News Information and Media Site: Byers Market: Adam Silver suspends NBA; Tom Hanks tests positive

March 12, 2020

By DYLAN BYERS in Los Angeles &

AHIZA GARCÍA-HODGES in San Francisco

Good morning. 🚨 President Donald Trump has announced that he will ban most foreign travelers from Europe for the next 30 days amid the growing coronavirus outbreak.

🌁 In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has called for gatherings of more than 250 people to be canceled or postponed.

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Cost of Coronavirus

Adam Silver suspends NBA

Moving the Market: Adam Silver has suspended the National Basketball Association season indefinitely after a player on the Utah Jazz tested positive for COVID-19, the most drastic response to the coronavirus outbreak by an American business to date.

• "The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic," the league said in a statement last night.

The big picture: The financial repercussions of the suspension will be massive. The NBA, its staff and its stakeholders stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars (if not more) in revenue from lost ticket sales, media agreements and merchandise.

• That figure will get significantly higher should Silver decide to cancel the remainder of the NBA season and the playoffs. In the long term, those losses could affect the entire economy of the league, from player salaries to TV ad revenue to arena staff.

The bigger picture: The NBA suspension could be a sign of what's in store for all American sports leagues. We may be looking at weeks if not months without live sports, with major ramifications for the media and advertising industries.

• The National Hockey League is expected to make a decision about its season soon. Several Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer teams have postponed their games.

• NCAA President Mark Emmert has announced that attendance for March Madness tournament games will be limited to "essential staff and limited family."

• In Europe, a player for the Italian football side Juventus has tested positive for COVID-19, posing a potential threat to the highly popular and lucrative Champions League tournament.

• Finally, an executive board member for the 2020 Olympics said Wednesday that any decision to delay the Summer Games should be made before May, per Reuters.

What's next: The NBA suspension "will be at least two weeks so all players affected can go through quarantine and, hopefully, be cleared of the virus," ESPN's Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps report. "In reality, it will likely be longer."

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Coronavirus, Con't.

Tom Hanks tests positive

Talk of Tinseltown: Tom Hanks says that he and his wife Rita Wilson have tested positive for COVID-19. They are the first high-profile celebrities to test positive for the disease, which could influence national perceptions about it.

• The big picture: "By going public with the information, [Hanks] instantly becomes the face of an outbreak that has cascaded around the globe," NYT's Nicole Sperling writes.

What's next: Hanks' diagnosis "may make the situation seem much more tangible to some Americans" who may doubt the veracity of the disease because they watch Fox News or listen to talk radio.

🗽 Alone at Night 🗽

Talk of TV Land: The New York-based late night shows — including NBC's Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and CBS' Late Show with Stephen Colbert — will tape without live, in-studio audiences starting Monday.

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#MeToo Justice

Harvey Weinstein sentenced

Talk of Tinseltown: Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for sex crimes, a landmark moment for the six women who testified against him, the 90-some women who accused him of harassment and the entire #MeToo movement.

• The big picture: "The moment capped a precipitous fall from power for Mr. Weinstein," who was once of the most acclaimed producers in Hollywood, NYT's Jan Ransom reports.

The sentence: Justice James A. Burke could have sentenced Weinstein to as little as five years, but he took the advice of prosecutors who asked for a much longer sentence.

• The long sentence means "Weinstein, who is 67 and in poor health, could very well spend the rest of his life in prison."

• Weinstein said he was remorseful but didn't apologize to the women who accused him of sexual assault. He also compared the #MeToo movement to the Red Scare over communism in the 1950s.

What's next: Weinstein was sent to jail after sentencing but complained of chest pains and was taken to the hospital for evaluation. His team has vowed to appeal the decision.

Market Links

• Brian Lesser resigns from AT&T's Xandr ad unit (Reuters)

• Jeff Bezos faces a coronavirus misinformation problem (NBC)

• Jack Dorsey forces Twitter employees to work from home (TC)

• Rupert Murdoch stays mum on Fox News' virus coverage (WaPo)

• Susan Zirinsky addresses contagion at CBS News (Deadline)

Andrew Bernstein/Getty

Mouse Meeting

Bob Iger talks to shareholders

Big in Burbank: Bob Iger and Disney's newly-appointed chief executive Bob Chapek shared the stage at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Raleigh on Wednesday and tried to allay concerns over the financial toll of the coronavirus outbreak.

• Iger said the coronavirus outbreak is sobering but said Disney has "survived crises, including wars, economic downturns and natural disasters, during its nearly 100-year history."

The big picture: Disney shares have dropped 23 percent since the start of the year. Variety's Brent Lang says Disney "may prove to be a bellwether of the industry's resistance to the virus, given its hefty presence in all pockets of entertainment."

• Meanwhile, coronavirus could have a major impact on movie releases if people become increasingly wary of crowds.

• Disney parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong have been closed for weeks because of coronavirus.

• The outbreak, now labeled a pandemic by the World Health Organization, has also disrupted toy supply chains.

The other big picture: Disney's CEO change "comes at a potentially challenging time for Disney's dominant movie studio, which posted a global box office record last year but is not expected to match those results anytime soon," LAT's Ryan Faughnder writes.

• At the shareholder meeting, Chapek said he understood the "gravity of trying to fill" Iger's shoes, but said he was "ready for it."

What's next: Disney didn't indicate that it would change any of its movie releases due to coronavirus, as some other studios have done. The company's U.S. theme parks also remain open — for now.