. Drug Screen required. EOE M/F/D/V.

Account Executive: FOX O&O, WTVT, Tampa, FL. This opening at the top rated station in Tampa requires the servicing of existing transactional accounts along with the development of new broadcast and digital business. Candidate must be highly motivated and possess strong presentation and prospecting skills. Position requires prior broadcast sales experience, preferably in an LPM market. College degree is preferred. CLICK HERE to

apply, or visit us in person at 3213 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, FL 33609 EOE/M/F/Veteran/Disabled Account Executive: KSTS – Telemundo 48, the Telemundo station in the Bay Area, has a great new opportunity to join the sales team. We’re looking for an experienced sales person who can negotiate and sell commercial airtime for KSTS and other station multi-platforms. We are looking for someone to develop sales revenue from new advertisers as well as maximize revenue from assigned list. Finding and developing new and non-traditional advertisers is expected, as well as developing revenue opportunities for digital platforms. CLICK HERE for more info or to apply now.

THIS AND THAT YouTube TV has been widely available for a week now, and 147,300 smartphone and tablet users have downloaded it so far, according to mobile-data company Apptopia. Adweek notes it’s hard to say whether nearly 150,000 subscribers (paying $35 per month) in a week is strong, but the figure seems promising. For the sake of comparison, consider that Dish Network’s Sling TV, another option for cord cutters at $20 a month, reportedly has anywhere between 1 million and 2 million subscribers....Talks between the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood studios resumed this week, even as the union begins preparations for a possible strike. The New York Times reports that while the union has typically represented traditional screenwriters, it also represents writer-producers on reality shows. The Guild is pushing for a separate contract for those workers, and at least 100 of them walked off their jobs Wednesday to gain attention from bosses. The Times notes a substantial number of reality shows are still made with non-union freelance employees, but almost 1,000 writers and producers of reality shows are now Guild members.

4/13/2017

Conan O’Brien

Because of the sexual allegations against him, it’s rumored that Bill O’Reilly’s show may be going off the air. For continuity’s sake,

Fox will replace it with reruns of “The Cosby Show.”

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

GROSS FALLING ON NEW VEHICLE SALES The report from the National Automobile Dealers Association for the first two months of the year finds the slightly lower sales dealers have been seeing are also producing smaller profits on each vehicle that is sold. While the overall average selling price of $34,256 is 1.1% higher than the average in last year’s first two months, the retail gross profit on that sale dropped from $2,104 to $1,998, and the retail net profit, which was negative $391 last year, fell even farther behind to negative $490. That’s just one element of the 12.7% drop in dealerships’ overall net profit before tax results. Gross profit was 6.0% at dealerships handling domestic brands, down from 6.2% last year and 5.7% at import dealerships, down from 6.4% for January and February 2016. Although the average selling price for luxury brands rose 3.5% to $53,345, gross profit dropped from 5.1% to 4.8%, and mass-market dealerships saw gross fall from 6.4% to 6.0%.

KANTAR: THE FUTURE OF FOOTBALL Noting audience declines on television for both the NFL in the U.S. and the other football (soccer) in the U.K., a commentary by Kantar Media’s Managing Director of Sports Intelligence, Nathalie Nénon, predicts that changes are coming. One focus will be to interact with younger demos—and that means the traditional TV model will have to change. “Sports fans today are often no longer satisfied with just watching games—they want to be fully immersed and involved in the content. For sports marketing, this translates into a need to always take fans that extra mile, be it through behind-the-scenes experiences or helping fans get to know the players on a more personal level,” Nénon says. She notes the popularity of online sites with behind-the-scenes footage and exclusive content. Stadiums are starting to improve the fan experience once inside. One example Nénon cites is Levi’s Stadium in California—often cited as the most high tech stadium in the world. It offers free high speed Wi-Fi, a guide to take the fan to their seat and to the toilets with the shortest queue. Fans can even order food and drink from the app and have it delivered to their seat. With younger generations watching TV content in different ways and using other platforms to engage with broadcast content, the Kantar expert says we can anticipate a continued rise in social and over-the-top (OTT) offers in sports, and in turn this will give rise to a shift in sports marketing business models, as marketers look for ways to monetize social consumption as they have TV. “Providing fans with something more than just the live event itself is going to be a key direction of travel for the sports marketing industry in 2017 and beyond. We could be seeing extra ways of enjoying football, such as replay-ing key clips available via an app, like a few NFL teams already do in their stadiums,” Nénon concludes.

BUSINESS BYTES License Global magazine has a Global Licensors report that ranks owners of intellectual property based on annual retail sales of licensed products (which it estimates to be $272 billion for the top 150 licensors). Although 55 of the brands produce at least one billion dollars in retail sales, the top licensor produces almost 21% of the total all by itself—and that leader is The Walt Disney Company, including ABC, ESPN, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Disney-Pixar and Walt Disney Studios. Number

two might be a bit harder to guess: it’s Meredith for brands such as Better Homes & Gardens, Shape, Allrecipes and EatingWell. The rest of the top ten are PVH (Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger), Iconix Brand Group (Peanuts and others), Warner Brothers (including properties such as Harry Potter and The Big Bang Theory), Hasbro, Universal Brands Group (including NBCUniversal and DreamWorks), Nickelodeon, Major League Baseball and IMG College Licensing.

ADVERTISER NEWS (Continued from page 1) ...The debacle at United Airlines this week has brought the airline industry into the spotlight, and if the quarterly results from Delta are representative of the industry, it could have some financial stress on top of too much public attention. Delta delivered a pre-tax profit of $847 million for the first quarter, but that was a $713 million decrease from the first quarter of 2016 and it says higher fuel prices is the primary reason for the decline. Mainline Delta revenue was up 1.0%, but regional revenue fell by 2.6%.Birchbox is rolling out a TV campaign now that the company is turning a profit. Birchbox, a subscription service that delivers beauty, grooming and lifestyle products to your home, now has more than 1 million subscribers globally and 4 million customers total.

4/13/2017

FunnyTweeter.com

I always regret making a good first impression

because there is no way I can keep that up!

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