As COVID-19 Upends TV Ad Sales, Networks and Buyers Enact New Strategies

"We're trying to find solutions that work for everybody."

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has left the TV industry reeling and in “uncharted territory,” as execs and buyers began navigating the ad sales fallout of sports cancellations, which began two weeks ago and continued through Tuesday’s Summer Olympics postponement.

Now that networks and marketers have had a week or two to regroup and strategize, they are carefully moving forward in the current climate, though currently taking a short-term view of the “new normal.”

“We’re trying to take things two weeks at a time, versus making big changes,” said Peter Olsen, evp of ad sales at A+E Networks.

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