HOLIDAY SHOPPING CAN STILL BEAT FORECASTS
Despite inflation, the resurgence COVID-19 with the omicron variant, and supply chain challenges, “the 2021 holiday season appears to be on track to exceed the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) forecast for record spending. In the organization’s Monthly Economic Review, the NRF raised their holiday retail forecast to an 11.5% increase over 2020; up from their original estimate between 8.5% and 10.5. But they caution the omicron variant as “the latest wildcard raising uncertainty.” The NRF’s chief economists points to both consumers and retailers who have “revised their playbooks and broken with previous traditions” by building on momentum that began with an earlier shopping season due to supply chain disruptions. With the earlier start, Thanksgiving is seen as an indicator rather than a kickoff. (Retail Touchpoints: 12/7/21)
ADVANCED TV INSIGHTS: TIME SPENT & ATTENTION
According to TVision’s Q321 update on “The State of CTV”, “use of ad-supported video has surpassed the use of the higher profile subscription video services.” Share of time spent increased for AVOD when compared to 1Q21, while share decreased for SVOD. The report of 5,000 homes across the United States, also indicated that attention rates, at this point in time, are higher among linear TV than CTV. However, the data suggests that Advertisers can find more engaged viewers by optimizing for frequency, ad length, content alignment and more.” (NextTV: 12/10/21)
LOCAL OTT
As OTT viewership expands, “national and local advertisers are scrambling to follow the eyeballs.” According to estimates from Progress Partners, a Boston and New York-based M&A investment bank that works with emerging tech, “less than 10% of small-to-midsize local TV and video advertisers have used OTT.” The cause for concern is that with fewer people watching “live”, the local linear marketplace (believed to be $15.7 billion, according to the author) is at risk of going away as advertisers shift to less-attractive UGC on mobile and social video. However, as more platforms “make local OTT advertising programmatic”, advertising spends on local TV “will shift inexorably to OTT.” (Adexchanger: 12/9/21)
SYNDICATED NEWS NEWS
Top syndicated news magazines surged the first week in December, led by Inside Edition with a 2.2 live-plus-same day national Nielsen W25-54 rating (a 5% increase vs. the prior week). Entertainment Tonight, was a close second, with a 2.0 rating (a 33% boost from the week before). Access Hollywood, “equaled its best numbers of the seasons” with a 0.8 rating, while TMZ’s 17% increase brought the show to a 0.7 W25-54 rating. (TVNewscheck: 12/14/21)
“ASTRONAUT STRAY, HOW DO YOU READ ME?”
Along with the Blue Origins crew, Laura Shepard Churchley (Astronaut Alan Shephard’s daughter) and four other passengers, GMA’s Michael Strahan buckled in for the ride of a lifetime: reaching speeds above 2,200 miles an hour, soaring 66 miles in space, experiencing zero gravity for about three minutes, and looking down at earth. On his first day back in the studio, Stray explains how looking back at the light of the planet and seeing how “fragile and small” we all our (ourselves and our planet) “sets your perspective in a totally different way.” (GMA: 12/14/21)