CBS Chair, President & CEO Les Moonves on Thursday said that he "doesn't know of one sponsor who has pulled spots from the NFL" stemming from the protests during the national anthem, according to Jeanine Poggi of AD AGE. Moonves during CBS' Q3 earnings call said, "It's still the best thing on TV. Ratings are still extraordinarily high." Poggi noted NFL viewership is "down 5% for the first seven weeks of the season," but that is better than CBS, Fox, NBC and ABC's overall primetime performance "in their season so far" (ADAGE.com, 11/2). Moonves said of the NFL's issues and their impact on sponsors, "I don't think its affecting advertising or their desire one iota" (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 11/2). In L.A., Meg James writes analysts have been "concerned about a decline in NFL ratings because football has long been a ratings engine" for the TV networks that carry it. Moonves: "The ratings are down a bit this year; obviously, there were political issues that came up with the kneeling during the national anthem." He added that there also is an "abundance of football available for fans -- which might be contributing to the lower ratings." Moonves: "There’s a lot of product out there. ... But it is still a great product" (L.A. TIMES, 11/3).
LEVEL UP: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Imani Moise reports affiliate and subscription fees for CBS in Q3 "jumped 52% in the period, helped by sales" of the PPV boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor, as well as "subscriber growth at the company’s streaming services." Advertising revenue fell 5% because of "lower political spending than in the year-earlier quarter, which was during the presidential election." The most recent period also had one fewer "TNF" game airing on CBS than in '16 (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/3).
CAUSE & EFFECT: YAHOO SPORTS' Frank Schwab wrote "TNF" games produce ratings that "should make any network happy," even if the contest is a "bad" matchup. But CBS Sports Chair Sean McManus believes the extra games are "hurting overall ratings on Sunday." Fans or media can "complain about the quality of Thursday night games, and that doesn’t really matter as long as people are tuning in (and they are)." Schwab: "But when a television partner isn’t happy with the product? That’s another issue" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 11/2).
