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Its already been an exciting Major League Baseball season. And that excitement is clearly translating into the business and advertising side as well. Earlier this summer, Variety reported that ads for the MLB All-Star Game, which took place in July, sold out over a month in advance. On Monday night during Game 3 of the World Series, when the Los Angeles Dodgers won against the Toronto Blue Jayswhich gave L.A. a 2-1 series lead and featured another significant performance from Shohei Ohtanithe game went to 18 innings and lasted six hours and 39 minutes. So what happens to ads when a game has extra innings? When a large tentpole tournament or a championship game like the Super Bowl goes into overtime, it often turns into a bidding war between advertisers. But baseball is a unique animal and in a league of its own. Its different compared with the NFL’s Super Bowl, given the complexity of the sports structure and due to unplanned breaks and pitcher changes, which have to be accounted for. According to a source familiar with the matter, Monday nights game had so many breaks that Fox, which is broadcasting the series, went through its entire national inventory by the 13th inning, running out of spots because it went on for so long. From there, the network ran several promos from that point on until the 18th inning. While a normal game usually runs around 76 commercials, the source said that around 108 spots ran on Monday night. What typically happens from a ratings perspective is that the network can cut off the game and split it into two sets of viewership numbers: one where it starts at the beginning of the game at around 5:15 p.m. ET and goes until 12:30 a.m. ET. And then theres the entire game from start to finish: Monday nights Game 3 ended around 3 a.m. ET. The longer the game goes on, viewers will start to go to bed and the ratings will typically dropso it doesnt necessarily help to continue running new spots at that point in the game. They ran into an anomaly, the source told Fast Company. However, something similar happened seven years ago in 2018, when the Dodgers and Red Sox had an 18-inning game during Game 3 at Dodger Stadium, and the network had to split viewership into two games, according to our source. While the viewership numbers from Monday nights 18-inning Game 3 have yet to be released, Fox reported that it averaged 13.3 million viewers from Game 1 on Friday, down 13% from last year, while 11.6 million watched Game 2 on Saturday, which is down 16%. At the same time, with the Blue Jays in the series, TV ratings are generally up when combined with Canadas viewership. Fox declined to share specific numbers around commercials in this years World Series tournament, but in Varietys report from July, a source told the publication at the time that Fox had been seeking between $750,000 and $800,000 for a 30-second commercial in the All-Star Game.
Category:
E-Commerce
Google-parent Alphabet beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue on Wednesday, as both its core advertising business and cloud computing unit showed steady growth. Shares of the company rose 6% in extended trading. The company reported total revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $99.89 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. The cloud services and AI giant raised its capital expenditure forecast for the year to between $91 billion and $93 billion, compared with the estimates of $80.67 billion. Google Cloud remained one of Alphabet’s fastest-growing segments, benefiting from surging enterprise demand for AI-powered infrastructure and data analytics services. The unit posted revenue of $15.16 billion, topping estimates of $14.72 billion. The performance was likely boosted by burgeoning enterprise demand for its AI infrastructure. The unit continues to close the gap with larger rivals Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, aided by strong take-up of Vertex AI and custom Tensor Processing Units. Competition in the broader AI and cloud market is intensifying, with rivals aggressively cutting prices and introducing new generative-AI capabilities. Alphabet’s advertising unit, which brings in the vast majority of the company’s revenue, has been competing in a crowded field of rivals vying for more ad dollars as lower interest rates are expected to lift the economy. However, analysts have pointed to cautious spending from advertisers in some sectors grappling with economic uncertainty due to pressures from tariff costs and a rapidly evolving global trading landscape. Still, Wall Street expects the company to benefit from advertisers moving away from experimental ad platforms like Snapchat and others. The results come just days after Microsoft and SoftBank Group-backed OpenAI unveiled “Atlas,” an AI-powered browser aimed at directly competing with Google’s core search engine and browser stack. The launch represents one of the most significant challenges to Google’s search dominance in years and will be a key focus for investors listening for management’s response to the rising competitive threat to its most lucrative business. Akash Sriram in Bengaluru, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. Job gains have slowed this year, and the unemployment rate has edged up but remained low through August, the Fed said in a statement issued Wednesday. More recent indicators are consistent with these developments.” The government hasn’t issued unemployment data after August because of the shutdown. The Fed is watching private-sector figures instead. Wednesday’s decision brings the Fed’s key rate down to about 3.9%, from about 4.1%. The central bank had cranked its rate to roughly 5.3% in 2023 and 2024 to combat the biggest inflation spike in four decades. Lower rates could, over time, reduce borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards, as well as for business loans. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Feds 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without the economic signposts it typically relies on from the government, including monthly reports on jobs, inflation and consumer spending, which have been suspended because of the government shutdown. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. The Fed typically raises its short term rate to combat inflation, while it cuts rates to encourage borrowing and spending and shore up hiring. Right now its two goals are in conflict, so it is reducing borrowing costs to support the job market, while still keeping rates high enough to avoid stimulating the economy so much that it worsens inflation. Speaking to reporters after the Fed announced its rate decision, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said there were strongly differing views about how to proceed in December at the policy meeting and a further reduction in the benchmark rate is not a foregone conclusion. On Wednesday, the Fed also said it would stop reducing the size of its massive securities holdings, which it accumulated during the pandemic and after the 2008-2009 Great Recession. The change, to take effect Dec. 1, could over time slightly reduce longer-term interest rates on things like mortgages but won’t have much impact on consumer borrowing costs. The Fed purchased nearly $5 trillion of Treasury securities and mortgage-backed bonds from 2020 to 2022 to stabilize financial markets during the pandemic and keep longer-term interest rates low. The bond-buying lifted its securities holdings to $9 trillion. In the past three years, however, the Fed has reduced its holdings to about $6.6 trillion. To shrink its holdings, the Fed lets securities mature without replacing them, reducing bank reserves. In recent months, however, the reductions appeared to disrupt money markets, threatening to push up shorter-term interest rates. Two of the 12 officials who vote on the Feds rate decisions dissented, but in different directions. Fed governor Stephen Miran dissented for the second straight meeting in favor of a half-point cut. Miran was appointed by President Donald Trump just before the central banks last meeting in September. Jeffrey Schmid, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, voted against the move because he preferred no change to the Feds rate. Schmid has previously expressed concern that inflation remains too high. Trump has repeatedly attacked Powell for not reducing borrowing costs more quickly. In South Korea early Wednesday he repeated his criticisms of the Fed chair. Hes out of there in another couple of months, Trump said. Powells term ends in May. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the administration is considering five people to replace Powell, and will decide by the end of this year. Powell was asked about the impact of the government shutdown, which began on Oct. 1 and has interrupted the distribution of economic data. Powell said the Fed does have access to some data that give it a picture of whats going on. He added that, If there were a significant or material change in the economy, one way or another, I think wed pick that up through this. But the Fed chair did acknowledge that the limited data could cause officials to proceed more cautiously heading into its next meeting in mid-December. “Theres a possibility that it would make sense to be more cautious about moving (on rates). Im not committing to that, Im just saying its certainly a possibility that you would say we really cant see, so lets slow down. September’s jobs report, scheduled to be released three weeks ago, is still postponed. This month’s hiring figures, to be released Nov. 7, will likely be delayed and may be less comprehensive when they are finally released. And the White House said last week that October’s inflation report may never be issued at all. Before the government shutdown cut off the flow of data, monthly hiring gains had weakened to an average of just 29,000 a month for the previous three months, according to the Labor Department’s data. The unemployment rate ticked up to a still-low 4.3% in August from 4.2% in July. More recently, several large corporations have announced sweeping layoffs, including UPS, Amazon, and Target, which threatens to boost the unemployment rate if it continues. Powell said the Fed is watching the layoff announcements very carefully. Meanwhile, last weeks inflation report released more than a week late because of the shutdown showed that inflation remains elevated but isnt accelerating and may not need higher interest rates to tame it. The government’s first report on the economy’s growth in the July-September quarter was scheduled to be published on Thursday, but will be delayed, as will Friday’s report on consumer spending that also includes the Fed’s preferred inflation measure. Christopher Rugaber, AP economics writer
Category:
E-Commerce
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