Pink's Bottom Line on Media, Money and Sports
Democratic Convention viewership, back to school sales and NBA seed troubles
Thank you for all of your thoughtful comments and suggestions that you’ve sent me in the past few days. We will look to implement some of those ideas soon. Now, here’s today’s newsletter.
MEDIA: Democratic Convention TV Ratings
Television ratings for the Democratic National Convention for Monday’s Day 1 of the event declined by 23.9%, according to numbers from Nielsen.
More than 19.7 million viewers watched at least some of the convention on television Monday, well below the 25.9 million who watched in 2016. (Note: The Biden campaign tweeted that more than 10 million viewers consumed at least some of the convention digitally, outside of traditional television.)
This year’s convention is mostly virtual, rather than a traditional highly produced live event, so that could account for some of the lower viewership.
Pink's Bottom Line
In any case, television ratings do matter as tv viewing demographic skews older — and the older population is more likely to vote than the younger one. For example, according to US Census data, in 2016, 70.9% of voters over age 65 voted compared to just 46.1% percent of those aged 18-29.
The convention’s most important television ratings to watch will be tonight — Democrat Vice-Presidential nominee Kamala Harris is speaking — and tomorrow — when Democrat Presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks.
I will be looking at how those numbers compare to Monday’s ratings to determine what they might ultimately indicate.
MONEY: Back to School Sales
This year’s back to school season is unlike any other in recent memory. Students and parents remain unsure just how much school will be in person this fall.
That made me to look into what’s happening with some of the large retailers who rely on back-to-school sales to drive revenues at this time of year.
Kohl’s, Target and Walmart all reported earnings this week, and each said that back to school sales weren’t particularly strong so far this year.
Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass said, “We also saw a softer start to the back-to-school selling season given increased uncertainty around kids returning to school,” in the retailer’s earnings call.
In Target’s earnings call, Target CFO Michael Fiddelke said the company was seeing “softer sales in its back to school categories” so far in August.
Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon said, “From a seasonal standpoint, back-to-school is negatively impacted by the health crisis in terms of timing and demand” in his company’s earnings call.
Pink's Bottom Line
As I read through the full transcripts of these three retailers’ earnings calls, the executives all sounded cautious, but, to me, none sounded too alarmed about softer back to school sales.
That’s a good sign for the retail sector as a whole. Now, let’s see what happens with the holiday shopping season in a few months.
SPORTS: NBA Seed Troubles
Something happened in the NBA Playoffs Tuesday that hasn't happened in 17 years - the top seed in Eastern and Western Conferences each lost the first game of its opening series.
In the Eastern Conference, the eighth-seed Orlando Magic easily handled the top seed Milwaukee Buckets while in the Western Conference, the top seed Los Angeles Lakers fell to the eighth-seed Portland Trail Blazers.
Pink's Bottom Line
Though it's highly unusual — a top seed hasn't lost a first round playoff series since 2007 — I believe that one of these two top seeds will ultimately lose in the first round of the playoffs this year.
The more likely to fall? The Los Angeles Lakers, and I’m hardly alone in that thought.
The Lakers have been sluggish since the season reopened while the Trail Blazers look like one of the strongest eight seeds in years.
If the Lakers do lose, there could be larger implications as the Lakers and their star LeBron James drive television ratings. NBA ratings have been muted since the season reopened, and the lack of the Lakers and James in subsequent rounds would only further pressure those ratings.
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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