Pink's Bottom Line on Media, Money and Sports

Out of home ratings, work from home related earnings reports and a new favorite at the US Open

Home is where the newsletter is, at least for today, as I discuss out of home viewing and the potential boost to certain companies from the work from home trend. Here’s today’s edition.

MEDIA: Out of Home Ratings

Nielsen, the company best known for providing television ratings, will offer out-of-home tv ratings measurements beginning this month.

That means that programming like live sports that is often watched by viewers outside of their homes can now be measured by Nielsen. Until now, Nielsen measured only in-home viewing.

So, viewership in restaurants, airports and gyms, for example, will now be tabulated, and will be counted as part of overall ratings for a given program or event.

Pink's Bottom Line

Out of home viewing measurement should provide an instant boost to live sports ratings as sports are often watched in settings like bars or restaurants.

With the pandemic, though, many of those establishments are now closed or allow only a fraction of their total occupancy.

As such, look for out of home viewing to provide only an initial modest boost to live sports viewership numbers, but as occupancy restrictions related to bars, restaurants and the like ease, live sports ratings could begin to see a significant improvement.

MONEY: Work from Home and Earnings Reports

Three companies that appear to be beneficiaries of the shift to people working from home — and staying home more in general — report earnings this week.

Peloton, the indoor exercise bike company, Slack, which allows employees to message and communicate easily with one another wherever they are on a secure platform, and Lululemon, the yoga and exercise clothing company, all report their quarterly earnings numbers in the next few days.

Pink's Bottom Line

I’ll listen to each company’s earnings call to determine just how much boost to business, if any, each firm attributes to the shift to the work from home/stay at home trend.

If the companies are positive and upbeat, it could signal that the work from home/stay at home trend has real staying power.

SPORTS: A New US Open Favorite

With top-seed Novak Djokovic’s ejection from the US Open tennis tournament, the men’s side of the draw suddenly looks wide open for the first-time in many years as no player remaining in tournament has ever won a Grand Slam. (Click here to read a summary of why Djokovic is no longer playing at the US Open.)

Austria’s Dominic Thiem, the number two seed, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, the number three seed, and Germany’s Alexander Zverev, the fifth seed, now have become among the favorites to win the US Open this year.

Pink's Bottom Line

I like Thiem’s chances the best to win it all. He has reached three major finals since 2018 — losing the French Open final to Rafael Nadal in 2018 and 2019, and losing the Australian Open final to Novak Djokovic earlier this year.

Thiem already was on the verge of winning a Grand Slam tournament, and now he no longer has to go through Djokovic — or Nadal or Roger Federer for that matter — to win this year’s US Open.

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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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