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U.S. health officials have been monitoring and responding to bird flu in humans, even as they emphasize that the risk to the general public remains low. 
A strain of bird flu called H5N1 has been confirmed in dairy cows across nine U.S. states, as well as in two people.
Some infectious disease experts say the U.S. government appears to be generally prepared if bird flu begins to spread more widely and easily to humans, especially compared with how equipped the country was for the Covid pandemic.

Cows are seen standing in a feedlot on June 14, 2023 in Quemado, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

U.S. health officials are monitoring and preparing to combat bird flu in humans, even as they emphasize that the risk to the general public remains low. 
A strain of bird flu called H5N1 has been confirmed in dairy cows across nine U.S. states, as well as in two people, amid a global outbreak among poultry and other animals. The latest case was announced Wednesday in a dairy farm worker in Michigan. A child in Australia was also recently infected with bird flu, the country announced Tuesday.

H5N1 has been spreading among more animal species worldwide since 2020, but its detection in U.S. livestock earlier this year was a twist health officials did not expect. In rare cases, bird flu viruses spread to humans and can cause mild to severe symptoms that can require hospitalization. 
There is currently no evidence that H5N1 is spreading from person to person. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also said the risk of infection is higher among farmworkers than in the general population. 
Still, the U.S. government, along with state and local health departments, are monitoring new and emerging infections among humans and animals. Federal agencies in the U.S. and elsewhere have also tracked the H5N1 virus for years to monitor its evolution. 
The U.S. government has long stockpiled vaccines and drugs to be used in a possible bird flu pandemic. Last week, it started the process of preparing nearly 5 million doses of vaccines expected to be well-matched against H5N1, among other efforts to respond, the Health and Human Services Department confirmed to CNBC. 
Some infectious disease experts told CNBC the U.S. government appears to be generally prepared if bird flu begins to spread more widely and easily to humans, especially compared with how equipped the country was for the Covid pandemic. The experts said most of the necessary tools are already on hand but the government must ensure it deploys them effectively, if needed. 

“There’s a lot of pieces that are already in place that help us understand that we can respond to this faster,” said Dr. Andrew Pekosz, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “As is always the case, though, it’s about the efficiency of our responses, right? We know what we can do. We just have to be able to do it effectively.”
The latest human infection, in the Michigan dairy worker, is not a surprise, according to both experts and the government. The CDC said Wednesday that similar cases in humans could be identified because high levels of the virus have been found in raw milk from infected cows.

Millions of vaccine doses

The U.S. government currently has two vaccine virus candidates that it believes are a good match for H5N1. Those candidates are weakened versions of a virus that trigger a protective immune response against it in the body and can be used to produce vaccines.
Both of the candidates are already available to manufacturers, according to the CDC. The government last week started the process of manufacturing 4.8 million doses of those human vaccines in case they are needed, HHS confirmed. 
Pekosz called those doses a “first line of defense in case we do see some human-to-human transmission.” He said that number is enough to stem an outbreak in its early stages, which could include vaccinating farm workers and some health-care workers. 
But he said far more are needed for the more than 300 million people in the U.S. if the virus spreads widely among humans. 
“Five million doesn’t really get us very far. It’s just a quick start,” Pekosz said. 
U.S. health officials said May 1 that the government could ship more than 100 million doses of human bird flu vaccines within three to four months if needed, NBC News reported. 
Notably, people will need two doses of a vaccine, meaning that 100 million doses is enough for only 50 million people. That suggests the U.S. would need roughly 600 million shots if it wanted to vaccinate the entire population. 
The government faces a difficult decision on how many shots to prepare, especially since it takes a few months to make them.
“It’s either too little or too much. For example, if you make too much food, then a lot of food goes to waste,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease physician at UCSF Health. “That’s really the whole big conundrum now with a vaccine whenever you have a potential threat. It’s the high cost and high-risk aspects.”
Chin-Hong said misinformation and vaccine hesitancy after Covid makes that decision all the more challenging. But he said he believes “you can never really invest too much” in preparing for potential pandemics, especially at a time when climate change, population growth and other factors make them increasingly likely to happen.
The Food and Drug Administration would need to approve bird flu vaccines before they roll out. But Pekosz said that will likely be a “rapid procedure” since the FDA is accustomed to clearing seasonal flu vaccines, which are made using the same manufacturing process as bird flu shots. 

Potential mRNA shots

U.S. health officials are also in talks with messenger RNA vaccine makers about potential bird flu shots for humans. Few details have been shared about those negotiations, but HHS said a final announcement is expected soon. 
Unlike traditional flu shots, mRNA works by teaching cells to produce a harmless piece of a virus, which triggers an immune response against certain diseases. It is the same technology both Pfizer and Moderna have used in their Covid vaccines. 
Chin-Hong said mRNA vaccines could be updated more quickly to match the currently circulating strains of the bird flu. But he said those vaccines have their own challenges, such as needing to be stored at extremely cold temperatures.
In a statement to CNBC, Moderna confirmed that it is involved in negotiations with the government regarding its experimental pandemic influenza shot, mRNA-1018. It targets the exact strain of the virus responsible for the outbreak in dairy cattle. 
The biotech company began testing that shot in an early- to mid-stage trial last summer.
Pfizer declined to confirm negotiations with the government. The company said it is continuing to monitor the spread of H5N1 and study its mRNA-based pandemic influenza vaccine candidates in an early trial. 

Virus surveillance and treatments

The CDC and its partners, including state and local health departments, use multiple surveillance systems to monitor seasonal influenza and other illnesses. They also have specialized methods to detect and monitor new flu viruses. 
Seasonal influenza spreads mostly among humans with predictable peaks during the year, while bird flu spreads mostly among wild birds and other animals.
The CDC said it is looking for the spread of H5N1 to or among people in areas where the virus has been identified in animals or humans. So far, the agency has found “no indicators of unusual influenza activity in people,” including H5N1, according to an update on the agency’s site from last week. 
The CDC also performs ongoing analyses of seasonal and new influenza viruses to identify genetic changes that might allow for them to cause more serious infections in humans, spread more easily to and between people or become less susceptible to vaccines and drugs.
While there is robust testing on the federal, state and local levels, it is far more difficult for an average person to self-screen and get diagnosed for bird flu like they can for Covid, Chin-Hong said. That’s “the big barrier, particularly in the populations that are getting affected now,” he said.
Chin-Hong is referring to farm workers, a large share of whom are immigrants, who may struggle to navigate the U.S. health system due to language barriers and health-care access. 
If people do contract the virus, there are a few FDA-approved antiviral drugs for seasonal flu that can be used for bird flu. That includes Tamiflu, which is an oral prescription medication that should be taken within 48 hours of experiencing symptoms. 
A Texas dairy farm worker who was diagnosed with bird flu in March was treated with an antiviral drug and recovered, according to a CDC report.
But Pekosz said the antiviral drugs in the nation’s stockpile are likely not enough for the vast majority of the population, so manufacturers may be asked to scale up supply.
The average person can protect themselves from bird flu by avoiding any living or dead animals that might be infected, such as livestock or chickens, according to Francesca Torriani, infectious disease specialist with UC San Diego Health.
People who need to make contact with those animals should wear the appropriate mask and eye protection and wash their hands afterward.
Torriani added that pasteurized milk and cheese are likely safer to consume than raw dairy products since the pasteurization process kills harmful bacteria.

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The United Auto Workers union is challenging the results of last week’s organizing vote of Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama, in which workers voted against union representation.
The union alleges the German automaker fired four pro-union workers, forced workers to attend anti-union meetings, and interfered with workers’ ability to advocate for the union.
The UAW is asking the NLRB to order a new election.

United Auto Workers (UAW) members and supporters on a picket line outside the ZF Chassis Systems plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023.
Andi Rice | Bloomberg | Getty Images

DETROIT – The United Auto Workers union is challenging the results of last week’s organizing vote of Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama, in which workers voted against union representation, and is asking federal officials to order a new election.
Among a dozen or so claims, the Detroit union alleges that the German automaker fired four pro-union workers, forced workers to attend anti-union meetings, and interfered with workers’ ability to advocate for the union.

Union organizing failed at the Alabama plant with 56% of the vote, or 2,642 workers, casting ballots against the UAW, according to the NLRB, which oversaw the election. More than 90% of the 5,075 eligible Mercedes-Benz workers voted in the election.
“All these workers ever wanted was a fair shot at having a voice on the job and a say in their working conditions,” the UAW said in a statement. “And that’s what we’re asking for here. Let’s get a vote at Mercedes in Alabama where the company isn’t allowed to fire people, isn’t allowed to intimidate people, and isn’t allowed to break the law and their own corporate code, and let the workers decide.”
The National Labor Relations Board confirmed Friday afternoon that its Atlanta-based office received the UAW’s objections to the election. Friday was the last day the union could file objections and challenge the election.
Mercedes-Benz in a statement Friday said company officials “worked with the NLRB to adhere to its guidelines and we will continue to do so” through the objection process. The automaker said it “sincerely hoped the UAW would respect our Team Members’ decision.”
The NLRB said its regional director will review the UAW’s allegations of an unfair election. If she finds that the objections raise substantial and material issues of fact that could be best resolved by a hearing, she will order a hearing. If after the hearing, she finds that the employer’s conduct affected the election, she can order a new election.

The agency also reconfirmed that it is processing and investigating unfair labor practice charges filed by the UAW against automakers, including six unfair labor practice charges against Mercedes-Benz since March.
After the results were announced, UAW President Shawn Fain accused the company of conducting an anti-union campaign, including “egregious illegal behavior,” but he declined to discuss the union’s potential plans to object to the results.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain during an online broadcast updating union members on negotiations with the Detroit automakers on Oct. 6, 2023.
Screenshot

Fain said on May 17 that the union would continue to move forward with its charges against Mercedes-Benz, which allege that Mercedes-Benz has “disciplined employees for discussing unionization at work, prohibited distribution of union materials and paraphernalia, surveilled employees, discharged union supporters, forced employees to attend captive audience meetings, and made statements suggesting that union activity is futile,” the NLRB previously said.
The Alabama results were a blow to the UAW’s organizing efforts a month after it won an organizing drive of roughly 4,330 Volkswagen plant workers in Tennessee.
The Mercedes-Benz vote was expected to be more challenging for the union than the vote at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, where the union had already established a presence after two failed organizing drives in the past decade and where it faced less opposition from the automaker.

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Eli Lilly said it is investing another $5.3 billion in a manufacturing plant in Lebanon, Indiana, to expand the supply of its highly popular weight loss drug Zepbound, diabetes treatment Mounjaro and other medicines in its pipeline.
Demand for Zepbound and Mounjaro has far outpaced supply over the past year, spurring shortages in the U.S. and forcing the pharmaceutical giant to invest heavily to scale up its manufacturing.
That new commitment brings Eli Lilly’s total investment at the site to $9 billion.

An injection pen of Zepbound, Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug, is displayed in New York City on Dec. 11, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Eli Lilly on Friday said it is investing another $5.3 billion in a manufacturing plant in Lebanon, Indiana, to boost supply of its highly popular weight loss drug Zepbound, diabetes treatment Mounjaro and other medicines.
Demand for those treatments has far outpaced supply over the past year, spurring shortages in the U.S. and forcing the pharmaceutical giant to invest heavily to scale up its manufacturing.

That new commitment brings Eli Lilly’s total investment at the site to $9 billion. That makes it Eli Lilly’s largest manufacturing investment in its nearly 150-year history, the company’s CEO David Ricks said in a statement.
Eli Lilly expects the Lebanon site to start making medicines toward the end of 2026, and scale up operations through 2028. The company first announced its plans to build new Indiana sites in 2022. 
The plant will specifically increase Eli Lilly’s capacity to manufacture the active ingredient in Zepbound and Mounjaro, called tirzepatide. The company refers to those treatments as incretin drugs, which mimic certain gut hormones to suppress a person’s appetite and regulate blood sugar. 
“This multi-site campus will make our latest medicines, including Zepbound and Mounjaro, support pipeline growth and leverage the latest technology and automation for maximum efficiency, safety and quality control,” Ricks said in a statement.
Eli Lilly said 900 employees, including engineers, scientists, operating personnel and lab technicians, will staff the site when it is fully operational.

The company has spent more than $18 billion to build, expand and purchase manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Europe since 2020.
Eli Lilly has several manufacturing sites either “ramping up or under construction,” Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi told investors during an earnings call last month. That includes the Lebanon plant and another Indiana site, two locations in North Carolina, one in Ireland, one in Germany and a seventh site the company recently acquired from Nexus Pharmaceuticals. 
Investors cheered Eli Lilly after the company hiked its full-year revenue outlook by $2 billion, in part due to confidence about increased production of Zepbound, Mounjaro and other incretin drugs for the rest of the year.
“Now that we’re four months into the year, we have greater visibility into that, into these nodes of capacity and feel more confident,” Ashkenazi said during the call.

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Pharmacy staff at two CVS retail stores in Rhode Island voted to join a new national pharmacy union called The Pharmacy Guild.
The results signal growing momentum in a movement to help thousands of U.S. pharmacy workers address what they call unsafe working conditions. 
Pharmacy workers at locations open 24 hours a day in Wakefield and Westerly won their union elections.

The CVS pharmacy logo is displayed on a sign above a CVS Health Corp. store in Las Vegas, Nevada on Feb. 7, 2024.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

Pharmacy staff at two CVS retail stores in Rhode Island voted to join a new national pharmacy union on Friday, signaling growing momentum in a movement to help thousands of U.S. pharmacy workers address what they allege are unsafe working conditions. 
Pharmacy workers at locations open 24 hours a day in Wakefield and Westerly won their union elections, making them the first stores to unionize in CVS’ home state, according to a release from the union. It comes a month after a CVS Omnicare pharmacy in Las Vegas — which is not customer facing — became the first location to join the union, known as The Pharmacy Guild. 

The labor group will represent them in negotiations with CVS. 
“These are the first brick-and-mortar classic CVS model” stores to join the union, Shane Jerominski, a community pharmacist and co-founder of The Pharmacy Guild, told CNBC. “This is really where my heart is … we’ve all worked for Walgreens or CVS in the classic retail setting, so we all know the working conditions there.” 
The two locations consist of nine of the company’s roughly 30,000 pharmacists in the U.S., a CVS spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC. Some 700 CVS pharmacists are already unionized with other groups, they noted.
The spokesperson said the company respects its employees’ right to unionize or refrain from doing so. They added that the vote is the first of several steps in the collective bargaining process. 
If the National Labor Relations Board confirms the results, “we’ll negotiate in good faith with the union to try to reach an agreement,” the CVS spokesperson added. 

They said the company is committed to ensuring there are “appropriate levels of staffing and resources” at its pharmacies, using “a combination of staffing, labor hours, workflow process, and technology to do so.”
Jerominski and other organizers of a nationwide walkout of pharmacy staff in the fall partnered with IAM Healthcare, a union representing thousands of health-care professionals, to launch The Pharmacy Guild in November. That work stoppage spanned major drugstore chains such as CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid, and drew widespread media attention to workers’ concerns. 
The Pharmacy Guild aims to help pharmacy staff address what many workers call unsafe staffing levels and increasing workloads across the industry that put both employees and patients at risk. The union also calls for legislative and regulatory changes to establish higher standards of practice in pharmacies to protect patients. 
The unionization effort reflects the years of growing discontent among retail pharmacy staff, who say they often grapple with understaffed teams and increasing work expectations imposed by corporate management. Many employees said the Covid-19 pandemic only exacerbated those issues, with new duties such as vaccinations and testing stretching pharmacy staff even thinner. 
The Pharmacy Guild is seeing momentum build in other parts of the country, Jerominski said. He added there could be more union filings for stores at companies other than CVS in the next several weeks.

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Boeing and NASA are moving forward with a June 1 launch attempt of the company’s Starliner capsule despite a “stable” leak in the spacecraft’s propulsion system.
The mission, marking the first time Starliner carries U.S. astronauts, was postponed earlier this month.
“We know we can manage this [leak], so this is really not a safety of flight issue,” Boeing Vice President Mark Nappi said on Friday.

In this handout provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard is seen illuminated by spotlights on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 ahead of the NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test on May 4, 2024 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Joel Kowsky | NASA | Handout | Getty Images

Boeing and NASA are moving forward with the launch of the company’s Starliner capsule, set to carry U.S. astronauts for the first time, despite a “stable” leak in the spacecraft’s propulsion system.
“We are comfortable with the causes that we’ve identified for this specific leak,” Mark Nappi, Boeing vice president and manager of the company’s Commercial Crew program, said during a press conference on Friday.

“We know we can manage this [leak], so this is really not a safety of flight issue,” Nappi added.
Boeing is now targeting June 1 for the first crewed launch of its spacecraft, with backup opportunities on June 2, June 5 and June 6.
The mission, known as the Starliner Crew Flight Test, is intended to serve as the final major development test of the capsule by delivering a pair of NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station before flying routine missions.

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Starliner’s crew debut has been delayed by years, with SpaceX’s competing Dragon capsule flying astronauts for NASA regularly since 2020 under the agency’s Commercial Crew program. To date, Boeing has eaten $1.5 billion in costs due to Starliner setbacks, in addition to nearly $5 billion of NASA development funds.

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is seen before docking with the International Space Station on May 20, 2022 during the uncrewed OFT-2 mission.

NASA and Boeing called off a launch attempt on May 6 about two hours before liftoff due to an issue detected with the Atlas V rocket that will lift Starliner into orbit. Atlas V is built and operated by United Launch Alliance, or ULA, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

During the press conference Friday, a ULA official noted that the rocket’s problematic valve was replaced a week after the launch was postponed.
But after calling off the launch attempt, a “small” helium leak with Starliner was identified, causing Boeing and NASA to begin new assessments of the capsule and its safety for the mission. NASA Associate Administrator Ken Bowersox, one of the agency’s most senior officials, explained to the press on Friday that “it’s taken a while for us to be ready to discuss” the helium leak problem.
“It’s so complicated. There’s so many things going on. We really just needed to work through it as a team,” Bowersox said.
After analysis, NASA and Boeing believe the source of the leak is a seal in one of the flanges of the spacecraft’s helium propulsion system. In testing after the May 6 postponement, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich said that teams “have seen that the leak rate isn’t changing.”
Stich explained that the plan is to monitor the leak in the lead-up to launch and, after reaching the International Space Station, reassess the leak rate.
“We don’t expect the other [seals] to leak, and I think that’s a confidence that we have,” Stich said.
Stich also emphasized that NASA has “flown vehicles with small helium leaks” before, including “a couple of cases” from missions flown by the Space Shuttle and SpaceX’s Dragon.
NASA, Boeing and ULA will hold another review on May 29 to review the leak. They plan to roll the rocket and capsule out to the launch pad on May 30 for the June 1 attempt. More

Advertisers are increasingly spending more on retail media networks — the platforms run by companies such as Amazon and Walmart, which show ads in stores, on apps and websites.
Global retail media ad spending is expected to more than double in the coming years.
The growth comes as traditional TV advertising dwindles and tech privacy regulations shake up digital ad spending.

An M&M’s advertisement seen on a gas pump.
Courtesy: GSTV

The next frontier for the ad market isn’t on TV — it’s at screens near points of sale.
Television had long been the key target for advertisers, until tech companies such as Alphabet and Meta-owned platforms like Facebook began to gobble up market share. While ad dollars are rapidly shifting from traditional TV to streaming, retail and consumer product companies are now taking up a significant part of the mix.

The so-called retail media networks — the advertising publishing platforms — of e-commerce, retail and consumer companies like Amazon, Walmart and Kroger are attracting billions of dollars in advertising, according to data from eMarketer and GroupM, the media investment arm of WPP, the world’s biggest advertising group.
Global retail media ad spending is expected to more than double from $114.18 billion in 2023 to $233.89 billion in 2027, according to eMarketer. Retail media is expected to represent a larger percentage of digital advertising spending, which has begun to eclipse traditional media spending, growing from 18.9% of that segment in 2023 to 25.7% in 2027, according to eMarketer.
“What we hear from brands most directly is they no longer wake up with a recipe to buy X amount of TV, X amount of social, X amount of digital. They wake up every day trying to buy growth, trying to buy outcomes for their business,” said Sean McCaffrey, president and CEO of GSTV, an on-the-go media network with over 29,000 screens at refueling points tied to convenience retail stores.
GSTV screens reach 115 million viewers per month across 49 states.
Brands are “more open-minded as to where they can find those audiences,” McCaffrey said.

“It’s the new TV for mass reach advertising,” said Mark Boidman, head of media and entertainment investment banking at Solomon Partners. “If you want to reach someone fast, it’s best to get them in a store or on your app. … It’s a 360-degree approach.”

Cookies to carts

Walmart is turning the approximately 170,000 digital screens across its U.S. stores into advertising opportunities. For example, a company that makes a snack or a beauty product can advertise in the TV aisle of the electronics department.

The kind of advertising purchased through retail media networks is often found on in-store displays and screens, websites, mobile apps, streaming services, smart TVs and social media. Not only is it fertile ground for an advertiser to get their offerings in front of consumers looking to spend, it comes with a lot of first-party data.
The amount of data that retailers have on customers — from one-time buyers to loyalists — is extremely valuable to advertisers who want to optimize their exposure.
“If [brands] advertise with a digital ad, for example, and a customer transacts a week later in a store or club, we can connect that up for them and let them know that the ad really worked,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told CNBC earlier this year. “That’s the differentiating advantage that we’ve got.”
Walmart has been a particularly big player. While it’s still a new frontier for the retailer, advertising has propelled profits at the giant retailer in recent quarters. The company also recently agreed to buy TV maker Vizio in a bid to further boost its ad business.
Of the companies eMarketer tracks, Amazon was considered the biggest retail media network in the U.S., with a roughly 75% share of retail media ad revenue. Other top networks by revenue include Walmart, Instacart, eBay and Etsy.
The shift toward retail media comes as advertisers are faced with tech privacy changes that has led to a pullback in the collection of data.
Earlier this year, Google began its revamp of how it and other companies track users online, namely the use of cookies, which keep tabs on the activity of internet users so that advertisers can target them with relevant ads.
In January, Google began to restrict cookies for 1% of its Chrome browser users, with the goal of completely removing third-party cookies by the third quarter of this year. Advertisers have been grappling with how to make the transition.
Advertising and media executives note that retail media networks now dominate conversations at conferences and other gatherings, such as the Cannes Lions advertising festival. It’s often a highlight on earnings calls, too.
“[Retail media networks] have that balance with targeting and privacy and compliance. I think that’s where the money really starts shifting,” Tim Hurd, vice president of media activation at Goodway Group. “I think that’s key. These retailers have that kind of data” 

Taking away from TV

Big brands that have in some cases sat out for years the TV advertising frenzy around the biggest US sporting event — the Super Bowl — are returning Sunday and spending big amid record ad prices. It’s been a bumpy couple years marked by pandemic-era restraint and political polarization, but the American football championship offers an increasingly unequalled viewership too big to pass up.
Olivier Douliery | AFP | Getty Images

The rise of retail media ads comes against a backdrop of major shifts in the media landscape. Pay-TV customer numbers and traditional TV viewership (outside of sports) continue to decline as more viewers move toward streaming.
And although ad buying in digital and streaming is rebounding, traditional TV still lags. That much was clear in the first-quarter earnings reports of media giants like Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Disney saw a first-quarter decline in ad revenue for its traditional cable networks and Hulu, despite an increase at cable crown jewel ESPN; Warner Bros. Discovery reported a drop in ad revenue; Paramount Global got an expected boost from airing the Super Bowl; and NBCUniversal’s domestic ad revenue was flat. Streaming ad revenue for the legacy media giants, however, showed growth.
Outside of tentpole moments on TV, such as the Super Bowl and other live sports, advertisers are now strategizing on multiple fronts and divvying up spending across TV, social media, e-commerce and digital, said Goodway Group’s Hurd.
“Linear TV advertising is still declining,” said Kate Scott-Dawkins, GroupM’s global president of business intelligence, noting the last decade has seen ad revenue shift from print and radio to TV and now toward digital.
Retail media revenue grew from less than $1 billion in the U.S. a decade ago to a projected $42 billion this year — or $129.4 billion globally, said Scott-Dawkins, citing GroupM’s data, noting that brand advertising budgets may not directly shift from traditional TV into on-site retail advertising.
She added traditional TV revenue may move to smart TVs, however, informed by the data on customer spending habits that retailers can provide.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.

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Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle said there is “massive, rampant abuse” of special services like wheelchair assistance.
Travelers in the U.S. can request wheelchair access, which is provided free of charge.
The imposters are creating delays for other passengers, Biffle said.

Frontier Airlines plane seen at Cancun International Airport. On Wednesday, December 08, 2021, in Cancun International Airport, Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico.
Artur Widak | Nurphoto | Getty Images

The 1986 Air Carrier Access Act requires airlines to provide a wheelchair for passengers with disabilities at the airport. The problem, though, is that many travelers are faking it, Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle said.
“There is massive, rampant abuse of special services. There are people using wheelchair assistance who don’t need it at all,” Biffle said at a Wings Club luncheon on Thursday in New York.

He said he has seen some Frontier flights where 20 people were brought in wheelchairs at departure, with only three using them upon arrival.
“We are healing so many people,” he joked.
Biffle wasn’t talking about travelers’ personal wheelchairs, but rather the service airlines provide when travelers arrive at the airport.
It costs the airline between $30 and $35 each time a customer requests a wheelchair, Biffle said, and abuse of the service leads to delays for travelers with a genuine need for assistance.
“Everyone should be entitled to it who needs it, but you park in a handicapped space they will tow your car and fine you,” he told CNBC. “There should be the same penalty for abusing these services.”

Biffle isn’t the only executive to complain about travelers falsely claiming they need access to a wheelchair at the airport.
In July 2022, John Holland-Kaye, the then-CEO of London’s Heathrow Airport, told LBC Radio amid staffing shortages that some travelers were “using wheelchair support to try to get fast-tracked through the airport.”
“If you go on TikTok, that is one of the travel hacks people are recommending,” he said. “Please don’t do that. We need to protect the service for people who need it most.”
John Morris, a triple amputee and founder of WheelchairTravel.org, noted there are reasons why some travelers might need wheelchairs on their outbound leg but not upon arrival. For example, they could need the help to get through a large airport like in Atlanta or New York City, but not so at smaller facilities.
“Disability impacts people in a lot of different ways,” he said.
“I think there’s a good case to be made that abusers should face some consequence but I’m not sure how we do that in a society when our disabilities aren’t [always] visible,” Morris said.
Earlier this year, the Department of Transportation proposed stricter rules aimed at preventing wheelchair damage by airport ground handlers and ensuring “prompt assistance” to travelers with disabilities when getting on and off the plane.

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The U.S. Department of Justice is suing to break up Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, over alleged antitrust violations.
The lawsuit follows a DOJ probe launched in 2022 and bolstered by fan complaints after a botched rollout for tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
Through Ticketmaster, Live Nation controls roughly 80% or more of major concert venues’ primary ticketing for concerts, the complaint said.

The U.S. Department of Justice is suing to break up Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, over alleged antitrust violations.
The lawsuit, joined by 30 states and filed Thursday, follows a DOJ investigation into whether Live Nation maintains a monopoly in the ticketing industry, a probe launched in 2022 and bolstered by fan complaints after a botched rollout for tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement. “The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services. It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster.”
Shares of Live Nation fell more than 7% on Thursday.
In a statement, Live Nation said the DOJ’s allegations of a monopoly are “absurd.”
“The DOJ’s complaint attempts to portray Live Nation and Ticketmaster as the cause of fan frustration with the live entertainment industry. It blames concert promoters and ticketing companies—neither of which control ticket prices—for high ticket prices. It ignores everything that is actually responsible for higher ticket prices, from increasing production costs to artist popularity, to 24/7 online ticket scalping that reveals the public’s willingness to pay far more than primary tickets cost,” said Dan Wall, Live Nation executive vice president for corporate and regulatory affairs.

Venue dominance

Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010, creating a dominant entity in the live event industry. The company directly manages more than 400 artists, controls around 60% of concert promotions at major concert venues, operates and manages ticket sales for live entertainment globally, and also owns and operates more than 265 entertainment venues in North America, including over 60 of the top 100 amphitheaters, according to the DOJ lawsuit.

Through Ticketmaster, Live Nation controls roughly 80% or more of major concert venues’ primary ticketing for concerts, the complaint said.
“Taken individually and considered together, Live Nation’s and Ticketmaster’s conduct allows them to exploit their conflicts of interest — as a promoter, ticketer, venue owner and artist manager — across the live music industry and further entrench their dominant position,” the complaint reads.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland takes questions from reporters during a news conference at the Department of Justice Building on May 23, 2024 in Washington, DC. 
Kent Nishimura | Getty Images

The Justice Department lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accuses Live Nation of violating the Sherman Act and maintaining a self-reinforcing business model by capturing fees and revenue from concert fans and sponsorships, which it then uses to lock artists into exclusive promotion deals that give the artists access to key entertainment venues across the country. Live Nation then uses that dominance to lock new concert venues into long-term exclusionary contracts, thereby restarting the cycle, the lawsuit claims.
Live Nation is also accused of threatening financial retaliation against potential competitors and venues that work with rivals; strategically acquiring smaller and regional competitive threats for the purpose of growing their competitive moat; and exploiting a relationship with venue partner Oak View Group, flipping the latter’s contracts over to Ticketmaster and discouraging competition in concert promotions.
The lawsuit claims that Live Nation has discouraged bidding wars for artists and has unlawfully pressured artists into signing on for promotional services if they want to use the company’s venues, at times sacrificing profits it can earn as a venue owner by preferring to let its venues sit empty rather than have artists with other promotional contracts.
“In its own words, Live Nation uses its exclusionary conduct as a ‘hedge against significant improvements by the competition or even a new competitor.’ But the cost of that hedge is one that we all pay, for example a broken ticketing website with substandard customer service that still captures your valuable data,” Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter said during a press conference.
“It is through these exclusive ticketing arrangements that Americans face the dreaded Ticketmaster tax, the seemingly endless set of fees ironically named service fee or convenience fee when they are anything but,” Kanter said.

Ticket prices

Live Nation made headlines last year when a surge of demand from 14 million users, including bots, for Taylor Swift concert tickets led to site disruptions and slow queues. A Senate subcommittee issued a subpoena to Live Nation and Ticketmaster in November 2023, following a monthslong probe prompted by the exorbitant inflated ticket prices in Swift’s Eras Tour.
Steep prices for the U.S. shows led scores of fans to seek out tickets to Swift’s tour in other countries, which could often be cheaper even after international air travel.
“In other countries where venues are not bound by Ticketmaster’s exclusive ticketing contracts, venues often use multiple ticketing companies for the same event and fans see lower fees and more innovative ticketing products as a result,” Garland said in a news conference.
Live Nation said Thursday it doesn’t benefit from monopoly pricing, saying that Ticketmaster service charges “are no higher than elsewhere, and frequently lower.” The company noted its overall net profit margin is at the low end of S&P 500 companies.
Live Nation further argued the lawsuit won’t reduce ticket prices or service fees. It said artist teams set prices for their tickets and the venues set and keep the majority of ticket fees.
“Some call this ‘anti-monopoly’, but in reality it is just anti-business,” Live Nation’s Wall said. “There is no legal basis for objecting to vertical integration on these grounds.”
Live Nation earlier this month reported its “biggest Q1 ever,” citing first-quarter revenue that was up 21% from the prior-year period.
The company has also been in the public eye in the past year over transparency issues regarding hidden fees in ticket pricing.

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