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sales@spotsndots.com Copyright 2020.The Daily News of TV Sales Tuesday, February 2, 2021

PETRO: VACCINE NOT ‘SILVER BULLET’ FOR RETAIL Last year’s total lockdown of non-essential retailers was a devastating blow to companies and their employees, Retail Dive says. Most stores have been back open for months now, but the pandemic continues to keep shoppers away. Store and mall traffic patterns from late January demonstrate how dependent retailers are on effective management of the disease outbreak. While vaccines were developed with unprecedented speed, their distribution has been slow and staggered. Even once they’re vaccinated, 40% of U.S. consumers say they’ll shop for apparel as much or less in stores, and another third or so are unsure about or will refuse a vaccine, according to research from experience management platform First Insight. Most (61%) said they’ll cut back on spending if there’s another shutdown. “Clearly, the vaccine is not the silver bullet that is going to bring retail back from the brink,” Greg Petro, CEO of First Insight, said in a press release. “Our latest research shows that even with a vaccine, people will still be afraid to go in-store, and fully prepared to cut back on spending if the nation returns to another lockdown.” Footfall patterns show that getting back to normal requires more than flipping the “open” sign. In the third week of January, U.S. store traffic fell 33% and net sales in stores fell 16% year over year, according to store analytics firm Retail Next. The Western U.S. fared worst, with traffic down 38% year over year, followed by the Northeast (30%), the South (29%) and the Midwest (24%), RetailNext found. Morgan Stanley analysts found total discretionary retail traffic in North America to be down 57.1% from last year, which they deemed likely driven by elevated COVID-19 cases, “with 23 states reaching new case highs.” Those analysts believe about three-quarters of the second round of pandemic relief checks were distributed, and could have been spent, by the second week of January. Luxury retail is faring better than overall apparel traffic, Morgan Stanley analysts also said, which they found “unsurprising” considering that luxury spending tracks with the S&P 500. Department stores are having a hard time, with Macy’s seven-day rolling average down 37%, Nordstrom down 36% and Kohl’s down 17%, Morgan Stanley said, citing data from Placer.ai. But even off-price stores, which by and large can’t turn to e-commerce to make up for slower store sales, are entertaining fewer shoppers than last year. Nordstrom Rack, where traffic fell 32%, has robust e-commerce and BOPIS services, but Burlington (down 9%), T.J. Maxx (2%), Marshalls (8%) and Ross (16%), do not.

STORES OPEN, BUT COVID-19 KEEPS SHOPPERS AT HOME ADVERTISER NEWS A second grocery division of Ahold Delhaize USA is partnering with leading CPG provider Procter & Gamble (P&G) to aid consumers hosting at-home Super Bowl celebrations. Mid-Atlantic grocer Giant Food is following in the footsteps of sister Ahold Delhaize USA brand Stop & Shop in collaborating with P&G to launch a dedicated “homegating” page with exclusive recipes, shopping lists and videos on its e-commerce site. The page includes four original recipes with exclusive instructional videos from celebrity chef and restaurateur Tiffany Faison... Retail pharmacies run by CVS, Kroger, Walgreens, Walmart and many others will play a central role in U.S. efforts to vaccinate its population against the novel coronavirus, The Wall Street Journal reports. CVS has said it can vaccinate up to 25 million people a month once vaccine supplies are in place, and Walmart has said it can immunize up to 13 million a month... Sears is closing another 10 of its remaining locations. Sears Holdings began 2019 with 489 full-line Sears department

stores in operation. That figure will drop to just 36 once the latest round of closings is complete... The Home Depot is partnering with Allstate to launch an extended protection plan that will provide

customers with expanded benefits and faster repair service. The Home Depot Protection Plan by Allstate covers major appliances, outdoor power equipment, grills, power tools, home electronics and other products bought in store or online… Kohl’s is offering in-store pick-up options for digital orders — in as little as one hour. The department store retailer is providing in-store pick-up of online and mobile orders via buy-online-pick-up-in-store (BOPIS) and drive-up services. The orders can be fulfilled the same day they are purchased, with most ready within one hour, according to Kohl’s... Church’s Chicken has ambitious goals for 2021 and beyond. The quick-service restaurant brand plans to open 100 new restaurants globally by year’s end and also to enhance its guest experience with “forward-thinking point-of-

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

GRAY ACQUIRES QUINCY MEDIA FOR $925 MILLION Gray Television has acquired smaller, family-owned Quincy Media for $925 million in cash in a deal that will land it with stations in 102 markets reaching more than 25% of U.S. TV households. Atlanta-based Gray said yesterday its portfolio will include the top-ranked stations in 77 markets and first- or second-ranked in 93 markets, according to Comscore’s average all-day ratings for 2020. The deal follows a spate of acquisitions in the station space in recent years that has turned groups like Nexstar,

Sinclair and EW Scripps into giants. Recently, Allen Media has been pursuing broadcasting deals. The companies noted that Gray and Quincy both maintain local control over programming and operational decisions, including in local news operations, programming, community engagement and public service. Gray said the stations it will acquire are: WPTA (ABC/NBC) and WISE (CW) in Fort Wayne, Ind. (DMA 104);

WEEK (NBC/ABC/CW) in Peoria, Ill. (DMA 118); WREX (NBC/CW) in Rockford, Ill. (DMA 132); KBJR (NBC/CBS) and KDLH (CW) in Duluth, Minn. (DMA 136); KTIV (NBC/CW) in Sioux City, Iowa (DMA 147); KTTC (NBC/CW) in Rochester-Mason City, Minn.-Iowa (DMA 156); WBNG (CBS/CW) in Binghamton, N.Y. (DMA 158); WVVA (NBC/CW) in Bluefield-Beckley, W.Va. (DMA 162); and WGEM (NBC/FOX/CW) in Quincy, Ill. (DMA 172).

CBO OFFERS HOPEFUL ECONOMIC OUTLOOK The U.S. economy will bounce back over the next several months, even without more stimulus aid from Congress, but employment levels are unlikely to fully recover until 2024, the Congressional Budget Office forecast yesterday. Much of the economic recovery hinges on the pace of vaccinations, the effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policies to curb the pandemic, and the evolution of the coronavirus as new strains turn up across the U.S., the independent budget office said in its latest economic projections. The economy is expected to grow “rapidly” at 4.6% this year, continuing to expand over the next decade. The unemployment rate will drop from 6.8% in 2020 to 5.3% this year, with the number of employed people returning to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, CBO predicted. The latest projections are rosier than CBO’s estimates from July because “the downturn was not as severe as expected and because the first stage of the recovery took place sooner and was stronger than expected,” the agency said. The estimates assume that Congress does not provide any “significant additional emergency funding or aid,” even though Democrats and President Joe Biden are working to pass more assistance with or without Republican help. The $900 billion coronavirus relief package Congress passed in December is expected to boost GDP by an average of 1.5% this year and next year, while adding $774 billion to the deficit in fiscal 2021 and $98 billion in fiscal 2022.

NETWORK NEWS ABC has handed a pilot order to National Parks, a drama co-written by Yellowstone star Kevin Costner. The one-hour show marks the latest drama pilot order from the Disney-owned network for one of last year’s projects that was rolled into second-cycle development following a similar move for medical drama Triage. National Parks, formerly known as ISB, follows a small group of elite national parks service agents as they solve crimes while protecting the parks — which, while being known for their sweeping, beautiful landscapes, also attract a vast array of criminal activity... NBC has slotted Monday, March 1 at 8 PM (ET/PT) for the Season 20 premiere of The Voice, which also marks the musical competition series’ 10th anniversary. Nick Jonas will be back in the red chair alongside returning coaches Kelly Clarkson, John Legend and Blake Shelton for Season 20. Carson Daly returns as host... The CW is officially moving forward with its planted pilot spinoff of All American with Geffri Maya reprising her role as Simone Hicks. The pilot will air as an episode in the current third season of the show. All American: Homecoming is the third planted pilot for the youth-skewing broadcaster this season, joining Nancy Drew spinoff Tom Swift and Black Lightning spinoff Painkiller... Linsey Davis and Whit Johnson have been tapped to anchor the weekend broadcasts of ABC News’ World News Tonight, succeeding Tom Llamas. Davis will anchor on Sunday, and Johnson will helm Saturday, the network said. Llamas had his final broadcast on the network on Sunday, but no announcement has been made of his future plans. He reportedly is heading to NBC News, but the network has not commented... And Dustin Diamond, who was best known for playing Samuel “Screech” Powers on the NBC sitcom Saved by the Bell, died yesterday of cancer. Diamond played the relatable and (at times) irritating geek Screech from the late 1980s until 2000, reprising his role for Saved by the Bell extensions The College Years and The New Class. Dustin Diamond was 44 years old.

UNIVISION LANDS SPANISH-LANGUAGE AVOD VIX To jumpstart its recently announced plan to create the “only ad-supported video streaming service created exclusively for U.S. Hispanics,” dubbed PrendeTV, Univision is absorbing what would have been a competitor. Univision has acquired VIX, the leading existing AVOD serving both U.S. Hispanics and consumers throughout Latin America. Terms were not disclosed. VIX, backed by Discovery Communications and Harbourvest Capital, acquired Latino streaming company Pongalo in 2019, and last year gained distribution on the Roku Channel, Xumo, Redbox, Vizio and TiVo for its Pongalo NovelaClub and Moovimex channels, Deadline reports. VIX, which will be integrated into PrendeTV in the U.S., is now distributed by more than 30 mobile and connected TV platforms (including Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV and Android TV) and has a content library of 20,000 hours of free Spanish-language film and TV programming. Together, PrendeTV and VIX will offer more than 30,000 hours of content.

2/2/2021

Comscore

Gray’s acquisition of Quincy Media will give its portfolio the top-ranked TV stations

in 77 markets.

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

FORD, GOOGLE FORM ‘STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP’ Ford Motor and Google said yesterday they have formed a six-year “strategic partnership” under which the automaker will introduce the Android operating system into millions of vehicles and use Google technology for everything from in-vehicle connected services to manufacturing processes. Ford will designate Google as its preferred cloud provider, allowing the Blue Oval “to leverage Google’s world-class expertise in data, artificial intelligence and machine learning,” the automaker said in a news release. “As Ford continues the most profound transformation in our

history with electrification, connectivity and self-driving, Google and Ford coming together establishes an innovation powerhouse truly able to deliver a superior experience for our customers and modernize our business,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement. Ford sees Google’s cloud services as a way to both improve the digitally-connected technologies that are becoming the norm in new vehicles, as well as modernize its own business, the

automaker said.

THIS AND THAT Retailers’ digital strategies were accelerated by up to two years during the pandemic, and nearly 75% of retail professionals expect digital growth to be permanent, according to a Euromonitor International survey presented during NRF 2021: Retail’s Big Show — Chapter 1... Even if the majority of Americans are vaccinated, 79% of consumers said they expect retailers to continue enforcing health and safety restrictions, according to a survey by shopping rewards app ShopKick.

2/2/2021

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PANDEMIC DELIVERY WOES LEAVE SHORTAGES COVID-19-related snags have delayed shipments of products and raw materials across the economy the past couple of months, pushing up wholesale costs and raising the likelihood of higher retail prices by midyear, USA Today reports. Behind the snarls: Some factories in the U.S. and abroad are shuttered while many others are running at partial capacity because of employee COVID-19 cases or social distancing requirements. Ports, warehouses and trucking companies are similarly grappling with worker absences. And containers for overseas shipments are in short supply. Even the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is playing a role, taking up shipping capacity and slowing other deliveries. Bottlenecks were prevalent when the pandemic began in early spring as factories shut down. Since then, the crunch had gradually eased. But recent COVID-19 spikes, combined with a resurgence in customer demand, have sparked the direst shortages and delays yet.

HIGH PRICES WEIGH ON PENDING HOME SALES Homebuyers signed fewer contracts to buy existing homes in December, as record high prices and record low supply stood in the way of strong demand, CNBC reports. The pending home sales index from the National Association of Realtors fell 0.3% month to month, the fourth straight monthly decline. This index is a predictor of future closed sales. Pending sales were, however, 21.4% higher than December 2019, and this was the highest December reading on record. “Pending home sales contracts have dipped during recent months, but I would attribute that to having too few homes for sale,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “There is a high demand for housing and a great number of would-be buyers, and therefore sales should rise with more new listings.” At the end of December, inventory stood at just 1.07 million homes for sale, down 23% year over year. At the current sales pace, that represents a 1.9-month supply. That is the lowest number of homes since the Realtors began tracking this metric in 1982. Demand was uneven across the U.S., with the largest decline in sales seen in the Midwest.

ADVERTISER NEWS(Continued from Page 1)restaurant design, evolved menu offerings and innovative packaging options.” In addition, Church’s will roll out new sale systems in Q1 and beyond... Toyota dealers are looking forward to a long-overdue redesign of the Tundra this year that should once again give them a worthy competitor in the full-size pickup segment, the head of the brand’s dealer council says. Robby Findlay, director of operations for the family-owned Findlay Automotive Group, is entering his second year as chairman of the Toyota National Dealer Advisory Council. He told Automotive News that the upcoming Tundra “is the most exciting thing we’ve had in the last five-plus years.”