The Voxx universal seatback in-vehicle entertainment system was the featured prize in a “One Bid” competition on Friday’s CBS telecast of The Price Is Right. Four contestants vied to be closest in guessing the system’s actual $1,299 price without going over to advance to an actual prize-bearing pricing round. The winning contestant guessed $1,000. Another player low-balled the system at $550. The system as featured on the show included dual 10.1-inch touch-screen monitors and unspecified “accessories.” Voxx trumpeted the product’s appearance in Thursday emails to reporters. Friday's episode was recorded April 1, said the show's website.
Best Buy undercut previous advertised lows for 4K TVs in a Friday email pushing UHD models for as low as $229. It could have gone far lower in its marketing pitch, as the link led to an ad for its Insignia store brand with a head-snapping price of $179 for a 43-inch Fire TV edition with HDR. The NS-43DF710NA19, with a list price of $229, had an average 4.6 out of 5-star rating from 615 customers. The Toshiba 43-inch-inch 43LF621U19, also a 4K Fire TV edition model with HDR, was discounted to $229 from $329 Friday, it said. Post-Christmas, (see 1901020045), Best Buy’s advertised starting price for 4K TVs was $249 for an Insignia 43-inch model.
Sprint is pushing hard to steal customers from AT&T and Verizon, new promotions show. Customers who switch to Sprint from another wireless carrier will get up to $650 to help cover switching fees, and they can score for a limited time a $250 prepaid Mastercard if they buy a late-model “iconic” smartphone with a contract, it said Friday. Under a “100% Total Satisfaction Guarantee,” new and current customers who try Sprint’s “improved” LTE service are assured full satisfaction or they’ll get a refund from Sprint to cover phone costs, service charges and fees, it said. The carrier said it has been working to improve coverage, reliability and speed nationwide via its Next-Gen Network plan, resulting in a 36 percent performance boost in national average download speeds from March to March. Through roaming agreements, Sprint offers 30 percent more total LTE data coverage nationwide, it said.
DOJ will hold a May 2-3 public workshop on competition in TV and digital advertising, including on implications for antitrust enforcement and policy. Justice seeks comment through June 15 on the topics covered by the workshop. Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim will open Day 1 at 1:30 p.m., and the event is at Liberty Square Building's Bingaman Auditorium and Lecture Hall, 450 5th St. NW. Academics and executives "from leading companies, including buyers and sellers of advertising inventory" will speak, the department said. "The Division intends to explore the practical considerations that industry participants face and the competitive impact of technological developments such as digital and targeted advertising in media markets." Panelists haven't been disclosed.
The Association of National Advertisers’ chairman said a “dark side persists” as digital media has grown exponentially. “Seven out of 10 consumers say ads are annoying, and ad blocking is accelerating. Privacy breaches and consumer data misuse keeps occurring. Unacceptable content continues to be available and is still being viewed alongside our brands,” Marc Pritchard, also Procter & Gamble’s chief brand officer, told the ANA Media Conference in Orlando Thursday. Among his suggestions is to place a tag “on all ads, for all formats across digital and TV, which is used to control ad frequency and de-duplicate impressions.”
Sprint is selling the 10.5-inch iPad Air 3 and 7.9-inch iPad mini 5 on its website for $10 per month over 24 months in a flash promotion running through Thursday. New and existing customers who add a line of service get more than half off suggested retail prices, it said Friday. Unlimited data plans start at $25/month, with a 10 GB hot spot, for customers with an active handset and enrolled in AutoPay. Video streams max out at 480p, music tops out at 500 kbps and gaming at 2 Mbps, said the company. Sprint customers can now use Apple Pay to pay their wireless bill from the MySprint app on their phone or tablet, it said.
To mark the 46th anniversary of the first cellular phone call on April 3, 1973, Motorola is discounting the price of phones and moto mod accessories up to $220 in a limited-time deal. Wednesday-Friday, the 32 GB ($90 off) and 64 GB moto ($120 off) g6 smartphones are on sale for $199; the moto g6 play is $50 off at $149; and moto mods are 25 percent off, said the company. Through April 20, the moto z3 play will be bundled with a speaker mod for $349 ($150 off), and an Alexa mod bundle is discounted by $200 to $349; the moto x4 is discounted by $200 to $149 (32 GB) and $220 to $199 (64 GB), it said.
Best Buy tapped the tax refund opportunity in an iPhone promotion Thursday. “Turn your refund into a reward,” said a customer email, pitching a $400 Best Buy gift card to customers who trade in select phones for an iPhone XR. Payment plans were $31.25 over 24 months at Verizon or a one-time $749 payment; $25 a month over 30 months, or $31.25, with Next Every Year at AT&T; and $31.25 over 24 months at Sprint, or as low as $15 per month over two years with a new line.
Software provider DearMob and consumer tech website iMore launched a 5G phone voting campaign sweepstakes Monday, offering a 256 GB iPhone XS to participants who choose to stick with Apple this year or jump from an iPhone to Android 5G. DearMob’s iPhone Manager helps users make the transition from one mobile operating system to the other. The voting campaign runs through April 8 at 11:59 PDT.
Comcast is bundling NBCUniversal's and Sky's advertising capabilities into a joint ad initiative, AdSmart, it said Monday. It said capabilities will include targeting precise consumer segments with ads directly targeting households and contextual media planning driven by artificial intelligence. Comcast bought control of Sky in a deal related to Disney agreeing to buy much of 21st Century Fox (see 1810250046).