Pink's Bottom Line on Media, Money and Sports
Potential sale of DirecTV, Covid19 Tourism Index and college football
I hope everyone had a great weekend. Here’s today’s newsletter.
MEDIA: DirecTV Sale?
In another sign of upheaval in the traditional cable and satellite television world, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AT&T is considering selling more than 50% of its DirecTV satellite television business unit.
AT&T bought DirecTV five years ago for $49 billion, but any new deal will likely value the company well below that level, according to The Wall Street Journal report.
DirecTV offers bundles of television channels via satellite, and competes with cable companies and streaming services to capture the multichannel linear television consumer.
Pink's Bottom Line
DirecTV is getting hit on two fronts.
First, consumers are cutting the cord from traditional cable and satellite television and choosing services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and others instead.
Second, streaming services like Sling, YouTubeTV and others offer multichannel television packages via the Internet, often at a less expensive price than a DirecTV satellite package.
These two trends show no sign of slowing down any time soon, and it’s not surprising that DirecTV could be on the block.
MONEY: Covid19 Tourism Index
As the US economy attempts to recover from the negative impact of coronavirus, the tourism sector will likely need to bounce back to help drive any economic growth.
That’s why I like to look at Temple University’s Covid19 Tourism Index, which measures the recovery of the tourism sector using data and analytics across multiple sources and industries.
As of last week, the overall index in the United States stood at 31.95, down sharply from its level of 96.49 on February 1, but up from its lows of just above 18 in mid-April.
Here’s some other interesting stats from the United States within sub-indexes of the overall Covid19 Tourism Index. (The Covid19 Tourism index contains five sub-indexes including the Aviation Index, the Hotel Index, the Pandemic Index, the Interest Index and the Mobility Index.)
The Hotel Index now stands at 53.72, up from the 16.42 level that it hit in April. That sub-index measures the the overall health of the top hotels in the country.
Also, the Interest Index is currently at 85.15, sharply higher from a level of 55.33 that it hit in May. The Interest Index measures online activity and interest in traveling from potential tourists.
Pink's Bottom Line
Tourism as a sector certainly isn’t strong, but it appears there are some green shoots to its recovery, according to data from this Covid19 Tourism Index.
If this index, and component sub-indexes, show strong growth — or if they even trend higher — it could be a good leading indicator for overall economic recovery in the United States.
SPORTS: College Football Returns?
You might not have noticed it, but college football returned Saturday as Central Arkansas beat Austin Peay 24-17. It was the first game of the new, odd college football season.
As you might be aware, of the five big college football conferences, only three are playing football this fall, with the Big Ten and Pac 12 conferences postponing their seasons.
Pink's Bottom Line
As I have mentioned in an earlier newsletter, there was no unified, national plan to deal with the pandemic by college football. Instead, conference by conference decisions led the way in determining who will play this fall.
I believe the patchwork response will lead to more rapid change in how college football is governed in the future, and I expect to see those change happen as soon as the 2021 season.
Jeremy Pink is former CEO of Broadcast Sports International and a former CNBC executive in New York, London and Singapore. He currently serves as an advisor to companies in media, sports and financial tech.
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