The Nasdaq composite ticked higher Monday to a record after a quiet day on Wall Street.
CLOSING BELL
Gavin Bridge, a longtime researcher and writer focused on FAST, said the overall tally as of this month rose 13% from May 2023 to 1,934 unique offerings and 47% from May 2022. General entertainment continues to account for the largest share of overall channels, with 1,092.
Charter Communications is offering customers who switch to Spectrum Mobile up to $2,500 to pay off their existing plans. In an era of cord-cutting and competition from wireless broadband, cable companies are still seeing significant growth in the mobile phone business.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
In an attempt to avoid a jury trial, Google has tendered a cashier's check to the U.S. government for monetary damages resulting from alleged antitrust violations. The company said in court papers that the check was for triple the amount of damages the government sought and interest, but the exact dollar figure was blacked out of the version available to the public.
Steve Carell is set to star in a new single-camera half-hour comedy series from Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses. The currently untitled project has been given a straight-to-series order from HBO.
Exclusives
The networks played "Can You Top This" with bold-faced names and ad capabilities. Pictured: Stars like Emma Stone, on stage at Disney’s presentation, were back in force at the 2024 upfronts. (Jennifer Pottheiser/Disney)
The new Medical, Health and Wellness unit will be managed by Sara Kuzmarov, senior coordinating producer, and a veteran producer on 60 Minutes.
Available to advertisers on AMG’s The Weather Channel, Local Now And HBCU Go CTV apps, the formats are designed for brands targeting engaged streaming audiences without disrupting programming flow. The Weather Channel “Frame” ad unit, wrapped around live content from HBCU Go. (BrightLine/AMG)
As previously announced, the Paramount Network series, which has been on hiatus since January 2023, is slated to return for the final episodes in November.
Bernice Kearney, who has been at the helm of Graham Media's NBC affiliate KPRC Houston as news director for the past 18 months, is now moving on.
Watson’s lawyer has argued that many other media leaders lured investors with “puffing and bluffing,” and that he is being singled out because he is Black.
TVN’S MEDIA JOBS
New Jobs Posted To TVNewsCheck
New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a vice president and general manager. Existing jobs include openings for a vice president and general manager, a lifestyle show producer, director of student media, a market manager and a digital platform specialist.
The social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has taken the final step to complete it rebrand, ditching Twitter.com. The site’s URL now reads X.com, a pop-up told users. The change comes about a year and a half after billionaire Elon Musk bought the company and began the changes. (Rick Rycroft/AP)
How does a company like Netflix ramp up the production infrastructure needed to streamcast NFL football ... and make it cost-effective for just two games a season? Amazon had to make that commitment for Thursday Night Football, and it cost them a fortune. As much free cash flow as it may have right now, Netflix isn't Amazon.
Bingaman has been executive VP, domestic licensing and distribution for Paramount’s CBS Media Ventures unit. In his new post, Bingaman will be responsible for sales to SVOD, FVOD, cable and digital outlets.
Dish and Hughes have launched a discounted pay TV/satellite broadband bundle focused on the rural market. It marks the first joint offer from the two following the merger of EchoStar and Dish.
Bundling is back in a big way, with all the major streaming companies and many pay TV operators exploring ways to simplify the consumer experience by offering bundles of content and streaming services. But as the pay TV industry learned in the last decades not every bundle is a recipe for success. Bloated, ill-conceived, expensive bundles of content and services can also be a recipe for disaster.
Sales leaders from Hearst, Gray, Scripps and Ticker explained that a holistic approach to streaming ad sales is a critical alternative to the programmatic-heavy approach adopted by tech giant competitors in the space in a TVNewsCheck webinar last week.
The non-disclosure agreement comes two weeks after a Paramount’s monthlong exclusive negotiating window with David Ellison’s Skydance ended with no deal but the indie studio still hanging in, still interested. Sony and private equity giant Apollo kicked things off previously with a preliminary bid of $26 billion, but what’s being contemplated now is not that, but something narrower. A look at the books is necessary to move forward in any case.
For two decades Coleman labored in movies and TV shows as a talented but largely unnoticed performer. That changed abruptly in 1976 when he was cast as the incorrigibly corrupt mayor of the hamlet of Fernwood in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, a satirical soap opera that was so over the top no network would touch it, forcing producer Norman Lear to syndicate it. Coleman won a an an Emmy Award for best supporting actor in Peter Levin's 1987 small screen legal drama Sworn to Silence. Some of his recent credits include Ray Donovan and a recurring role on Boardwalk Empire, for which he won two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Coleman was 92.
CNN will make its June 27 presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump available for simulcast by other networks, a spokesperson said Friday. ABC News, which is planning a Sept. 10 debate, has said that it will provide the feed to other networks.
Julia Phelps, Paramount Global’s EVP, chief communications and corporate marketing officer will leave the company at the end of May. Her group — which encompasses corporate communications, marketing, social impact, ESG, creative & strategy, production, board relations and events and brand experience — will report to studio chief Brian Robbins on an interim basis.
Technology leaders from NBC Regional Sports Networks, Sinclair, Gray Television, Hearst Television and Fox Television Stations discuss the benefits and challenges of remote production in an IP environment in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch webinar on July 16 at 1 p.m. ET. Register here.
