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SURVEY: 57% MULL RESTOCKS OF KEY SUPPLIES With the coming of winter, more than half of U.S. consumers are mulling resupplies of groceries and essential items stockpiled at the outbreak of COVID-19, new research from Inmar Intelligence finds. Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Inmar said yesterday that 57% of shoppers surveyed are now deciding whether to replenish their stock of goods gathered at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, another 54% of respondents said they aim to be prepared by always having a stockpile of key items going forward, in case of safety issues and supply outages at stores. Consumers cited the upcoming winter season and the resurgence of COVID-19 cases around the U.S. as the chief reasons for their planned stock-ups, according to Inmar. Of those polled, 27% said they’re considering a winter stockpile because certain products might not be in stock when needed. The same percentage expressed concern that another wave of the pandemic would make in-store shopping less safe. Sixty-four percent of consumers reported creating a stockpile of products when COVID-19 hit, and 57% said they still have products stockpiled because of the pandemic. Despite safety and out-of-stock concerns, shoppers are still relying on brick-and-mortar retailers for purchases of everyday items, Inmar noted. Of consumers surveyed, 55% said they aim to buy goods for their stockpile in-store. “The survey results indicate that a majority of shoppers are likely to make their way into grocery stores to stockpile goods, in light of a potential second wave of COVID-19,” stated David Mounts, chairman and CEO at Inmar, a provider of data-driven technology services for retailers and manufacturers, among others. “Today’s shoppers still have concerns around safety, availability and convenience and will continue to look to their local retailers to deliver consistency and seamless customer service across all touch points.” As in the first COVID-triggered run on grocery stores in March, cleaning and hygiene products are atop consumers’ lists of items to stockpile. The top two products cited by survey respondents were toilet paper (67%) and hand sanitizer (57%), which Inmar said reflects shoppers’ experience of these items often being unavailable early on in the pandemic. Other products that consumers have stockpiled or plan to stockpile include paper towels (cited by 52% of those polled), disinfecting wipes (53%) and canned goods (54%). And 45% of

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CONSUMERS PREP FOR ANOTHER WAVE OF STOCKPILINGADVERTISER NEWS Amazon plans to add 100,000 seasonal warehouse workers to help keep up with holiday orders, most of whom will be in California, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey and Texas. Earlier, the company brought 175,000 workers on board to handle demand caused by the coronavirus pan-demic and said permanent jobs would be offered to 70% of them... Kohl’s will test a new in-store shop concept, Wellness Market, in 50 stores and online. The market, which will stock such items as green cleaning products, baby wipes and vitamins, is designed to appeal to con-sumers who view their health and wellness as a priority... Pharmacy retailers CVS Health and Walgreens Boots Alliance report a surge in flu shot demand this year. Wal-

greens has sold 60% more flu shots than it had at this time last year and CVS has already given more than the 9 million shots in the last flu season... Boston Market is venturing into late-night with a new menu of sliders and bowls, available after 9 PM. The Colorado-based chain is promoting the new menu, which includes sliders made

with meatloaf, turkey or rotisserie chicken, as healthier options for after-hours dining, company President Randy Miller said... Restaurant Brands International, the par-ent company of Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Hortons, saw its revenue fall 8% in its fiscal quarter. The company’s sales performance was partially offset by the performance of Popeyes and its popular chicken sandwich, which were up double digits... White Castle is testing a new kind of kitchen worker — a robotic fry cook. The fast-food chain plans to expand its partnership with Miso Robotics, cre-ators of what is billed as the “first autonomous grilling and frying kitchen assistant,” deploying the unit in 10 locations in 2021. The robot will be moving into 10 White Castle locations in 2021, following a successful pilot at one loca-tion that was announced in July. White Castle said it plans to use the robot (“Flippy Roar”) in its kitchens to enhance production speeds, empower teams behind the counter and maintain consistent quality and taste.

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

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T-MOBILE MAKES NEW PLAY FOR CORD-CUTTERS T-Mobile is taking an aggressive new swing at the U.S. pay-TV sector, threatening to further roil the market’s dynamics: The carrier announced a new suite of TVision internet packages, available nationwide, that start at just $10 per month, according to The Hollywood Reporter. With the new OTT TV play, T-Mobile wants to attract cord-cutters — and also poach existing cable and satellite TV customers who are fed up with traditional pay-TV’s high prices and restrictive channel packaging. The TVision services are available in-home and also on wireless apps anywhere in the U.S. T-Mobile also is introducing TVision Hub, a $50 Android TV-based adapter (with a remote) that plugs into the back of an HDTV to provide access to the TVision OTT services and 8,000-plus apps, including Netflix and YouTube. The new TVision services are available on platforms including iOS, Android (and Android TV), Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV. The OTT packages and the TVision Hub are scheduled to be available starting Nov. 1, starting first with T-Mobile postpaid wireless subscribers. Later in November, TVision will be available to legacy Sprint customers.

NETWORK NEWS The Mediator with Ice-T, a weekday, half-hour legal series hosted by the veteran rapper and actor, will get a limited four-week run on Fox-owned stations, including stations in New York and Los Angeles, premiering in March 2021. In the program, Ice-T will virtually seek resolutions between two feuding civilian parties. Each side will plead their argument, providing the evidence, facts and details of the case to Ice-T, who will then call upon various well-known and knowledgeable experts to share their perspective and advice... The CW has acquired additional seasons of Canadian drama series Coroner and Burden of Truth, along with a three-episode Bulletproof special event. Coroner and Burden of Truth were previously renewed in Canada for their third and fourth seasons, respectively, and are currently in production on the new seasons. The Bulletproof three-episode special event, labeled by producers as the series’ third season, was filmed this year and will air in the UK in 2021. The CW premiere dates will be announced at a later time... CBS has put in development Antarctica, a timely drama from writer Paul Grellong (The Boys). Antarctica is set in the near future after a changing climate has reshaped the globe. In it, a tenacious, uncompromising FBI agent on the run from a scandal in her past is transferred to a remote outpost, where she gets embroiled in the colonization of America’s 51st state – Antarctica. Grellong started his TV career on Law & Order: SVU. He since has worked on Fox’s Terra Nova, NBC’s Revolution and CBS’ Scorpion and Hawaii Five-0... Interviews with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and President Trump got 16.8 million people watching CBS’ 60 Minutes. The ratings for Sunday’s episode were the highest the show has seen since its interview with Stormy Daniels in March 2018.

TRADITIONAL MEDIA AD PRICES DEFLATE IN Q3 Highlighting the shift toward digital media, global traditional media ad prices shrunk by 6% in the third quarter of 2020, while online media costs have inflated by just short of 4% in the same period, per a report from ECI Media Management. With COVID-19 hastening this shift, magazine and newspaper ads saw the largest deflation in pricing in Q3, falling 11.5% and 9.5%, respectively. Radio ad prices dropped by 7.6%, while TV ads had a decrease of 5.1%. Out-of-home, although also experiencing deflation in pricing, was the least affected of the traditional media types, down 2.7%. The story is different for digital media. Q3 saw costs for global digital video ads inflate by 4.1% and for digital display by 2.6%. These are also areas where advertisers have increased their budgets since the pandemic, Marketing Charts reports. Regionally, North America saw modest inflation in online media, with offline prices deflating the most of all regions. This is likely due to the 15%+ deflation for newspapers and magazines in the region. In the U.S., a Q3 update shows that, across the board, offline media prices did not fall quite so much as forecast in Q2. Per the report, offline media is being kept afloat by the upcoming presidential election.

10/28/2020

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

BROADCASTERS BALK AT FCC RETRANS FINES No big surprise here, but the broadcasters fined in the Federal Communications Commission’s first-ever finding of failure to negotiate retransmisson consent in good faith want the regulator to cancel the levies, which total more than $10 million, Next TV reports. The FCC last month voted to deny an appeal of its decision that eight station groups failed to negotiate retransmission consent in good faith and has further decided to propose each of the 18 stations at issue over $500,000 each. It is the first time the FCC has ever issued a forfeiture order

for a failure to negotiate retransmission consent in good faith, as its rules require. Those station groups — Deerfield Media, GoCom Media, Howard Stirk Holdings, HSH, Mercury Broadcasting, MPS Media, KMTR Television, Second Generation of Iowa and Waitt Broadcasting — have jointly filed a response to the FCC, saying the agency was off base and the fines should go away. Some of the defendants also filed individually.

‘BORAT’ NATIONAL TV AD SPENDING AT $20.4M Amazon Prime Video’s premium streaming movie — Borat Subsequent Moviefilm — has now bested Disney+’s Mulan as the top theatrically intended movie shifted to premium streaming distribution. For its opening weekend, Samba TV says, 1.6 million U.S. TV homes streamed the movie during its recent Thursday to Sunday opening. Samba TV gleans streaming data from connected TV usage on smart TV sets. Previously, on Labor Day weekend, Mulan — another movie intended for theatrical release — hit 1.12 million U.S. TV home streams. Movie studios have now shifted some films intended for theaters to streaming services. Amazon spent $16.3 million in national and regional TV advertising on Borat in the last two weeks — and $20.4 million overall. A total of 1,126 airings of the movie advertising ran, pulling in 468.5 million impressions. With an audience of mostly younger male viewers, major spending went to NFL football, Major League Baseball, and ESPN’s SportsCenter.

10/28/2020

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WHAT PANDEMIC MEANS FOR BRICK-AND-MORTAR Despite what should be historic headwinds, eMarketer is projecting marginally positive holiday season growth rates this year amid unprecedented channel-shifting behavior. In short, e-commerce’s impressive showing in 2020 will make up for a sizable deficit at brick-and-mortar retail. The research firm anticipates that total U.S. retail sales for the November-December holiday period will reach $1.013 trillion, up 0.9% from last year and the second-ever season to eclipse the $1 trillion mark. “This growth rate is the lowest since 2008, when the holiday season was in the throes of the financial crisis,” said Andrew Lipsman, eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence and author of the recent report Holiday Shopping 2020. “Nevertheless, it’s a positive story to achieve growth at all, given the current economic backdrop,” he said. But the diverging storylines between retail channels couldn’t be more stark. Brick-and-mortar sales — which will account for 81.2% of total U.S. holiday retail — are expected to decline 4.7% this holiday season, while e-commerce will jump 35.8%. Despite the brick-and-mortar channel’s expected drop, results could be much worse. Data from Placer.ai, a location analytics firm, indicates that retail foot traffic has been in double-digit negative territory every month since the beginning of the pandemic.

BLOOMBERG FUNDS LATE AD BLITZ FOR BIDEN Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is funding a last-minute spending blitz to bolster former Vice President Joe Biden in Texas and Ohio, directing millions toward television advertising in two red states that have shifted away from President Trump in the general election. The New York Times reports that Bloomberg would use his super PAC, Independence USA, to air intensive ad campaigns in all TV markets in both states. The cost of the two-state campaign is expected to total around $15 million. Up to this point, Bloomberg’s general-election activities have focused on Florida, where he has pledged to spend $100 million supporting Biden. The Bloomberg team conducted polling in a number of states over the weekend and came away convinced that Texas and Ohio represented its best targets — narrowly divided electoral prizes where the war for television airtime is not already cluttered with heavy advertising on either side, the Times reports.

CONSUMERS GET READY FOR MORE STOCKPILING(Continued from Page 1)respondents said the second round of stockpiling will include items not in the first round, such as frozen dinners, pasta, snacks and cleaning products. Shoppers, too, will be looking to stretch their dollars as they stock up, Mounts added. “As we enter one of the busiest shopping seasons, it will be important for retailers not only to prepare for this new surge in demand but also deliver value to customers during this time of crisis in order to maintain heightened trust and customer loyalty.”