Weekly Roundup – Week of November 14, 2022

"After stockpiling nearly half a billion dollars in campaign cash and inundating Californians with ads, the pitched — and sometimes confusing — battle over sports betting drew to a close on Tuesday evening.
The upshot? Nothing changes.
Voters rejected two separate measures to legalize sports betting — and it wasn’t close. California appears to be the first state to block all sports betting at the ballot box.
Proposition 26, funded by about a dozen Native American tribes, would have allowed in-person sports betting at tribal casinos and four private horse race tracks. Out of the votes counted as of today, about 30% supported the measure while about 70% opposed it.
Proposition 27, which would have allowed online sports betting, appears headed for a historic and crushing defeat. With 83% against and only about 17% in support so far, it is on track to be one of the worst blowouts in the past century of California initiatives.
That measure was bankrolled by a handful of large gaming companies, including FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM. It drew the support of three tribes but fierce opposition from more than 50 tribes and tribal organizations.
“Everybody knows this: You don’t come and try to screw the tribes,” said Victor Rocha, conference chairperson for the national Indian Gaming Association.
“I’ve been in the industry from the jump, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Bill Pascrell III, a veteran gambling industry lobbyist. “The kind of money they spent and the results they got are just terrible.”"

"Netflix Inc. is warming up to the idea of offering live sports on its platform—as long as it can do so without breaking the bank, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The company recently bid for the streaming rights for the ATP tennis tour for some European countries, including France and the U.K., but dropped out, one of the people said. It also discussed bidding for a series of other events including U.K. rights to the Women’s Tennis Association and cycling competitions, the people said."

"As a contingent of Wall Street equities analysts convened for DraftKings‘ 2022 third-quarter earnings call on Friday, one topic remained the elephant in the room: reports on the company’s recent negotiations with ESPN.
More than 30 minutes elapsed on the call before one analyst inquired whether the company’s priorities for assessing major media partnerships have changed dramatically in recent years. Although DraftKings CEO Jason Robins did not address speculation about a possible ESPN partnership, he did indicate that the company typically conducts a comprehensive cost-benefits analysis on such deals before weighing whether to move forward.
Without naming ESPN specifically, Robins discussed certain factors that DraftKings evaluates such as the gross profit payback that can be attained through new customers if a media deal is consummated. A key consideration for sports betting operators in partnering with major media companies surrounds customer acquisition metrics, Robins noted. Consequently, DraftKings evaluates whether a deal will result in gross profit paybacks among new customers in a period of three years or less."

"About 25.4 million people watched midterm elections coverage across 13 live television networks Tuesday evening in primetime, nearly 30% less than the number that watched the results come in four years ago.
Why it matters: Few major upsets made Tuesday's coverage of the midterm results less compelling than in years past.
In 2018, Democrats gained a majority in The House of Representatives, ending Republican's two-year control over the three major political bodies — the House, Senate and White House.
Yes, but: More people still tuned in Tuesday compared to the 2014 midterms, in which Republicans won control of the Senate midway through then-President Obama's second term. Just 22.7 million people tuned in that year.
Details: Fox News dominated the ratings, drawing 7.2 million viewers during the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m. ET.
ABC drew the second-highest numbers with 3.3 million viewers in primetime, followed by MSNBC with 3.2 million, NBC with 3.1 million, CNN with 2.6 million and CBS with 2.5 million.
This election was the first time MSNBC pulled ahead of CNN in primetime election coverage, per the New York Times, but the network did manage to bring in more viewers in the prized advertising demographic of 25-54 year-olds than every other network except Fox News."

"TikTok was once best known for viral dance videos and pop songs. But in recent years, the app — which is owned by China’s ByteDance — has also built itself into a digital advertising juggernaut, selling access to its growing internet foothold to brands and developing products that make it easier to advertise on the platform.
This year, TikTok is on track to make nearly $10 billion in ad revenue, more than double what it generated last year, according to estimates from the research company Insider Intelligence. TikTok’s ad revenue this year is expected to eclipse that of rivals like Twitter and Snap, although its business remains small compared with Google and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.
TikTok is growing even as digital advertising is slumping in a global economic slowdown. The slowdown has hurt Snap, Google and Meta. And TikTok, though not immune, appears to be compounding its rivals’ woes by stealing business from them.
Snap recently called TikTok one of its “very large and very sophisticated competitors.” YouTube, which last month reported its first decline in ad revenue in at least three years, recently began placing ads in Shorts, its TikTok challenger. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, named TikTok as a rival at least five times on an earnings call in February.
Many advertisers have concerns about TikTok and its Chinese owners, its struggles with content quality and its problems with bot traffic. But companies keep flocking to the app, which says it has more than one billion users, because it appears to have reach and cultural cachet, particularly among young adults."

"The TV industry’s most popular yardstick remains broken — at least for now.
Nielsen’s long-utilized national TV ratings have yet to regain industry backing, and are not likely to get it for period of time. The measurement giant asked to cancel a meeting slated to take place Monday where it was supposed to demonstrate its efforts to improve its ability to count TV viewers, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Nielsen on November 9 asked to postpone a November 14 meeting of the audit committee of the Media Rating Council, two of these people say. MRC, an industry watchdog, holds measurement organizations to standards on behalf of the media sector. Nielsen was scheduled to outline how it had upgraded its technology that gauges TV audiences. MRC suspended its accreditation for Nielsen’s national ratings in September of 2021, citing findings that showed Nielsen had undercounted viewership during the coronavirus pandemic due to lapses in surveillance of its technology. A communication to TV networks regarding the postponed committee meeting said Nielsen had shown “material non-compliance,” two of these people say."

"NBC is bringing further synergy to streamer Peacock with the addition of all-day access to the broadcast network for paying customers.
For Peacock Premium Plus customers, users who pay for the upgraded, ad-free version of the NBCUniversal platform, a 24/7 livestream for their local NBC affiliate station will launch beginning Nov. 8 and be available in all 210 markets by Nov. 30.
This livestream will offer real-time access to NBC’s local news, sports and weather, based on your local market, but also nationwide, daytime and primetime programming, including the “Today” show, “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” and all of NBC’s primetime programming.
...
Currently, Peacock has plenty of on-demand content from NBC and next-day access to new episodes of NBC shows, but this would mark the first time the streamer has offered real-time streaming of its own linear content, apart from sports, news, special events and “Saturday Night Live.”
The affiliate livestream deal comes on the heels of Peacock striking a livestream pact with Hallmark."

In his latest blog, Sean dives into a Crowd React Media Poll surrounding recent NC Elections and breaks down election results by local TV news affiliates.