New Fox chairman and CEO Lachlan Murdoch looked outside for a leader of the soon-to-be independent Fox broadcasting network that will emerge after Disney’s acquisition of key Fox assets. AMC President and General Manager Charlie Collier has been named CEO of entertainment. He will start Nov. 1, reporting to Murdoch who made the announcement Friday in an internal memo.
U.S. stocks wobbled Friday at the end of another shaky week of trading. Stocks surged in early trading after better-than-expected reports from several large companies. But the gains for indexes faded after a report showed U.S. home sales fell for the sixth month in a row. That hurt smaller and more U.S.-focused companies.
The Big Bang Theory tied its series low among adults 18-49 in Thursday’s ratings, although it still led the night’s non-sports programming. Fox’s Thursday Night Football also took a hit as it featured a lopsided game between two sub-.500 teams.
As her daytime talk show heads into its 10th season, Wendy Williams on Thursday received the NAB Show New York Impact Award for her 10 years as a New York-based TV talk show host, for her more than 20 years as a New York City drive time radio deejay and for the philanthropic work done with her husband and manager, Kevin Hunter, and their Hunter Foundation.
She moves from the ND slot at WTHR Indianapolis to lead the news efforts at CBS’s Pittsburgh O&O.
The White House Correspondents Association has issued a statement blasting President Donald Trump’s praise of a violent assault on a reporter by Montana’s GOP Rep. Greg Gianforte in 2016. “All Americans should recoil from the president’s praise for a violent assault on a reporter doing his Constitutionally protected job,” the association said.
Facebook’s 2016 scandal on miscalculating video views is back in the spotlight thanks to a lawsuit from marketers that allege they were misled by the metric. The plaintiffs also claim Facebook knew of its error more than a year before disclosing it to advertisers. Yet while journalists debate whether the inflated metrics caused the “pivot to video” or not, ad buyers are rather unfazed by the litigation.
After almost four years in the job, Washington Post Chief Revenue Officer Jed Hartman is no longer with the company, company executives informed staffers on Thursday. Kate Davey, vice president of revenue strategy, will serve as interim CRO.
Hulu is hoping to boost its over-the-top live TV subscriber rolls by extending a special promo to Sprint’s wireless customers. Starting Oct. 19, Sprint customers can upgrade to Hulu With Live TV, which includes 50-plus local and national networks and access to thousands of on-demand titles, from their Sprint account.
For quite some time, it looked as though Netflix, with its seemingly bottomless coffers and try-anything attitude, would never cancel anything. The company habitually renewed shows as soon as they hit the platform. Recently, though, that’s began to change. The streaming service just pulled the plug on the Marvel show Iron Fist after two seasons, and Everything Sucks after one—and comedian Michelle Wolf’s talk show The Break after only 10 episodes. Netflix’s laissez-faire approach to programming, it seems, is coming to an end.
David Nevins has been named chief creative officer of CBS Corp. effective immediately. The announcement was made by Joe Ianniello, the company’s president and acting CEO. Nevins has also been promoted to chairman of Showtime Networks, and will remain as the business’ CEO. He will remain based in Los Angeles and report to Ianniello.
Here are some recommendations for ways media providers can save themselves time, money and possibly even grow the customer relationship when addressing these collecting situations.
The company said that refinancing senior secured term loans and revolving credit facility will reduce its annual interest expense by approximately $7 million.
Christina Spade, Showtime’s chief financial officer, has been named EVP and Chief Financial Officer at CBS Corp., the latest move from president and interim CEO Joe Ianniello in restructuring the company’s exec suite after the departure of longtime CEO Les Moonves.
Jenn Suozzo has been named executive producer of NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt. She was interim executive producer on the program, and before that was senior broadcast producer.
The network plans to go all out to renew its current NFL deal that is up for renegotiation in 2022, says CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus (r) with TVN’s Harry Jessell. He called live NFL games “the most valuable programming on television” and said CBS “will defend its territory and defend the AFC package.” McManus confirmed that CBS is getting $5 million-plus per Super Bowl 30-second ad unit, and said Super Bowl ad sales are “very strong.” (Photo: Wendy Moger-Bross)
Author Ken Auletta, who opened TVN’s TV2020 conference, says it’s risky for broadcast networks to sell programming to streaming platforms because advertising will continue to be a main revenue source for broadcasters and that allowing viewers to be conditioned to watching programming without advertising will not be beneficial to them down the road. (Photo: Wendt Moger-Bross)
Broadcasters and consumer electronics makers stood united at TVN’s TV2020 conference today in working toward introduction of ATSC 3.0 services of some kind in markets by 2020. The initial services have yet to be determined, but will probably include 4K HDR UltraHD and immersive audio.
While the move from SDI to IP continues to pick up speed, more development — and better cooperation among key stakeholders — is still needed to improve advertising technology and deliver better measurement in order to complete with digital competitors like Google and Facebook.
Stations can get tools and platforms that will deliver ads, target ads and do all the backend content distribution and data analytics. But to be successful, “it really goes back to understanding who your audience is and how they want to interact with your content.”
Panelists at TV2020 examine various scenarios for the future of this important revenue stream in light of growing competition from OTT services and increasing reverse comp demands from the networks.
While addressable advertising is seen by many in the ad buying business as “the holy grail,” progress toward making it an industry reality has been slow. Why that is and what can be done about it was the focus of a panel at TVNewsCheck’s TV2020 conference.
Not all broadcasters believe that the cap should go away completely. Graham’s Emily Barr: “The problem is, 39% seems wrong and 100% seems wrong.” Other topics at the TV2020 conference Wednesday: The panelists were extremely bullish on how much live programming will play into the overall health of the broadcast industry. And they expressed enthusiasm for ATSC 3.0, saying that there is no need for a solid business 3.0 business plan to make sense of the massive initiative. L-r: TVNewsCheck’s Harry Jessell, Graham Media’s Emily Barr, Nexstar’s Perry Sook, Fox Television Stations’ Jack Abernethy and Gray’s Hilton Howell. (Photo: Wendy Moger-Bross)
