Local TV stations are always looking for new revenue opportunities, but could their archive of documentaries be an untapped goldmine? Here’s how AI can help generate new digital revenue from long-form VOD content, while also providing a better ad experience for viewers.
Canadian procedural Wild Cards is coming back for a second season on The CW. It marks a bit of good news for The CW, which canceled Walker earlier this week, while Canadian drama The Spencer Sisters, which it also aired, was canceled by CTV.
The deal could help TNT parent Warner Bros. Discovery shore up its position in sports as it faces the possibility of losing NBA rights.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
The FCC approved the licence transfer, but imposed a number of conditions that made the $75 million deal unpalatable to Adell Broadcasting and to Nexstar Media Group, which helped finance the deal and would have run the station under a series of management agreements.
OpenAI has inked deals in recent weeks with Reddit and Dotdash Meredith, but also found itself in hot water with actress Scarlett Johansson.
The Washington Post announced plans Wednesday to create new tiers of subscription offerings, in a bid to draw more money from the publication’s readership and to help address a significant revenue shortfall. The company has lost $77 million over the past year, publisher Will Lewis told employees. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
Boston’s noncommercial GBH laid off 31 people Wednesday as it faces a $7 million budget gap in its core business, according to an all-staff note from CEO Susan Goldberg. GBH is also suspending the TV shows Greater Boston, Talking Politics and Basic Black but plans to “reinvent” them as “digital first programming,” Goldberg said.
AI & THE MEDIA
Americans Don’t Trust Social Media Companies With AI
The U.S. public trusts tech companies leading the generative AI wave — Like Nvidia, Microsoft and OpenAI — more than firms chiefly known as social media platforms, like Meta, ByteDance and X. These findings — part of the 2024 Axios Harris Poll 100 reputation rankings — show that continued fallout from public disenchantment with social media could hamper those companies' effort to reinvent themselves as AI innovators.
Former GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy has an 8% stake in BuzzFeed and is seeking to effect a “shift” in the media firm’s strategy, the investor said in a regulatory filing.
The former president has treated Trump Media, which runs his social network Truth Social, as a low-cost sideshow. Now a big portion of his wealth hinges on its success.
Among other changes, the new draft of the bipartisan proposed American Privacy Rights Act, unveiled late Tuesday, appears to require businesses to allow consumers to opt out of online behavioral advertising — meaning ads served based on cross-site and cross-app data.
Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York, the No. 44 DMA, has the state capital and major metros nearby.
Colorado's bill and six others that faltered in Washington, Connecticut and elsewhere faced battles on many fronts, including between civil rights groups and the tech industry, and lawmakers wary of wading into a technology few yet understand and governors worried about being the odd-state-out and spooking AI startups.
NBC Local (WMAQ) said Season 2 of its LGBTQIA+ discussion series It’s OK to Ask Questions will premiere nationally on Peacock on June 1. The first season appeared locally on NBC Chicago’s FAST channel.
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.
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.