(Continued from Cover) L.A. Screenings Preview March/April 2017 V I D E O A G E 26 The indies are expected to close their suites on Thursday, May 18 and the studios will wind down their screenings by Friday, May 26, as their executives prepare for the Memorial Day holiday weekend, May 27-29. The general feeling of uneasiness generated by an “unpresidented” President Donald Trump is expected to bring to Hollywood a larger-thanusual group of buyers, who, together with the MPAA, are eager to see first hand the effects of Trumpism over programming, regulations and bi-lateral trades, with which the U.S. can have more leverage compared to multi-lateral treaties. As far as the types of new programs the U.S. TV outlets (networks, cable and digital) are expected to pick up, these could reflect President Donald Trump’s idiosyncrasies: On one hand, as indicated in the VideoAge January 2017 Issue’s front cover story, the networks could aim to be more ethnically diversified to contrast a presumed Trump-era restrictive landscape, or they could reflect the U.S.’s conservative trend and move toward faith-based programming. Last December, The New York Times pointed out that Hollywood’s film industry is following Trump’s newfound religious fervor by “building connections with Christian audiences.” It is unclear if the U.S. under President Trump will return to the religious fervor of the mid-1980s when TV screens were saturated with faith-based programs. The Times article pointed out several interesting details: Stunned by the election of Trump, Hollywood has realized “the degree to which they are out of touch with a vast pool of Americans.” This realization brought out that “41 percent of millennials engage in some form of daily prayer,” and that in the U.S. there are “roughly 90 million evangelicals.” Last November, MGM introduced Light TV, a faith broadcast network, while Sony has Affirm Films, a faith-based unit. Other studios are also quietly tapping into “churches, military groups and right-leaning bloggers,” theTimesreported. On top of this, there is the effect of the networks’ new season pick-ups from Ajit Pai, the new “interim” chairman of the FCC, the U.S. regulatory agency. Despite his Republican pedigree, the “interim” designation means that he’s in effect on probation (Pai has to be reappointed at the end of 2017), which means he will be under the scrutiny of the White House and the religious right to “clean up” airwaves. However, in times of government restrictions, humor tends to flourish, which could mean a resurgence of comedy shows that recently have beleaguered American screens. In addition, a “cocky” president Trump will have to contend with the antagonized Chinese to grow and now weekly wages are growing as well. And finally, retail sales are beginning tomove in the right direction. All of these are positive signs for the continued growth of the advertisingmarket in 2017. I believe that the underlying pacing of the broadcast network market of plus four percent witnessed in 2016 will continue into 2017. “[For 2017-18] I’ve added back in 16 days worth of advertising for NBC,” he said. “CBS, ABC, Fox — and Fox saw their Q3 2016 results hurt by the shifting of established budgets to the Olympics,” said Poltrack. “These networks should collectively recover some of those dollars in Q3 2017. In addition, all four networks lost some advertising dollars from the preemption of prime time programming by coverage of the conventions.” Finally, he predicted, “The fourth quarter of 2017 should outpace the fourth quarter of 2016. It will not have to deal with the negative impact of the political preemption and should have a strong 20172018 upfront market upon which to build. The Q4 2017 advertising revenues of the broadcast network should be able to hold the four percent growth rate over Q4 2016, getting the 2017-2018 broadcast year off to a strong start.” (By Dom Serafini) government’s influence over Hollywood. This year, China entered into the year of the Red Fire Rooster, and the confrontation could turn into a cockfight, especiallywithChinesecompanyDalian Wanda, which is closely aligned with the Chinese government, controlling such U.S. entertainment groups as AMC, Carmike Cinemas, Legendary, and Dick Clark Productions. Plus, Wanda has an alliance with Sony Pictures, and is in talks with Viacom to buy into Paramount Pictures. In addition, China’s Hunan Television has invested in Lionsgate Entertainment, Warner Bros. has a joint venture with Chinese Media Capital, Tang Media Partners purchased IM Global, a Hollywood film financier and sales agency, and Fosun owns U.S. production company, Studio 8. Another consideration is the influence of Mexico over Hollywood. Mexico is another of President Trump’s antagonized countries, which has U.S. production facilities and is supported by TV networks such as Univision and Telemundo. As far as the U.S. broadcast TV advertising environment is concerned, some observers point to a buyers’ market due to some recent ad sales executive moves: ABC’s Geri Wang stepped down last month, and Catherine Sullivan went to Omnicom. Plus, FOX’s head of sales, Toby Byrne, left the network last September. Last December, during a presentation, David Poltrack, CBS’s chief research officer, described a very promising broadcast TV ad market for the 2017-18 season. “With advertisers moving money that has beendiverted intodigital experimentation back into television and returning to reachbased television campaign planning,” he said, “the television advertising market is exhibiting increased stability, versus the past several years.” Poltrack continued: “When we look at the economic picture, we see some positive signs regarding the advertising market going forward. GDP growth picked up in the most recent quarter. The growth rate in consumer spending is accelerating. Private sector employment continues CBSSI’s welcoming breakfast NBCUniversal gets ready to entertain buyers at one of its sound stages Lunch at Disney Studios featured a Mariachi band Indie party at the InterContinental Hotel Fox’s unique sit-down luncheon Screenings setting on the Warner Bros. lot
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