CORONAVIRUS FORCES MORE GLOBAL EVENT CANCELLATIONS

Approaching 130,000 confirmed cases worldwide, the coronavirus pandemic has already claimed more than 4,700 fatalities and continues to force the cancellation or postponement of massive events. In the entertainment industry, MIPTV, Series Mania and NAB Show suspensions, among many others, have already been made official, and cases are increasing day by day.

In the last hours, CinemaCon 2020 was officially cancelled by the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO). The event that specializes in the film industry was scheduled for March 30 to April 2 in the city of Las Vegas, and has no rescheduling date yet.

Meanwhile, through a statement, the Asociación Peruana de Televisión por Cable (APTC) reported the postponement of its XII APTC Summit, one of the most relevant events for the Latin American industry. The organizers indicated that they will shortly reveal the exact rescheduling date.

The pandemic is also evident in minor cases. For example, late-night shows in New York City almost uniformly announced that they were suspending tapings with live studio audiences until further notice. These include some of USA's most successful shows, such as NBC’s “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”, among others.

In the soccer world, there are already numerous examples of games that had to be played behind closed doors. In the case of Germany, the local Football Association ruled that many of the Bundesliga matches have to be played without spectators. That is why pay TV operator Sky Deutschland decided to make live highlights sessions available free to air on Sky Sport News HD on the upcoming two weekends.

American networks’ classic upfronts were also affected by the disease. NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS were the last ones to confirm the cancellation of their presentations, joining a list that already included A+E Networks, AMC Networks, Fox News Channel and FreeWheel.