Delta Variant Dooms NAB Show 2021 as Physical Event in Las Vegas

The 2021 NAB Show is shifting to a virtual event, and won't convene in-person at the Las Vegas Convention Center Oct. 9-13, the association announced Wednesday. The 2022 NAB Show, set for April 23-27, is still planned to be in-person, NAB said. Several other conventions are still set to proceed, including CES 2022 in early January..

NAB’s announcement blamed the decision on the spread of COVID-19's delta variant, but recently major vendors such as Sony, Panasonic, Canon and Ross Video announced their withdrawals (see 2109100038). The delta “surge” has “presented unexpected and insurmountable challenges for our global community,” said NAB. “We can no longer effectively host NAB Show."

Along with the large vendors pulling out of the show, one or more network affiliate groups also pulled out in the weeks before the cancellation announcement, several broadcast attorneys told us. “Multiple factors went into this difficult decision, including the sentiments of the NAB Show community, health and safety concerns, and our desire to deliver a convention that helps our exhibitors, partners and attendees prosper,” emailed an NAB spokesperson. “Ultimately, we concluded that it was not in the best interest of the NAB Show community to continue with an in-person convention.”

The back-to back cancellations of the in-person 2020 and 2021 NAB Shows are considered likely to create funding difficulties for the trade group, which moved into a new $63 million headquarters building (see 1909100045) on the Capital Riverfront during the pandemic. NAB “remains strong” and has “sound options for sustaining the association financially in the short-term, while remaining healthy and well-positioned to serve our members over the long-term,” said the spokesperson in response to questions about NAB’s finances.

The NAB voted in 2020 to require additional payments from members due to “extreme loss of revenue” from the 2020 show’s cancellation (see 2010290064). That loss was pegged at 70% of operating revenue in a 2020 letter to members. The first payment of the additional funds is due Dec. 31. After the 2020 cancellation, NAB also instituted a hiring freeze and reduced budgets and executive salaries, it said then. “We are now focusing our attention on the 2022 show in April,” said the spokesperson.

It’s not clear how the show's cancellation will impact exhibitors and their bottom lines. Electronics Research Vice President-Marketing Bill Harland said he has received no information about whether or how the exhibit fees and other expenses will be addressed, and that he learnd of the cancellation Wednesday when the rest of the world found out. “I was very surprised,” he said. ERI had already begun shipping materials to Las Vegas for the event, and was planning to arrive with their usual complement of employees. Broadcast brokers Media Service Group had been “on the fence” about attending, said Bob Heymann, of the company's Chicago office: “The NAB has now made that decision for us. We look forward to hopefully returning to Las Vegas in April.”

“We’re obviously disappointed for the whole broadcast ecosystem,” emailed One Media Executive Vice President-Strategic and Legal Affairs Jerald Fritz. One Media had extensive ATSC 3.0 demonstrations planned for the show. “NAB had done a remarkable job in preparing a safe Show, and we were looking forward to seeing colleagues and sharing innovations and ideas.” The lack of an in-person show won’t slow the ATSC 3.0 rollout, said BitPath CEO John Hane. “Vendors, station groups, programmers, MVPDs, local engineers -- we all learned how to do this with everyone working remotely,” Hane said. “I can’t even remember the last in-person meeting. So this is normal.” Harland said the lack of a show will make networking harder. “This is THE global media show for the radio and television industry,” he said.