Promax, the association for television marketing professionals, is becoming the Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts and Sciences, or GEMA.

The organization is also expanding, taking in the film, music, sports and gaming industries, in addition to television.

The Promax Awards will also be rebranded to become the Global Entertainment Marketing Awards, with new award categories that will be revealed in the coming weeks.

“Our industry isn’t static, and neither are we. For almost 70 years we’ve listened, learned, and led,” said Stacy La Cotera, president of GEMA.

“This transition from Promax to Global Entertainment Marketing Academy isn't in name only, it is an acknowledgment of the dynamism in our industry and the necessity to commit to bringing about a universe of diverse marketers, creators, innovators, and visionaries through a larger and more inclusive remit,” said La Cotera, who has been president of Promax since 2022.

Like Promax, GEMA will be a nonprofit group.

The new organization plans to introduce a membership application process based on qualifications, enabling members to access tiers aligned to their career level and role.

Membership tiers include Emerging, Experienced, Established, Affiliate, Student, Educator, Corporate and an invitation-only Luminary membership.

All existing Promax members will be transitioned into the new membership tiers according to their qualifications.

A revamped benefits package will provide members with opportunities and resources for networking, nurturing creativity, community building, career development, and celebrating excellence.

“Marketing plays a crucial role in the entertainment industry, a convergence of art and science, that serves as a driving force that builds connections between audiences and the content they love,” La Cotera said.

“Marketers are essential in creating long-term relationships and fostering strong connections with viewers, listeners, and fans, which helps to build a loyal fan base and promotes the success of the content,” she said. “As we share knowledge, champion best-in-class practices, and connect professionals around the globe, we will do so by working closely to help our industry make huge strides in DEI among the workforce in the areas we represent today and in the future.”

The recognizable house from The Brady Bunch, restored to match the sitcom's set design on the inside and enlarged to include a second floor, has been put up for sale by Warner Bros. Discovery's HGTV. 

The network overhauled the house in North Hollywood it in 2019 for its series A Very Brady Renovation. The network said it invested $1.9 million in the work and added 2,000 square feet to the property’s original footprint, including a full second story. “Standout features in the completed home include the iconic floating staircase, the burnt orange-and-avocado green kitchen, the kids’ Jack-n-Jill bathroom and a backyard with a swing set, teeter totter and Tiger’s dog house,” HGTV said in a release. The six Brady siblings, Barry Williams, Maureen McCormick, Christopher Knight, Eve Plumb, Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen, teamed up with HGTV hosts Jonathan and Drew Scott (Property Brothers: Forever Home), Mina Starsiak Hawk and Karen E Laine (Good Bones), siblings Leanne and Steve Ford (Restored by the Fords), Jasmine Roth (Hidden Potential) and Lara Spencer (Flea Market Flip) to pull off the renovation, as Mike Malone reported back then.

The listing price is $5.5 million. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the home would go to Turn Up! Fight Hunger, an initiative that helps kids living with hunger in the U.S. through No Kid Hungry. The home and many of its contents, including customized pieces such as the green floral living room couch and the credenza with a 3-D printed horse sculpture, will be available for sale beginning this month, HGTV said. Danny Brown at Compass has the listing, the network said.

TCM said the 14th annual TCM Classic Film Festival, in Hollywood, will open on April 13 by screening a newly restored Rio Bravo at TCL Chinese Theatre with co-star Angie Dickinson in attendance for a chat with Ben Mankiewicz. 

The four-day festival, which went virtual in 2020 and 2021 but returned to in-person attendance last year, will premiere a 4k restoration of the film, in partnership with The Film Foundation, all tied in with the celebration of Warner Bros. studio’s 100th anniversary. Turner Classic Movies or TCM, the commercial-free cable network, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.

Also: Wonder Women of N.Y. 2023: Pola Changnon 

“Any movie with Angie Dickinson is made better by the fact that Angie Dickinson is in it," Mankiewicz, the TCM primetime anchor and official host of the festival, said in a release. “Certainly, Rio Bravo is no exception. As an added bonus, it also has a couple of guys named John Wayne and Dean Martin. Moreover, to have Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Spielberg back for a second year in a row is such an honor, as well as an indication of the vital role TCM plays among the filmmaking community.” 

“This restoration is important not just for the film or for the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros., but for the film-loving community at large,” Mankiewicz said.

Rio Bravo, directed by Howard Hawks and filmed in Technicolor, also stars Ricky Nelson as part of "an unlikely group of allies" that helps "defend against a gang of armed attackers intent on breaking out a prisoner," TCM noted, adding that in 2014, Rio Bravo was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

More information about the festival is available at https://filmfestival.tcm.com/. ■

Paramount Global said it is launching a new trade ad campaign emphasising the broad desirability of its content with the slogan “Popular is Paramount.”

The campaign comes as the company is folding Showtime into its Paramount Plus streaming service in order to compete with larger media companies in the streaming wars.

“ ‘Popular is Paramount’ is a celebration of our company, content and creative excellence,” Paramount CEO Bob Bakish said. “It simply captures what we do best — giving audiences what they want, with smart strategies that maximize the reach and power of our unified portfolio to successfully market and distribute IP all around the world at scale. Our content engine is driving huge and undeniable momentum, underscoring our ability to produce big, mass-market hits across genres, demographics, formats and platforms.”

The ads show off the Taylor Sheridan universe, including Kevin Costner in Yellowstone, CBS’s sitcom Ghosts, Nickelodeon’s Paw Patrol and the NFL.

Also: Paramount Plus Price Hike Coming As Paramount Streaming Losses Hit $575 Million in Q4

The campaign is rolling out using owned and paid media, including out-of-home ads in New York and Los Angeles. The company said it expects the campaign to run through the summer.

“‘Popular is Paramount’ showcases the enduring popularity of our content, both culturally and commercially,” said Julia Phelps, executive VP, chief communications and corporate marketing officer. “We are experts in telling stories that resonate with every audience, everywhere, and ‘Popular’ is a distinctive identity that connects our legacy to our future.”

Also: Byron Allen Interested In Buying BET From Paramount Global

Produced in-house, Paramount said the campaign debuts a new visual design system, which reimagines the company’s iconic branding while reflecting its heritage and creative spirit. ■

At a handful of Hilton's this holiday season, it will be all about the Hallmark.

The Hallmark Channel began its ratings juggernaut "Countdown to Christmas" movie marathon this year even before Halloween and Hilton wants some of that holiday magic to rub off on travelers as it competes with Airbnb and other services offering homes as alternatives to hotels.

"When you feel like coming home for the holidays," Hilton said in announcing the partnership, "it matters where you stay," the tagline it has been using on ads suggesting the potential "nightmares" of staying in someone else's house.

To help sell the hominess of Hilton, the company has set up Hallmark Movie themed suites at three hotels--the "Cozy Christmas" Suite in Chicago, the "SoCal Christmas" suite in San Diego and the "Glam Christmas" Suite in Las Vegas.

Also:  Peacock Streams Hallmark Channels

Hallmark helped Hilton decorate the suites including everything from a custom-crocheted Christmas Tree and a gingerbread hotel against a Chicago skyline to a snow cone machine in the SoCal Christmas suite to a tinsel-bedecked ceiling and a wall of sequined "holiday trees" in Vegas.

There will even be a Christmas tree lighting at 8 p.m. every night in each suite, which will also be fitted out with a collection of old and new Hallmark Movies, plus popcorn and movie snacks. 

“Our goal during the holidays is to provide ways for people to enjoy the ultimate, most sensationally memorable Christmas experience, and this collaboration truly delivers,” said Hallmark chief marketing officer Lara Richardson.

Hispanics feel underrepresented, almost invisible, on TV — and that should be a concern for marketers missing out on what could be effective campaigns to Latinos, experts on the subject said Wednesday at the Hispanic TV Summit during NYC TV Week.

Carlos Santiago is a co-founder of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA’s) Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing. At the 20th anniversary Hispanic TV Summit Wednesday, he said Latinos have the strongest interest of any multicultural consumer group in seeing programming they feel authentically represents them. They also respond well to ads that feel culturally relevant to them, Santiago and a co-panelist, Veronica Hernandez, product manager of inclusion analytics, at Nielsen, said. 

Also: More Coverage from the 10th Anniversary NYC TV Week

“From all of the segments, the segments where culture has the most weight to the sales success of a campaign is among Hispanics,” Santiago said. “It explains 78% of the success of a campaign. For other segments, it’s a little bit below 60%. Hispanics, when they see culture, they make a connection that takes them to the purchase.”

Using the Spanish language in ads, he said, can add 22% to the success of a campaign, all of which means authentic and relevant content is key to return on investment. “The impact is not marginal. The impact is astronomical.”

Severely Under-Represented

Nielsen estimated Hispanics make up only 13% of on-screen casting on TV, and the figure drops to 7% when Spanish-language programmers are removed from the mix, Hernandez said. By contrast, Hispanics were about 19% of the population as measured by the 2020 U.S. Census.

Hispanics also are the multicultural consumer category (77%) most likely to feel stereotyped in portrayals on TV, Santiago said. And 59% of Hispanics, according to AIMM research, believe they are under-represented or not represented at all in shows on TV. “They feel invisible because they are invisible,” Santiago said of Hispanic TV viewers.

On English-language networks, there’s a scarcity of shows that feel culturally relevant to Latinos and not enough such shows being developed, Santiago said, citing the cancellation of shows such as Jane the Virgin (The CW), Vida (Starz) and Netflix’s La Casa de las Flores and Mr. Iglesias. Not enough similar fare is being developed, he said. “There really is nothing out there,” Santiago said.

Hernandez said Hispanics love to watch programming on streaming platforms: 44% of the content Hispanics watch is on streaming, 9 points higher than the general population. An increase in free ad-supported streaming channels in Spanish would give marketers more opportunities to reach those consumers with culturally relevant advertising, she said. For more about Latinos' preferences for streaming, read this Nielsen report released the day of the summit. 

She also said the U.S. Hispanic population is increasingly diverse. There are 3.8 million Afro Latinos, she said, and the Asian Latino segment has grown 23% since the 2010 Census. “We’re young, we’re queer, we’re differently abled, so there is just not enough content to capture all of the nuance that exists in the community,” Hernandez said.

U.S. Hispanics are mostly (67%) born in the U.S., she said. “This generation has also been really exposed to social justice and equity issues. That empowers us to demand more as consumers of the content that is being offered to us.”

“I think that the expectations from Gen Z is not just to see your identity but to see it in a positive light,” Santiago added. “It’s beyond having someone in the cast that is Hispanic. It’s to make sure that that representation is accurate. That you feel proud of that representation. When all of that is encapsulated in a great storyline, great series, then consumers, respondents, viewers are rating that at a high level. When combined with advertising that is in that context, that increases ROI.”

Not Enough Content

The summit began with comments from Gonzalo Del Fa, chairman of the Hispanic Marketing Council and president of GroupM Multicultural, urging TV executives in the room to insist that English-language programmers have Latinos represented more fairly before and behind the cameras. "Besides the Hispanic networks, is there enough relevant and authentic content? Not at all," he said. 

Among the growth statistics Del Fa cited about the Hispanic population was its spending power: $1.9 trillion, he said, compared with $495 billion in 2000 when the first Hispanic TV Summit was held. In 2025, he said, U.S. Latinos' estimated spending power will be $2.5 trillion. 

NYC Television Week also included the Advanced Advertising and Next TV summits. It ends tonight (September 15) with the 40 Under 40 Awards. ￭

Kids-targeted streaming service Sensical has named former Nickelodeon executive Sharon Kroll Cohen to head its marketing efforts.

As vice president of marketing, Cohen will oversee content marketing, social media marketing, public relations and events for the Common Sense Networks-owned Sensical streaming service, which is targeted to kids 2 to 10 years of age. 

Previously, Cohen was Executive VP for  Nickelodeon Experiences, where she expanded the Nickelodeon brand and IP beyond their linear and digital platforms through real-word experiences, according to Sensical. 

“Over the past year, I’ve had the privilege of partnering closely with Sharon on the launch of Sensical. Bringing the streaming service to life during the course of the pandemic certainly had its set of challenges, but Sharon’s commitment to excellence and determination to succeed impressed me beyond words,” said Common Sense Networks CEO Eric Berger in a statement. ■ 

Hallmark Channel is looking for a new CFO (as in chief fan officer).

That would be the new No. 1 Fan Sweepstakes the channel has launched to promote itself and satisfy what it says is the belief of many of its viewers that they are the channel's biggest fan. Certainly there are a lot of them showing up for the channel's holiday movie marathon, which delivers dynamite ratings.

The winning CFO will get a “salary” of $10,000 — though that is arguably a lowball in the network programming game — as well as a screening party for them and 100 of their closest friends for a Hallmark premiere movie, complete with a customized greeting from a Hallmark Channel star. They will even get a star named for them, or at least a co-star, since another of the benefits is that a character in a future movie will be named for them.

The contest kicked off Wednesday (Nov. 24) at 10 a.m. and goes through Dec. 31.

And in something of a throwback to the bygone days Hallmark celebrates in its movies, contestants will have to write an essay of sorts on “why they are Hallmark Channel’s No. 1 Fan.” A photo or video illustrating that is optional, Hallmark said, but likely would be handy for Hallmark to use to promote the winner. ■

It’s hard to predict what will happen next in the streaming wars. Just when the world was beginning to wonder if the market and consumers were approaching “peak subscription,” the pandemic hit and the streaming wars were given a new lease of life. 

Netflix — arguably the biggest name in streaming — announced that it acquired 15.7 million new subscribers in the first three months of 2020, almost double the number it gained during the same period in 2019. More recently, its competitor Disney Plus reached 100 million subscribers just 16 months after its launch: a number that Netflix took 10 years to reach, albeit while pioneering the burgeoning streaming market.

It was an unanticipated but welcome boost. But it will be difficult to sustain this level of growth.

A Pain in the CPAs 

Streaming services are caught in a marketing arms race. They are under immense pressure to grow their subscriber base and keep shareholders happy — but the wider they cast their net searching for prospective new users, the higher the CPA (cost per acquisition) typically becomes. This is clearly an unsustainable model for long-term growth. Like in any arms race, the consequences for those involved are often MAD, or mutually assured destruction. 

Instead of attritional marketing warfare, streaming brands need to identify clever ways to decrease churn and increase engagement. And the best way to maximize efficiency is to craft experiences that leverage data-driven personalization.  

Here are three things to consider when using personalization to make scaling subscribers more palatable and effective.  

Leverage optimized landing pages and sign-up flows: Personalization within the streaming platforms is an effective way to reduce churn and it should define the experience from the very first touchpoint. 

Landing pages should be at the forefront of this strategy. They should be customized and personalized to reflect a user’s unique journey. If someone arrives on a landing page after clicking on an advert for a specific show, then this show should be the thematic template for the page and define the copy and hero images used — with other personalized content suggestions orbiting dynamically around it.  

The landing page should also have a close relationship with the sign-up process. Poorly signposted sign-up processes quickly spark friction and frustrate users. 

The UX of the signup process is crucial. Brands should remember that:

• Visual progress indicators are more intuitive than text-based progress indicators; 

• It must be clear what subscription tier users are signing up for;  

• Keeping a consistent message across the platform for users with no active subscription is the best way to re-focus these users to sign up

Beyond this, streaming services should recognize that for customers, signing up doesn’t end with the payment form. New trial sign-ups should be optimize through personalized experiences, customer data mining and predictive modeling in order to execute more efficient media across platforms.

Personalizing recommendations: From Spotify, to YouTube or Amazon, consumers expect to be met with intelligent recommendations based on their preferences. Research from Accenture found that 91% of consumers are more likely to engage with brands that provide offers personalized to them. 

Streaming services are broadly wise to the powers of personalization. In 2019, Netflix experimented with an AI tool which would edit trailers based on user data, so different users would see different trailers depending on their likes and preferences. 

While personalized ads and landing pages may get users into your ecosystem, providing reliable recommendations is a strong way to build trust, and consequently longevity, between the streaming brand and the user. The services that can crack when and what content to present to each user will do better at retention.

Shifting the focus to LTV and predictive modeling of customer data: Streaming services also need to have a holistic view of their customers and their habits. Understandably each service sits on a treasure trove of data: what shows are being watched, did they complete or drop off, and what did they watch next?

The main point here, though, is not how much fancy data services have, but how that data is activated to make smarter decisions within their customer acquisition strategies. This should naturally lead brands to be more inquisitive and open to a lifetime value (LTV) based marketing model.

At this moment in time, every advertiser should be considering moving to an LTV model. It will help take a brand’s marketing strategy from short-term metrics to a long-term advanced approach to acquisition.

There are five steps to take here:

1. Unifying customer data 
2. Data preparation and modeling
3. Understanding the drivers of LTV
4. Understanding customer clusters and audiences
5. Activation in audience and bidding

With LTV, brands can better target high-value audiences more likely to subscribe to their service. Campaigns, ads and keywords are measured by their LTV performance using a data-driven conversion attribution model, and the brand can optimize activity accordingly. The LTV metric can also be used for automated bidding, to get the right messages to the right customers at the right time.

This is a hyper-competitive moment in the streaming wars. To continue to grow, streaming brands will need to embrace marketing tactics that combat churn and engage new users — all without getting caught up in a marketing arms race. This means investing in understanding what customers are doing on their services — and crafting experiences that reflect these needs from the very first moment. 

Kris Tait is managing director of the U.S. business at global digital marketing agency Croud. 

Hulu, the O.G. streaming service, is urging consumers to "start with Hulu" in a new marketing campaign.

TV commercials feature a consumer wondering what to watch. His companion tells him to “start with Hulu” and he discovers “everything I love is on Hulu.” That sentiment is repeated by celebrity spokespeople including Kris Jenner of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, L.A. Ram Aaron Donald and actress Andra Day. Each of them drops whatever they’re holding and the item shatters. “Time to have everything you love. Time to have Hulu,” the spot concludes.

Also Read: Why ESPN Plus on Hulu Is a Much Bigger Deal Than Disney Plus’ 100 Million Subs

Design elements carry over to outdoor ads featuring individual Hulu shows.

The streaming market has grown, but has become much more crowded with ViacomCBS (Paramount Plus), NBCUniversal (Peacock), AT&T (HBO Max) and Discovery (Discovery Plus) launching new direct-to-consumer offerings in the past year.

According to a recent report from Ampere, Hulu has a 13% share of the market, behind Netflix and Amazon Prime, and just ahead of HBO Max and Disney Plus.

The Hulu campaign was developed with Dixon Baxi, using feedback from consumers about how they choose their streaming platforms and how the user interface can be improved.

Among the things that emerged from the research were:

• Younger viewers are much more likely to consider streaming services as “indispensable.”
• Consumers use symbols to navigate and gravitate towards things that move them from stress to relaxation.
• Consumers expect Hulu to be fun, modern, simple and straightforward.
• The Hulu Green is a source of power in brand cues and stands true to consumers.

Gray Television’s total non-political (core) ad revenue last month was about $82 million; during the same month, political ads generated $175 in advertising, said Pat LaPlatney, President & Co-CEO of Gray Television, Inc. Overall, at Gray TV stations in 95 markets – even through a longer-than-ever political process which began in early 2019 – 53% of total political revenue came between October 1 and November 3 (Election Day), LaPlatney explained during the monthly webcast of the Media Institute, a Washington think tank, on Monday (November 23).

His summary confirmed earlier reports on the extraordinary reliance on broadcast political advertising this year, even with the impact of early voting in many states.

“Gray Television has never seen spending start earlier than we did for the 2020 cycle,” he added, citing ad buys in Maine for Senator Susan Collins’ reelection effort “a full year before the general election.” He also pointed to the first order (“albeit a small one”) from Democratic primary hopeful Tom Steyer in February 2019.

In remarks that large shared research data from Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), which monitors political advertising, LaPlatney summarized the trends of the political arena.

He also confirmed that “sports events were a heavy focus, with many [political] advertisers triple spotting during college and NFL football games.”  He noted that many campaign advertisers ran two spots within a half-hour local newscast and many waived the separation requirements to keep their commercials from being run adjacent to rivals’ political messages.

Related:   Stations, Networks Eye Boom in Political Ad Spending

He pointed out that “the Bloomberg Effect” shattered records and created “unprecedented spending levels” during a six- or seven-week period, reaching levels that most political advertisers barely hit during the entire cycle.

From this year’s experience, LaPlatney said he believes broadcast TV will continue to play a major role in campaign advertising – even with the growing presence of digital platforms.  He also cited the continuing TV commercials in the pending Georgia races for U.S. Senate seats. 

“Campaigns turned much more to broadcast television,” he said.  ““You’ll see the pie continue to grow. Digital will grow; the broadcast share will be similar to where it ended up this cycle – at about 50%” in the next presidential election year.

“These records will be broken in 2024,” he predicted, but he admitted, “It hard for me to put that into context.”   

In response to questions about the role of NextGen TV (also known as ATSC 3.0), LaPlatney said he expects it to have “a significant effect,” citing the IP-based format for its ability to provide better targeting and click-to-donate options.

“There will be markets where ATSC 3.0 will matter,” he said – and it will increase during the next four year.

LaPlatney said that Gray TV is “fully committed” to the 3.0 rollout, but because many of its stations are in smaller markets, it may be a while before the service debuts throughout its footprint.  He said that its stations in Charlotte and Cleveland will launch NextGen TV transmissions in 2021 and he’s looking forward to “the competitive advantages we never had before.”

Marketing veteran Lee Hunt and business development exec Lori Pate have launched CMOmarketplace, an online portal designed to link buyers and sellers of creative services.

Registration is free for the CMOmarketplace which during a global pandemic, can replace in-person interviews. 

The site soft launched over the summer. More than 100 media companies have registered and the work of 22 creative agencies is featured..

“When you have an explosion of entertainment platforms, less time to market them and more and more creative agencies competing for that work, it can be overwhelming,” Hunt explained. “This listening tour gave us the opportunity to build in shortcuts for buyers that both flatten the world and reduce the friction of connecting with creative agencies. CMOmarketplace is simply the right tool at the right time.”

The portal uses search capabilities to help media companies and entertainment brands match up with agencies. Clients can browse agency showrooms and use direct messaging to view additional work samples privately.

“It’s been a long time in coming – a terrific resource for buyers and sellers of creative marketing. As the media world gets more complicated, finding the right creative partner just got a little easier,” said John Miller, chair of the NBCUniversal Marketing Council.

“I think CMOmarketplace is a really useful tool for my teams. Often, it’s hard to remember a new agency’s name, find their website and, once there, know what I’m looking at. This way, everything’s in one place and searchable for the expertise we're looking for,” added Robert Gottlieb, executive VP, marketing at Fox Sports Media Group. “I’d trust anything brought to our industry by Lee and Lori, and they knew exactly what was needed.”

While basic registration is free, creative agencies vetted by Pate and Hunt – can subscribe to feature their work using one of three fee-based subscription tiers that offer a range of exposure and analytics benefits, including personalized data, trends and traffic analysis by Lee Hunt at the platinum level.

“We’re really hoping to change people’s habits during this odd time, to get them used to this efficient, new marketing tool in the same way Zoom has become useful,” said Pate, who has been focused on enlisting agency talent to the portal. “When we conceptualized CMOmarketplace a year ago, of course we didn’t anticipate the pandemic. Connecting buyers and sellers via an online marketplace was something we felt was already needed. The current COVID working model merely amplifies the need to connect more efficiently, with new practices we should carry into the future.”

Discovery Inc. is partnering with food producer Kellogg Company and advocacy group No Kid Hungry to develop public service announcements as part of an initiative to fight childhood hunger in the country.

The PSA’s are currently airing on Food Network as well as TLC as part of Discovery and No Kid Hungry’s "Turn Up! Fight Hunger" initiative, which has provided more than 312 million meals to kids in need since Fall 2019, according to Discovery officials. 

With one in four kids facing hunger this year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic -- and with the pandemic forcing the closure of schools that provide meals for more than 22 million students --- Discovery hopes to bring attention and additional resources to the crisis through the initiative, according to Discovery Inc. chief corporate operating officer David Leavy.

“Food insecurity among kids during the COVID-19 pandemic is a very worrisome trend and a key area of our focus going forward," said Leavy. "Our partnerships with both No Kid Hungry and Kellogg’s allow us to continue to bring attention to this crisis, mobilize additional resources, and bring immediate relief to families in need.”

Added Jill Davis, chief revenue officer at Share Our Strength, the organization behind the No Kid Hungry campaign: “In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions more children are at risk of going without the meals they rely on. It will take a greater combination of resources to meet this pressing need, which is why we are inspired to have our longstanding partners Discovery and Kellogg’s bring their collective resources to help us make sure kids are fed during this crisis and in its aftermath.”

Kellogg’s will offer specifically marked boxes of cereal with information and actions that detail how consumers can join the fight to end childhood hunger, according to the company.

 “Food insecurity continues to be a major public health issue in the United States,” said Doug VandeVelde, general manager, Kellogg Ready to Eat Cereal. “Our support for No Kid Hungry helps many schools across the country offer breakfast to set children up to start a successful day with a nutritious meal.”

Even in the middle of a pandemic, Discovery can count on Shark Week to deliver sponsors.

In its 32nd year, Shark Week has attracted new sponsors including Jeep, Heineken 0.0, Nationwide, Burger King, Home Depot, Modelo, Gorilla Glue and Cooper Tire. Returning sponsors are headed by Geico.

Last year, Shark Week generated $28 million in ad sales for Discovery, according to iSpot.tv. This year, in an environment where analysts are expecting ad revenues to be
down as much as 30% for the second quarter, demand for Shark Week remains high, Discovery executive VP of national ad sales Scott Kohn said.

Commercials during Shark Week, which starts Aug. 9, are nearly sold out. Kohn wouldn’t say how this year’s sales would stack up to last year’s, but Discovery in 2020 made a concerted effort to boost the digital component.

RELATED: Cover Story: Summer of Sharks

“We’re definitely seeing significant growth in the support of Shark Week from a digital perspective,” Kohn said. “This is
how clients are buying and we’ve created much more robust content to view on our digital platforms.”

About half of the Shark Week sponsors made deals in last year’s upfront. The others bought more recently in the scatter market, Kohn said.

“We did see a tremendous amount of interest throughout the scatter marketplace,” he said. “I think people recognize that especially now, when there’s not a lot of competition on the air, Shark Week is going to be the place to showcase your brand message.”

Although Discovery pitches itself as an alternative to sports, Kohn said he couldn’t be sure if some of the money being gobbled up by Shark Week had originally been earmarked for events that were canceled or postponed because of COVID-19.

Many Shark Week sponsors run special commercials and marketing programs around the programming stunt. Despite the pandemic, Discovery was able to produce custom content for clients.

“We’ve been able to produce some amazing programming,” Kohn said. “We’ve taken a lot of best practices and, working with our integrated ad sales and marketing teams and clients, produced custom content during this time as well.”

Alcohol-free beer brand Heineken 0.0 will be integrated into the premiere episode of the event’s aftershow, Josh Gates Tonight: Shark Week. A sweepstakes with a shark dive as the prize is part of Jeep’s on-air and digital program, which also includes Nature Minute multiplatform videos and on-air custom vignettes.

RELATED: Nets Strutting Out Stunts This Summer

Jeep has social videos running on Facebook and Instagram, as well as Shark News videos across all sites and social. Nationwide will be featured on-air with a custom vignette and a Nature Minute video, as well as Shark News videos across social. Burger King will be featured prominently throughout Shark Week with on-air sponsorship and a mid-form series on the Discovery GO app.

Cooper Tire will sponsor tune-ins leading up to Shark Week, as well as digital and social content.

Kohn said he’s begun talking to clients about sponsoring next year’s Shark Week. 

Longtime cable executive and NAMIC board member Nate Garner has died at the age of 75.

Garner began his long cable career in 1978 with Time Inc’s American Telecommunications and Cable (ATC), where he served in numerous executive roles within Time Warner Cable’s Manhattan Cable system. He was named President of Manhattan's Paragon Cable in 1986, making him the first African-American president of a cable system in New York.

In 1994, he served as Senior Vice President of USA Network’s eastern region affiliate sales, playing a key role in the launch of the SYFY channel. Garner also launched several start-up companies, including a broadcast venture in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1999.

During his tenure within the cable industry Garner also worked to ensure access and equality in the media and entertainment. In the early 1990s Garner was instrumental in helping to launch the National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Cable diversity organization. As a founding member and eventual board member of NAMIC, Garner used the organization’s strength and reach to raise awareness regarding pathways to cable system ownership.

“NAMIC would not exist today if it were not for Nate Garner,” said Douglas Holloway, former NBCUniversal executive and current founder of the UKW Media Roku channel. “Nate was a true cable pioneer and in particular a black cable pioneer. He set a standard for excellence and was a person that mentored so many, including me. He led the industry in advocating Black ownership of cable systems and entrepreneurship. He will be sorely missed.”

Garner is survived by his five adult children, including A+E Networks executive VP, content licensing and business development Mark Garner. 

Epix will build on its Godfather of Harlem franchise with a new documentary series from series star Forest Whitaker.

The four-part docuseries, Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem, is inspired by the music and subjects featured in the original series, according to Epix. 

The docuseries, which will premiere this Fall, will bring alive the dramatic true story of Harlem and its music during the 1960’s and connect that history to our present moment, said the premium service, said the premium service.

RELATED: Forest Whitaker: A Godfather of Storytelling

Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem will be executive produced by Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi's Significant Productions, along with Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean and Keith McQuirter (Decoder Media).

Epix has already greenlit a second season of Godfather of Harlem, which chronicles the collision of the criminal underworld and the civil rights movement during one of the most tumultuous times in American history.

RELATED: Epix Greenlights Second Season of 'Godfather of Harlem'

Revolt TV CEO Roma Khanna is stepping down after three years of heading up the Sean "Diddy" Combs-founded network. 

Khanna, who took over as CEO in 2017, will now serve as advisor to the senior team and shareholders of the network, according to Combs.

Revolt TV EVP and Head of Finance and Operations Colin McIntosh and the network's COO and head of content Detavio Samuels will now also serve as co-heads of Revolt, according to network officials. 

Under Khanna’s tutelage, the music-themed network launched such initiatives and projects as State of the Culture and Revolt Black News as well as the multi-city and the multi-platform Revolt Summit x AT&T. On the distribution side, Revolt has launched across the AT&T platforms as well as on Mediacom and on streaming outlets such as Philo and Sling TV, said Revolt. 

“I am grateful for Roma’s relentless work over the last three years getting Revolt ready for the revolution,” said Combs in a statement. “She has been an ally to the culture and the company. Roma will always be a part of the Combs family and I am happy to have her as an Advisor to Revolt going forward.”

Added Khanna: “Revolt’s time is now and I am very proud to pass the reins to our next generation of amazing leaders as they rise and guide the future. I am grateful to our Chairman, Sean “Diddy” Combs, for his unwavering support and guidance along the way. Revolt is forever in my heart and I look forward to continuing to support the team, our audience and Sean Combs as an ally and Advisor.”

Fox News on Sunday (July 19) will premiere a new special that will focus on the civil unrest in America.

Harris Faulkner Presents: The Fight for America will be hosted by Outnumbered and Outnumbered Overtime anchor Harris Faulkner, and will spotlight discussions surrounding the national conversation about race in America and the path forward for the country, said network officials. 

Appearing on the special will be Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), former NFL star Herschel Walker, Fraternal Order of Police Vice President Joe Gamaldi and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, as well as Hannity host Sean Hannity and FNC contributors Dr. Alveda King and Gianno Caldwell.

The special will be Faulkner's fourth in-depth town hall special this year, according to the network. 

RELATED: Harris Faulkner is Working Overtime

The coronavirus pandemic has altered the makeup of the cable industry’s 2020 Diversity Week festivities as the annual Walter Kaitz Foundation fundraising dinner has been canceled and both the WICT Leadership Conference and the NAMIC Conference will be held online. 

In a joint statement, the three organizations announced that they are “forging ahead with new plans for virtual initiatives” to supplant the Diversity Week festivities that were scheduled for the week of Oct. 4

“The coronavirus pandemic has affected nearly every event planned for the remainder of 2020, and large group gatherings in major American cities are tightly restricted,” according to the statement.

WICT (partial agenda) and NAMIC will proceed with virtual conferences during the week of Oct. 4, with each organization communicating directly with members and conference participants regarding their plans.

The Walter Kaitz Foundation has canceled its traditional dinner this year as a result of the pandemic, and will “pivot to a major fundraising campaign to support the deliberate work of its grants programs and bridge the fundraising gap caused by the cancellation,” according to the statement.

In March, the T Howard Foundation canceled its diversity fundraising dinner due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Black News Channel has tapped former CNN executive Princell Hair as its president and CEO, the network announced Monday.

Hair will oversee the five month-old, African-American targeted news network’s day-to-day operations effective immediately, according to chairman and interim CEO J.C. Watts. Hair replaces former network CEO and co-founder Bob Brillante who left the company in April.

Hair is familiar with the cable news business, having served as CNN’s executive VP and general manager in 2003, where he achieved major ratings growth during key news events including the Democratic and Republican National Conventions plus CNN’s Election Night in America 2004.

Most recently Hair served as Senior VP and general manager of NBC Sports Boston. Prior to that he worked as Senior VP of news and talent for the NBC Sports Group.

“Princell's experience as a news and sports executive is unmatched for its breadth and success. As a programmer he will bring energy and fresh thinking to the Black News Channel,” said Watts in a statement. “We are delighted to welcome him and excited to see him build on the foundation we have laid with the launch of the Black News Channel.” 

Added Hair: “I am grateful to Chairman Watts and the Board of Directors for this opportunity,” said Hair. “I’m thrilled to return to daily news gathering and compelling storytelling at the only 24-hour cable news channel aimed specifically at African Americans and other people of color, as the world responds to a pandemic, systemic racism and an economic crisis, all of which disproportionately impact the Black audience. I’m equally excited to join and support the talented team of journalists and staff across BNC’s platforms as the high stakes 2020 Presidential Race enters the red zone.” 

BET Plus will stream the stage play Tyler Perry's Madea's Farewell Play on Aug. 27, the service said Wednesday.

The play, Perry's final stage run as the iconic character Madea, pulls together many of the characters portrayed in Perry's Madea-themed movies and plays for family gathering, according to the service.

"Tyler Perry’s Madea burst onto the scene and entered our hearts over 20 years ago and we are honored to share this final stage performance with BET+ subscribers,” said Devin Griffin, General Manager, BET+. “Now, more than ever, is the time to celebrate family and unity and Tyler Perry's Madea's Farewell Play does just that.”

HBO Max has ordered a new animated series Young Love, based on characters portrayed in the Academy-Award-winning short film Hair Love.

The series, created by Matthew Cherry and Sony Pictures Animation, centers around the relationship between an African-American father, his daughter Zuri, and the most daunting task a father could ever come across – doing his daughter’s hair for the first time, according to HBO Max.

“Hair Love struck a chord that is still resonating deeply with audiences of all ages,” said Billy Wee, SVP, Original Animation, HBO Max in a statement. “Matthew and Sony Animation’s creative voices are a welcomed addition to the HBO Max family and we can’t wait to bring this joyous story to the world.”

The series will be executive produced by Blue Key Entertainment's Monica A. Young (Hair Love) along with Lion Forge Animation’s David Steward II and Carl Reed.

Dave Muscari, who spent 29 years at WFAA-TV, Dallas, has joined Jim Doyle & Associates.

Doyle & Associates is counting on Muscari, who was VP of product development at the Dallas station, to bring his marketing and branding expertise to its station clients. 

“I had the good fortune of working with Dave when he was a Vice President at WFAA in Dallas, witnessing firsthand his creative genius, critical eye, and drive for excellence…and the joy de vie he brought to business,” said Angela Betasso, president and CEO of Doyle & Associates.

“A branding expert and prolific writer, Dave’s experience and skill set will help JDA continue to deliver on our promise to partner clients: ‘We make you money, we make you better.’ Bringing his experience in leadership positions at some of the great media companies, he will be a tremendous asset to the JDA staff and particularly our valued clients,” Betasso said.

Muscari worked at WFAA while it was owned by Belo, then Gannett and now Tegna. Before Dallas, he was promotion manager at WSB-TV, Atlanta.

“I am grateful to Angela Betasso for such an exciting new opportunity and look forward to putting my experience to work with the JDA staff and their impressive list of clients,” Muscari said.

HBO Wednesday announced an Aug. 16 premiere date for its new scripted drama series Lovecraft Country.

The 10-episode series, based on the novel of the same name by Matt Ruff, follows the exploits of an African-American man and his female childhood friend as they travel through 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father. Their search-and-rescue turns into a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and monstrous creatures, according to HBO.

The series, executive produced by Misha Green, J.J. Abrams, Jordan Peele, Bill Carraro, Yann Demange, Daniel Sackheim and David Knoller, stars Jonathan Majors, Jurnee Smollett, Courtney B. Vance and Jada Harris. 

Lovecraft Country is produced by afemme, Inc., Bad Robot Productions and Monkeypaw Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.

Netflix has named former Endeavor executive Bozoma Saint John as its chief marketing officer.

Saint John replaces Jackie Lee-Joe, who had served as the streaming service’s CMO since September 2019. Saint John comes to the streaming service from sports-based company Endeavor, where she also served as chief marketing officer.

Prior to Endeavor, Saint John worked in consumer marketing and branding positions at Apple Music and Uber, respectively.

Saint John is the first African-American to break into Netflix’s top executive team, according to the streaming service.  

“Bozoma Saint John is an exceptional marketer who understands how to drive conversations around popular culture better than almost anyone. As we bring more great stories to our members around the world, she’ll define and lead our next exciting phase of creativity and connection with consumers,” said Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos, in a statement.

Sunday night’s BET Awards 2020 telecast drew 3.7 million viewers across several ViacomCBS networks, including CBS, according to Nielsen.

The awards, which was held without an audience and featured artist-generated performances from such artists as John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys and Megan Thee Stallion -- as well as appearances by Beyonce and Michelle Obama -- was simulcast on BET, BET Her and broadcast network CBS, which alone drew 1.9 million viewers.

"For 20 years, the BET Awards has stood as the ultimate celebration of Black Culture on television. With all that is happening in 2020, it was crucial now more-than-ever to deliver an unforgettable show filled with powerful artistry, ingenious innovation, and compelling social commentary," said Scott Mills, president of BET in a statement. "We are incredibly grateful to the amazing artists, and our extraordinary Executive Producers, Connie Orlando and Jesse Collins, who partnered to create a celebration, unlike any other, that so powerfully reflects the heart, mind, and soul of Black Culture and Black America at this critical moment in history."

HBO Max will stream the first season of cable network OWN’s original series David Makes Man beginning July 16, the service reported Monday.

The Warner Horizon Scripted Television-produced series, created by Tarell Alvin McCraney and executive produced by McCraney and Dee Harris-Lawrence (Shots Fired) follows a 14-year-old prodigy who must choose between the streets that raised him or the higher education that may offer him a way out, said HBO Max.

OWN has renewed the series for a second season.

The series stars Akili McDowell, Alana Arenas,, Isaiah Johnson, Ade Chike Torbert, Travis Coles and Phylicia Rashad.

BET has renewed its freshman series Twenties for a second season, with the first season of the Lena Waithe-produced series airing on Showtime in July, the network announced Friday.

The series, which follows a queer black girl who is chasing her dreams of becoming a screenwriter in Los Angeles, featured such guest stars as Jenifer Lewis, Sean “Big Sean” Anderson, Rick Fox, Vanessa Williams, Seth Green, Iman Shumpert, Kym Whitley, Chuey Martinez, Marsha Thomason, and Nazanin Mandi during its first season. 

“The first season of Twenties, led by the incredible Jonica T. Gibbs, Christina Elmore and Gabrielle Graham, was a joy to watch in every sense,” said Scott Mills, president of BET in a statement. “BET has always been about empowering and elevating black stories and we’re so excited to see where Lena Waithe and Susan Fales-Hill’s remarkable vision takes us in the second season.” 

Music superstar Alicia Keys will host a June Nick News special that tackles the issues of racial injustice.

The one-hour Nickelodeon special, Kids, Race and Unity: A Nick News Special, debuts June 29 and will feature the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement answering questions from kids as well as offering tools for families to have constructive conversations about race and inclusivity, said the network. The special, which will also highlight teen activists who are fighting racial injustice, is the first of a series of Nick News specials that will air on Nickelodeon in the coming months.

The special will simulcast across Nickelodeon, TeenNick, and Nicktoons, and be available on Nickelodeon YouTube, Nick On Demand, the Nick App and the Nick Pluto TV channel following the premiere.

"Talking about race can be sensitive and uncomfortable; and sometimes we try to protect our children from racism they are already experiencing ... but honestly, there is no way around this topic if we want to move forward in any kind of meaningful way," Keys said in a statement. "This is such an important, vulnerable, honest and beautiful conversation, and I know many families may be searching for the right way to enter it. Let’s really deep dive together.”

Viamedia said it named Jim Loughran senior VP of digital, effective immediately.

Loughran, who most recently worked with NCC Media, is expected to oversee and grow Viamedia’s digital sales and operations. He will be based in New York and report to Viamedia chief revenue officer David Solomon.

"Jim has demonstrated the ability to execute and drive digital sales,” said Viamedia President and CEO, Mark Lieberman. “As a leading local cross media advertising company, Viamedia is always seeking to bring the best leaders to create value for our advertisers. Jim is the right person to help make that happen, especially as our advertising business customers are looking for guidance as the economy reopens in a post-pandemic world."

Before joining NCC, Loughran was VP of sales for CBS Interactive.

AMC and IFC will bring back its variety show Sherman’s Showcase for a second season, the networks said Wednesday.

The series, which stars Bashir Salahuddin and Diallo Riddle, features sketches, cultural nostalgia and original songs, according to AMC.

IFC this Friday will air the Sherman’s Showcase Black History Month Spectacular, which will honor historic black icons both past and present, alongside superheroes, period dramas, vampires, and a very special re-imagining of the cult film The Last Dragon, said the networks.

“It's rare today for a show to develop a highly passionate fanbase, get raves from critics and infiltrate popular culture, said Sarah Barnett, president of AMC Networks Entertainment Group and AMC Studios. “Sherman's Showcase has done all three and we’re thrilled to put it in front of AMC audiences alongside IFC’s devoted fans. Bashir and Diallo are fantastically talented, we are all waiting with baited breath to collectively witness the continued evolution of Sherman McDaniels, American icon."

Television advertising spending in the U.S. is expected to fall 7% to $61.07 billion in 2020 and another 12% next year, according to a new forecast from GroupM.

The huge media buyer sees national TV dropping by 11% this year, but growing at 6% in 2021.

GroupM includes streaming outlets and offshoots like Roku and Hulu in its national TV figures. It predicts that streaming TV will do better than traditional TV, losing 3% in 2020 and gaining 15% in 2021.

In its report, the agency notes that cord-cutting reducing pay TV viewing and ad-free streaming services grabbing viewers “could fuel inflationary conditions.”

Including about $8 billion in political advertising, local TV should be up 1% in 2020. But core local TV advertising will be down 34% because of weakness in local retail and auto spending. Without an election in 2021, local TV spending will plunge by 40%.

“A potentially important assumption behind our forecasts relates to the return of professional sports. As of the writing of this document, some leagues have developed plans to resume play; however, whether schedules will proceed as intended remains to be seen,” GroupM said. “While some incremental advertising spending could certainly follow from the resumption of play, the specific impact on spending is probably limited because much of what would end up in sports inventory would end up elsewhere if sports did not resume.”

Over the longer term, GroupM sees television spending bouncing back and forth between election and non-election years, finishing basically flat at $61.3 billion in 2024.

GroupM said all U.S. advertising spending will decline by 13% during 2020, with a 4% rebound in 2021.

Digital advertising will edge down 3% in 2020 — flat including political advertising. It should grow by 12% in 2021. GroupM figures that pure-play internet media properties will have a 49% share of the total ad market in 2020 and 54% in 2021.

“Economic activity is presumed to be somewhat normal after 2022, although the scale of decline and the actions taken at the present time will all have implications on the specific pace at which the economy expands, let alone when we return back to even just 2019 levels,” the report said. “This is, of course, a key assumption on its own: the absence of much of a safety net for many people who will be severely impacted by the ongoing cataclysms represent risks to a broader economic recovery.”

Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios and Comcast on Thursday reached a content carriage agreement, ending a long, legal dispute that ended up at the Supreme Court.

According to the deal, Comcast extends its carriage agreement for The Weather Channel and 14 broadcast television stations owned by Allen, who is Entertainment Studios/Allen Media Group founder, Chairman and CEO and a 2019 B&C Hall of Fame inductee.

In addition, the deal also includes carriage of ES’ channels Comedy.Tv, Recipe.TV and JusticeCentral.TV on its X1 and video on demand platforms, according to both parties.

“We’re excited to begin a new phase of partnership with Comcast and Xfinity, including the distribution of our cable channels for the first time on Xfinity platforms,” said Allen in a statement.

Comcast Cable senior vice president of video and entertainment Bec Heap added: “We are pleased to have reached this multifaceted agreement that continues our long relationship with The Weather Channel while bringing Xfinity customers additional content. We look forward to an ongoing partnership.”

The deal effectively ends a five-year legal dispute between Allen and Comcast. Allen and the National Association of African American Owned Media sued Comcast in 2015, alleging that the media company conspired to keep African-American owned networks off its systems. A federal court dismissed the suit three times, but the decision was reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit a year ago.

Comcast appealed to the Supreme Court, which this past March ruled against the lower court ruling, saying that Allen "bears the burden" of showing that race was the "but for" cause of the alleged injury--in this case lack of carriage.

RELATED: Supreme Court Rules Against Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios in Comcast Suit 

The deal comes on the heels of Comcast's pledge to invest $100 million over the next three years to combat racism and advance social justice and equality. 

RELATED: Comcast Unveils $100M Plan to Advance Social Justice, Equity 

Allen still has active a $10 billion lawsuit against Charter filed in 2016 also claiming carriage discrimination. 

Viamedia said it is offering free TV commercials as part of a grassroots campaign to help end racism using the hashtag #ChangeStartsRightHere.

The local-ad-sales provider is asking local business owners, minorities and law enforcement to create 15- and 30-second on-camera spots about how they are working together in their communities.

Viamedia will run approved messages as local public service announcements across cable TV channels in their local communities free of charge.

“Today, a long-overdue conversation is taking place across America, and the world. We should no longer sit idly by and wait for politicians to enact change,” said Mark Lieberman, president & CEO of Viamedia. “Viamedia’s goal is to create a nationwide grassroots campaign that engenders civil discourse, reminding all that change begins with each of us, at home around the dining room, and within our local communities. We cannot be afraid to use our voices to stand up and have a conversation. Change starts right here.”

Viamedia will share the call to action spots and the www.changestartsrighthere.com portal with other interested TV providers for free, whether they are Viamedia affiliates or not.

The campaign comes amid more than a week of demonstrations about race and police violence after George Floyd died at the hands of police in Minneapolis. It is compounded because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has cost more than 100,000 lives in the U.S., left millions unemployed, closed businesses and depressed the TV ad market.

“Another senseless moment of violence toward the African American community has taken place in our country. This moment calls for all of us to do more. This is about human rights, about our towns, our businesses. And I’m inviting other video service providers to similarly use their platforms to provide a voice to those who feel threatened, unsafe and marginalized to join the conversation.”

Television advertising is expected to be down 11.9% to $67.3 billion this year, according to a new estimate from Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson Research.

Nathanson sees broadcast falling 13.9% and national cable tumbling 15.7%. With election spending on top, he sees local stations down 5.3% and local cable down 4.8%. Syndication is expected to drop 15%.

Online advertising will drop 3.2% to $100.8 billion, according to the forecast. That leaves total advertising down 8.6% at $206.4 million.

Nathanson said that “traditional [advertising] is somewhat buoyed by the growth of political ad spend in local media and our current expectation that key 3Q and 41 sports like the NFL, NCAA college football and MLB playoffs will return.”

For 2021 Nathanson sees total advertising bouncing back to nearly 2019 levels.

“What explains this rapid recovery in 2021? In a word, digital. By 2021, we estimate that digital ad spending — even excluding the TV dollars that go into AVOD platforms like Hulu, Peacock or Pluto — will source 54% of all ad spending in the U.S.,” Nathanson said.” Given both the shifts in consumer behavior to e-commerce and the ability of digital to produce more targeted and efficient results, this snap-back is essentially fueled by a return to growth in digital spending at the two largest ad platforms (Alphabet and Facebook).”

He expects TV to be largely flat at those lower levels through 2024, when spending will be $66.9 million, compared to $76.2 billion in 2019.

BET is going ahead with plans to produce its annual BET Awards event this June featuring live and taped segments.

The BET Awards, which celebrates the brightest stars across music television, film, sports and philanthropy, will feature a mixture of live and taped segments to showcase musical performances and awards presentations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, BET executive VP specials, music programming & music strategy Connie Orlando told Multichannel News. The BET Awards is perennially one of the network’s highest-rated events.

“The heart of the BET Awards will still be there and it will still be a big show with big names and performances,” Orlando said. “People may miss being in the audience for the show, but viewers will still enjoy the same big event experience.”

The network will not move ahead with its three-day BET Experience event that typically leads into the BET Awards, according to Orlando. 

Spectrum Reach, Charter Communications’ ad sales unit, said it is helping local businesses reopen by offering to match 50% of the value of TV ad campaigns launched in June and July, up to $5,000 a month.

The new Partner Program, open to new and existing clients, means a business spending $10,000 on a campaign will get an additional $5,000 worth of media from Charter, boosting their marketing efforts.

Spectrum Reach is also offering creative help to advertisers and is holding virtual round tables to connect local business owners with national experts.

“As restrictions begin to relax in communities across the country, we are fully invested in supporting local businesses financially, creatively and strategically through our comprehensive partner program,” said Michael Guth, senior VP, marketing, at Spectrum Reach. “The fifty percent match will provide many struggling business owners with a needed boost to help them recover and come out of this crisis stronger than ever.”

Spectrum Reach is also extending its partnership with Waymark, which offers businesses of all sizes a free personalized video that can be used on digital and social media as well as on TV.

OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network will develop a spinoff series from its drama show Greenleaf, the network said Wednesday.

Greenleaf, which follows the lives of the Greenleaf family and their megachurch empire, will premiere its fifth and final season on June 23, sand the network. OWN did not reveal details regarding the spinoff or whether any of Greenleaf’s current cast -- which includes Merle Dandridge, Keith David, Lynn Whitfield, Kim Hawthorne, Lamman Rucker and Deborah Joy Winans -- will be featured in the new series.

[embed]https://twitter.com/GreenleafOWN/status/1262570146628947969[/embed]

Oprah Winfrey and Craig Wright serve as executive producers for Greenleaf, which during its September to November 2019 fourth season run was the most watched original scripted series on ad-supported cable for African American women, and was the fourth most-watched original scripted series on ad-supported cable for all women 25-54, according to Nielsen. 

It won’t be Carnegie Hall, but ViacomCBS’s virtual upfront presentations on May 18 and 19 will be entertaining, promises Jo Ann Ross, the media company’s president and chief advertising revenue officer.

“First and foremost, we believe it is our job to entertain and show the content that will resonate with different clients that have different audiences that they want to reach,” Ross said.

The upfront will also present a unified front for Viacom and CBS, which merged at the end of last year. The coronavirus crisis wiped out both CBS’s annual theatrical presentation as well as the smaller intimate dinners with media buyers that Viacom held, hosted by CEO Bob Bakish.

“The upfront that we’ve come up with is a brilliant, I don’t want to say replacement, I’ll say a brilliant turn from what we were doing as separate companies,” Ross said.

The event will cover the unveiling of CBS’s primetime schedule, show off Viacom’s cable networks and display the combined company’s streaming assets, including CBS All Access and Pluto TV.

The presentation will juxtapose talent from both companies, and of course Ross herself will show her team spirit by dressing up in an outrageous outfit or as a character in one of the network’s shows. “I am not a shrinking violet,” she explained. “I will not let a pandemic hold me back.”

Upfront On Demand

The presentation will be offered on-
demand — not live-streamed — and the websites will enable clients to take deeper dives into topics including the company’s Vantage ad targeting system and other advanced marketing services.

CBS will also tout its upcoming Super Bowl LV. “If the country is open and things return to somewhat normal, [companies that haven’t been advertising] are going to want to speak with a loud voice and where are they going to go?” Ross said. “They’re going to go to the No. 1 vehicle in all of advertising, which is the Super Bowl.”

This will be CBS’s second Super Bowl in three years. It swapped Super Bowls with NBC to avoid selling against NBC’s Tokyo Summer Olympics. The pandemic postponed the Olympics until 2021, so CBS wound up selling its Super Bowl against the Olympics anyway.

Fun and games aside, this is a tough year for upfronts. On top of the absence of live presentations and the boozy parties that follow, COVID-19 has pulled some advertisers off the air and has others cutting or postponing spending. A survey of clients by Advertiser Perceptions found clients expected to spend 33% less in this year’s upfront, although some of that money might return to the networks in the scatter market.

RELATED: Ad Sales Execs Taking Crisis One Day at a Time

Like the top salesperson she is, Ross was sanguine about the upfront. “I think that the cadence will be a little different, but we are optimistic that people are going to come to the table when they’re ready and we’re ready to do business,” she said. “As we like to say, we’re open for business.”

Ross said she didn’t think clients wanted to “reinvent the wheel,” but that ViacomCBS had combined the companies’ sales forces making it simpler to access all of its assets.

Advertisers can get a combination of broadcast, cable and interactive ads in one buy, if that’s how they want to transact. They can also buy a combination of broad reach media based on traditional age/sex demographics, as well as data-targeted audience buys.

CBS inventory will be available for the first time using Vantage. While CBS had targeting tools, “Vantage is a home run,” Ross said. “It’s more sophisticated probably than what we had as a standalone with CBS.”

With more clients looking for assurance that their advertising will generate sales, CBS is willing to make guarantees based on results Ross said.

Cancellation Concerns

Meanwhile, ViacomCBS and other media companies are waiting to see how much of last year’s upfront buys clients will use their contractual options to cancel. Reports said that some major advertisers were looking to cancel 50% of their third-quarter reservations, the maximum allowed, which would add up to billions of dollars.

RELATED: Disney Sets Virtual Upfront Roadshow for Buyers, Clients

Like the other programmers, ViacomCBS has extended the deadline on options to later in the month to see if advertisers can figure out ways to revamp their ad plans rather than simply cancel last year’s upfront buys.

“They have the right to option,” Ross said. “There’s not much more you can say about it. We’re working with them. We gave them flexibility and gave them a longer runway to make decisions. I think we did a really good job estimating [how much advertising clients will cancel] but probably a week from today, we’ll know more.” 

Multicultural viewers are moving toward streaming services to find diverse images on television as they look to the media in general to shoot down lingering and hurtful stereotypes, according to a new Horowitz Research study.

The Horowitz State of Viewing & Streaming 2020 study reports that 55% of all viewers who view programming on streaming services and linear television say outlets such as Netflix, Hulu and Disney Plus do a better job of showcasing stories about and by people of color than broadcast and cable.

The shares increase among multicultural viewers: 58% of African-Americans, 61% of Hispanics and 64% of Asian-Americans say that streaming services are doing a better job of promoting diverse stories and images, according to the report.

Overall, the survey said 62% of viewers believe that representation of diverse segments of the population within the mainstream media has been improving, with both multicultural audiences and white audiences also pacing above the 60% range.

Horowitz senior VP of insights and strategy Adriana Waterston said the ability of the streaming services to offer much more content than traditional TV services, along with their ability to better market and promote content to multicultural audiences, gives their platforms a distinct advantage in reaching diverse viewer groups.

“Black, Asian and Hispanic consumers are heavy streamers, so they are finding more content that they resonate with through streaming services more than on traditional television,” Waterston said.

The Horowitz survey follows Nielsen’s 2019 Diverse Intelligence Series (DIS) Report, which showed that nearly 40% of African-American viewers subscribe to Netflix followed by Hulu at 15% and Amazon Prime Video at 14%. Cheryl Grace, Nielsen’s senior VP of U.S. strategic community alliances and consumer engagement, said streamers are just scratching the service on the amount of multicultural-themed programs they can offer.

“There’s still a ton of room to grow on the digital side,” Grace said. “It’s wonderful to have options and be able to turn on the TV and find people who look like me.”

But it’s not just the amount of content multicultural viewers are looking for from streaming services and traditional television outlets. Viewers are also looking for programmers to help dispel stereotypes about multicultural populations.

Nearly 70% of viewers said it’s important for the media to represent diverse people and communities in America in ways that bust stereotypes, according to Horowitz. Further, 57% of non-Hispanic white viewers agree that the media plays a very big role in reinforcing stereotypes, according to the survey.

“We’ve heard from multicultural viewers that it’s not just the amount of faces, but it’s also about how they are represented, from how they are portrayed in the news to what roles they play in shows,” Waterston said. “What’s interesting is that we’re seeing a growing awareness of the issue from white, non-Hispanic audiences who are saying that the story doesn’t have to have characters that look like me to be entertaining to me.” 

BET will bring back drama series Tyler Perry’sSistas and Tyler Perry’s The Oval for sophomore campaigns.

Production for The Oval, which tells of a family placed in the White House by people of power, and Sistas, which follows the lives of a group of single black females, will begin in July, according to the network.

“We are excited to continue our partnership with Tyler Perry and for the renewals of our two Wednesday night programming staples, The Oval and Sistas," said Scott Mills, president of BET in a statement. “BET is committed to investing in quality programming from top industry power players and giving viewers more of the content they love and expect from the brand across our platforms.”

HBO for the fourth year in a row drew top honors for NAMIC’s 26th annual Vision Awards, the diversity organization announced Wednesday morning.

HBO won four Vision Awards to top all networks, with NBC following a close second with three wins. The Vision Awards honor programming that reflects the lives, spirit and contributions of people of color that mirror the diverse composition of the viewing audience.

CBS All Access’ Twilight Zone reboot hosted by Jordan Peele (pictured) was the top choice in the Best Performance, Drama category, while HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show won top honors for Best Performance, Comedy, said NAMIC. Overall NAMIC announced a total of 17 Vision Awards for networks and distributors this year.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored how much our nation relies on broadcast and cable programmers and storytellers to educate, entertain, and enrich our communities,” said NAMIC President and CEO A. Shuanise Washington. “Today, we not only are honoring winners of the Vision Awards but also are offering our deepest appreciation for the vital service they provide.”

The complete list of Vision Awards winners are listed below:

Animation

Elena of Avalor – Disney Junior

Awards & Honors

2019 Black Girls Rock! – BET Networks

Best Performance – Comedy

Kal Penn: Sunnyside – NBC

Best Performance – Drama

Brian Tee: Chicago Med – NBC

Children’s

Sesame Street 50th Anniversary Special – HBO

Comedy

A Black Lady Sketch Show – HBO

Digital Media – Short Form

Voices of the Civil Rights Movement – Confronting America’s Broken Promise – Comcast | NBCUniversal

Documentary

True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality – HBO

Drama

The Twilight Zone – CBS All Access

Foreign Language

Caravanas – Discovery Network Latin America

Lifestyle

No Passport Required – PBS

News/Informational

Life Inside: Angola – Dateline

Original Movie or Special

I Am Somebody’s Child: The Regina Louise Story – Lifetime

Reality

Made from Scratch – Fuse

Reality – Social Issues

Unapologetic – ESPN

Sports

The Shop: Uninterrupted – HBO

Variety/Talk Show

Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons -- ABC

Revolt TV Thursday will launch a live news show focused on the COVID-19 virus’ impact on African American communities.

The Revolt Black News show will feature conversations with experts, artists, and elected officials discussing COVID-19’s impact on the black community, with key topics including health and nutrition, personal finances, income inequality, mass incarceration, access to education, and more, said network officials. Each 90-minute episode will also stream on Revolt’s YouTube page.

Thursday’s series premiere will feature Congresswoman Maxine Waters, said the network.

Revolt Black News comes on the heels of the network’s April 9 coronavirus-themed Town Hall event, which the network reported drew 4.6 million views across all social platforms, with more than 40 million impressions and 83,000 comments across all social platforms.

“The mission at Revolt is to consistently and unapologetically serve our core Gen Hip Hop audience,” said Revolt CEO, Roma Khanna. “With this show we hope to provide a platform for timely and important information and idea exchange from respected voices in the community - intended to inform and uplift our audience during these challenging times."

Streaming service Apple TV+ will stream for free a new special, Oprah Talks COVID-19 -- The Deadly Impact on Black America, the service said Tuesday. 

The special features an in-depth conversation featuring Oprah Winfrey as she discusses the effects COVID-19 pandemic is having on African-Americans across the country, said Apple TV+ officials. Appearing on the special will be CNN personality Van Jones, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and Dr. Aletha Maybank, chief health equity officer at the American Medical Association.

The special is part of Apple’s Oprah Talks COVID-19, a new weekly series offering timely conversations around the global health crisis, said the company. 

OWN will televise the special at 11 pm this evening (April 14), said network officials. 

As the Coronavirus crisis deepened more advertisers have canceled campaigns or held back media spending, according to a new report by Advertiser Perceptions.

Advertisers Perceptions, which is doing surveys every two weeks to gauge how brands are reacting to the situation, said that in its latest survey, 44% of respondents aid they canceled a campaign before it launched, up 31% from the earlier survey.

It also found that 64% have held back media spending, up 31%.

At the same time, 24% of advertisers said they have launched a new campaign to respond to the crisis.

Advertisers said the COVID-19 situation would have a longer, deeper, impact than in the earlier survey, with its effects reaching into the first quarter of 2021. Nearly three-quarter (72%) said they expected to spend less on advertising in 2021.

A big issue for advertisers is the availability of content to advertise in and their ability to produce appropriate messages because of social distancing.

In the past two weeks, 68% of advertisers said they have increased the amount of ad dollars they’re allocating to lifestyle content, while just 26% increased allocation to sports, down 20%.

Despite live sports being canceled 72% of advertisers said they are keeping media budgets with the same media brands. They said that was because media companies have been tremendously flexible in rescheduling campaigns and helping to come up with ways to make up for lost viewership. In the survey, 82% of advertisers praised media for being good, flexible partners.

“The crisis creates a fundamental opportunity for media brands,” said Justin Fromm, executive VP business intelligence at Advertiser Perceptions. “Advertisers need to make changes that aren’t seen as self-serving, so the attention and expertise of reps is paramount. That reopens the door to consultative selling – from what matters to media audiences to more relevant content and activation.”

Advertisers are prioritizing media they use to build brands and the ones that perform the best. brand building. For new campaigns they’re using social media, digital video, cable, and OTT/CTV. Brands that reallocating existing budgets are favoring broadcast TV, ecommerce and search.

“It’s hard to tell a brand story in many performance channels, and advertisers often lack pre-made assets appropriate for different channels, so we’re seeing a bifurcation in media,” said Fromm. “On one hand, finance demands performance, so advertisers are moving money into social and search. On the other hand, advertisers need to resonate, so they’re also focusing on brand and purpose messaging appropriate for the moment and allocating to digital video, linear cable and OTT.”

Advertiser Perceptions surveyed 152 advertisers from April 1 to April 4 for the second wave of its Coronavirus report, with 36% of the respondents working for marketers and 64% agency executives.

The coronavirus crisis has taken a bite out of ad revenue, but ad executives said it was still too early to measure the impact, or to estimate when the market will return to normal.

Many advertisers, particularly in hard-hit categories like travel and retail, quickly canceled campaigns. Others changed their messages, creating ads supporting healthcare workers or touting home delivery. Many others have pushed the commercials they reserved to later in the year.

“We’re trying to have the philosophy of taking things two weeks at a time, not to get too far ahead of ourselves and make decisions on where things are going to be a month or two from now,” said Peter Olsen, executive VP for ad sales at A+E Networks. “Everyone’s been really reasonable. The conversations have been very understanding on both sides.”

Ed Georger, executive VP at Crown Media Family Networks, added, “I think the more that we see advertisers adjusting their message and thinking about their business more long-term the less we’re going to see the desire to just outright cancel.”

Media agency Magna recently forecast that national advertising revenue will drop 13% this year, hurt by the COVID-19 crisis, with most of the decline occurring in the first half.

The big, live upfront presentations were quickly canceled, with networks working to turn them into virtual events. Last week, the digital video NewFronts were rescheduled for June 22-26, indicating that upfront negotiations for the 2020-21 season won’t happen until later than usual.

The next milestone may come around May 1, when advertisers can exercise options to cancel spots bought during the upfront.

The options process will give “a strong indication of whether they want to advertise their way out of the slump or whether they’ll adjust and take options,” Georger said.

In the meantime, networks are doing business in the scatter market, where some advertisers are buying ads. Georger added that there’s a need for inventory for direct-response ads, although that market is soft because there is so much supply with traditional demand down and viewing up.

“I tip my hat and give large praise to the traffic department and the IT department that equipped them and gave them the ability to be able to do their job,” Georger said. “It’s the beginning of the quarter which is always a pressure time, but now you add to that the constant adjusting of schedules. They’re doing an amazing job.”

Hallmark Channel parent Crown Media is also looking to increase its own promotion with some of the ad inventory it has on its hands. Hallmark was one of several programmers that launched campaigns featuring their on-air talent delivering messages about hand-washing and thanking nurses, doctors, store clerks and delivery drivers.

While ratings are up and viewers sheltering at home may see what looks like a normal load of commercials when they’re stuck at home watching TV, advertising revenues are likely to suffer because of the crisis and that will hurt the bottom line at media companies.

MoffettNathanson Research analyst Michael Nathanson lowered his earnings estimates for Fox, AMC and Discovery for 2020 and 2021 based on expectations that ad revenues, which had already been weak for several quarters, will fall an additional 11% in 2020 and 1% in 2021 as the economy weakens.

For 2020, Nathanson sees Fox’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in fiscal 2020 down 6% from his prior estimate and down 18% in 2021. At Discovery, Nathanson forecasts ad revenues being 13% lower than expected in both 2020 and 2021, leading to EBITDA being 7% lower that previously estimated in 2020 and 14% lower in 2021. AMC’s national networks will see revenues reduced by 4% in 2020 and 5% in 2021 compared to previous estimates because of COVID-19. AMC’s adjusted operating income will be 7% lower than previously forecast in both 2020 and 2021, Nathanson said.

Cash on the Sidelines

Ultimately ad revenues will be determined by how advertisers react to the crisis.

“Very few people are saying ‘I’ve got money and I’m going to put it into television,’ ” said Justin Fromm, executive VP for market intelligence at Advertiser Perspectives, which surveys media buyers and advertisers.

The biggest struggle faced by marketers who were planning to run ads in the sports now that nearly all live games have been cancelled or postponed by the crisis.

“It’s thousands of [gross ratings points] in the NCAA tournament alone,” Fromm said. The situation becomes even more acute if anything happens to the National Football League season in the fall.

Even if they want to move budgets rather than cut them, advertisers are trying to figure out what other programming can bring them similar viewers in significant numbers, Fromm said.

Starz next month will launch the third and final season of its drama series Vida, the network said Wednesday.

The Tonya Saracho-created series, which follows two Latina sisters who bond after the death of their mother, will launch its six-episode third and final season on April 26, said network officials.

Additionally, Starz beginning April 1 will be offering free sampling of the first season of Vida on Starz’s OTT and On-Demand platforms, as well as on Starz.com and the Starz app.

In a letter to Vida fans, Saracho said: 

I have not been able to write this letter — every time I try my palms get sweaty, my heart does a cumbia beat and I get nauseous. It’s taken me days. Because no matter how you slice it, this is a farewell letter. So I’ll get that part out of the way: Season Three will be VIDA’s final season. Rather than dwell on the ‘hows’ and the ‘whys,’ what I’m burning to get to is the ‘thank-you’ part. That’s the part that’s making my chest ache.

When I began this journey three and a half years ago, I never dreamed that by the end of the process I’d be so wholly changed — mind, body and spirit — and that I’d be standing so strongly in my abilities to run and create a TV show the way it should have always been created: By us. When I started this, the landscape was a bleak one for Latinx representation. In the television landscape, the narratives about us were few and far between and were stuck on stereotypical. And I had only heard of one Latina showrunner who’d been allowed to run a show solo. Also for brown queers, there was truly no representation.

This is where the thank-yous begin: Because you championed our delicate and darling little series, we were gifted three beautifully compelling, trailblazing seasons of television. Sincerely, this is why I wanted to personally write this letter, to express that your support has meant everything. It has meant two renewals and validation that our brown narrative is worth telling. I will never be able to thank you enough for your reception and endorsement. Truly.

This goodbye is too bittersweet for words. I’d be lying if I said I’m not sad about not getting back into that magical writers room to keep crafting our story. But after all, I got to tell the exact story I wanted to tell, exactly how I wanted to tell it, and that is rare in this industry. I leave steeped in gratitude. Thankful to Starz for not just allowing VIDA to happen, but for being great co-parents as we raised her together. And grateful for the collaborators whose careers we were able to launch: Latinx cinematographers, writers, actors — almost entirely female — who are now out there and in demand. What a beautiful family we built. And what a beautiful show.

Mil gracias. I do hope you’re able to give this, our last season, a good send off, because let me tell you, it is a powerful one. It is just as compelling as ever with some imagery and themes I’ve never seen on television before. I’m profoundly proud of it.” 

Related: Tonya Saracho Says Women are Front and Center in Mexican-American Drama ‘Vida’

TV One has suspended production on its daily talk show Sister Circle Live due to coronavirus concerns. 

The daily talk show series, hosted by Quad Webb, Syleena Johnson, Rashan Ali and Trina Braxton, will air repeat episodes on TV One beginning March 18, according the network.

"Due to the COVID-19 breakout, Sister Circle Live will air repeat episodes beginning Wednesday, March 18 until further notice. Thank you for your continued support," the network said in a statement.

In a new report, Comcast Advertising’s EffecTV unit shows how over-the-top video can provide incremental reach to linear TV ad campaigns.

The new whitepaper, entitled OTT and It’s place in the TV Ecosystem, said that advertisers “need to understand where and how viewers are engaging with TV content and create cross media plans (including linear, set-top-box VOD and OTT) that reflect the consumption patterns of their intended audience."

The report notes that while OTT is getting a lot of attention these cord-cutting days, it remains small in scale compared to linear TV. However, it is a “great compliment” to linear TV in ad campaigns as a way to optimize reach and frequency.

“OTT is an increasingly important part of the TV ecosystem as viewers use multiple platforms to access their favorite content on their terms,” said Dave Pajeau, executive director, advanced platform solutions, at EffecTV. “Advertisers should look to OTT as a powerful complement to linear TV and STB VOD to take full advantage of a multi-screen strategy of reaching audiences where they are. This whitepaper reinforces OTT’s importance as well as the need for advertisers to balance their media plans based on viewership insights.”

In one sample campaign described in the whitepaper, linear TV alone reached 72% of the target audience. Adding digital video added 13 percentage points of incremental reach, with connected TV accounting for 35% of that increase.

In another example, an automotive advertisers spend 79% of its budget on a linear TV campaign and 21% on digital video. The linear portion delivered 84% of the total impressions, while digital delivered 16%. There was very little overlap between linear and digital viewership and digital provided 7% of the campaign’s reach.

In another example, an auto group in Chicago targeted four audience segments. Linear TV only reached between 67% and 71% of the targeted audience members and digital video added between 17% and 19%.

“Not only did digital help extend the reach of the campaign, but it also helped deliver households that were underexposed on the linear side,” the report found.

The report notes that OTT remains a poorly defined term that confuses the marketplace and is receiving more attention from the industry than its relative scale justifies. In its report, EffectV refers to over-the-top as an video streamed over the internet, regardless of devices, while Connected TV is over-the-top programming viewed on a TV set.

Political ad spending by Presidential candidates on cable systems has more than so far this year, according to Viamedia, which represents multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) in 72 markets including many battleground states.

Viamedia said that the spending increase is being driven by the billionaires in the race, with the Mike Bloomberg campaign accounting for 64% of spending by presidential candidates and Tom Steyer’s campaign accounting for about 16%.

Senator Amy Klobuchar’s spending was about 6%, followed by Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 4%, President Trump, Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren had each spent less than 3% with former VP Joe Biden at less than 1%.

The dynamics of the race changed suddenly in the past few days with Steyer, Klobuchar and Buttigieg dropping out.

About $10 billion is expected to be spent on political advertising in 2020, according to estimates.

Viamedia said 2020 had started off differently than the 2016 campaign, when issue advertising had the highest share of spending on cable at 40%, followed by the presidential campaigns at 26%. Candidates for U.S. Senate spent 16%, congressional candidates spent 18%. The proportions were similar in 2012, Viamedia said.

For 2020, presidential candidates account for 47% of the total, with issue advertising totaling 34%. Senate races took up 10% and congressional races were 9%.

“It used to be the case that issues advertising, largely by PACs, was emerging as the dominant category of political advertising -- but the Bloomberg spending, especially, has flipped the script, at least for this cycle thus far,” said Viamedia CEO Mark Lieberman.

“These are early numbers and nearly two-thirds of cable TV political ad spending in a presidential-election year materializes between Labor Day and Election Day,” Lieberman added. “Nevertheless, our trending data indicate the local cable TV industry, bolstered by attractive geo-targeting capabilities and popular, curated content, will once again see a record year for political advertising. Given Mayor Bloomberg’s promise to continue spending regardless of his own candidacy, this level of spending growth should hold.”