The shutdown of sports is "propelling a historic decline in U.S. TV advertising," as sales "could be down" as much as $12B in the first half of the year, according to Meg James of the L.A. TIMES. The projection in a report released yesterday by digital research firm eMarketer "illustrates the financial pain facing U.S. broadcasters, particularly ESPN, CBS, Turner and NBC, which rely on live sports to boost their ratings and advertising hauls." The firm said that TV ad spending in the U.S. "will decline by an estimated 22.3% to 29.3%" -- or $10-12B -- during the first half of the year, compared with the first six months of '19. The postponement of the Tokyo Games "wiped out more than" $1.2B in "advertising commitments to NBCUniversal." In a separate report, Kantar Media estimated the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament and the NBA and NHL playoffs "could collectively obliterate" as much as $2B in ad spending. MoffettNathanson Research separately said that "scuttling the NBA season due to COVID-19 could cost" ESPN, ABC and TNT $700M in ad spending (L.A. TIMES, 4/21).
