POLITICAL PRIMARY SPENDING

Open Secrets, a non-profit organization that tracks campaign finance spending, projects that close to $1 billion or more, may be spent during the GOP presidential primary. If so, it will be a record, with spending coming from individual campaigns as well as super PACs. In 2016, the last open GOP primary, “candidates spent roughly $400 million, followed closely by super PACs, for $768 million in total primary spending.” This time, candidates are expected to spend $500 million, with comparable spending or a little less from the super PACs. (npr.org: 6/20/23)

PWC ENTERTAINMENT FORECAST

PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2023-2027 predicts that US pay-TV penetration will decline to just under 50 million (down from almost 100 million in 2016) as a result of continued cord-cutting. Subscriber declines reached a milestone in 2022, “when the number of pay-TV households fell below half the total number of U.S homes for the first time.” Conversely, the OTT market will grow, with AVODs as “the main driver of growth in the US OTT sector.” (Deadline: 6/19/23)

HISPANIC SENTIMENT STUDY

The results of Nielsen’s 2023 Hispanic Sentiment Study demonstrate the need “for brands to invest in communicating to Hispanic consumers directly and authentically.” Revealed last week at Cannes, the study “found that only 48% of Latinos feel like their values are reflected or shared by the majority of Americans in 2023, a 20-point drop from 68% in 2018.”  Among large brands, the figure is only 45%. Small businesses, however, reflect the community’s values at 67%. Looking at popular English-language media, only 46% of Latinos feel their values are reflected in the news and 51% for TV and movies (a decline from 55% in 2018). Higher trust was seen among “Hispanic/Latino news and media compared to mainstream media, with an increase from 25% in 2018 to 32% in 2023. Spanish language usage has also significantly increased from 63% to 77% in 2023.” (Adweek: 6/21/23)

NEW MEASUREMENT STANDARDS

The Joint Industry Committee, made up of buyers and sellers, “identified nine areas it considers important in evaluating how ready a measurement company is to provide currencies for making media transactions.” Each of the nine RFI categories are weighted within their “Measurement Certification Rubric”, with transparency and privacy receiving the most weight. Questions in each category will be evaluated on a score from 1 (not transactable) to 4 (best-in-class). Definitions, detailed descriptions, and a list of the participating companies can be found by downloading the Rubric from the Open AP website. (Open AP and NextTV: 6/22/23)

AMATEUR WEATHER FORECASTERS

A new campaign from Nexstar’s WGN in Chicago gave some viewers the surprise opportunity to forecast the weather. News fans were invited to the studio with no knowledge of what they would be asked to do. What they found out, rather comically, is that it’s “harder than it looks”, and that’s why “experience matters.”  (TVNewscheck: 6/27/23)