The latest RTDNA/Newhouse School at Syracuse University Survey found that local television news salaries rose by 4% in 2022. That’s better than last year’s 1.1% (two years ago, salaries rose by 3.5%). But inflation in 2022 hit 6.4% so 2022 was the second straight year of a drop in real (after inflation) wages: down 2.4% this year after last year’s 5.9% shortfall. That brings the two-year cumulative loss to 8.3% in terms of real wages.
“The restructuring stems from the same persistent economic headwinds facing news media across the country,” the executive editor said in an email to the staff.
Amazon is planning to launch an advertising-supported tier of its Prime Video streaming service as it looks to further build its ad business and generate more revenue from entertainment, according to people familiar with the situation. The discussions, which the people said are in the early stages and have been going on over the past several weeks, come in the wake of cost-cutting reviews across the company’s businesses, resulting in tens of thousands of layoffs.
NBC’s America’s Got Talent easily led Tuesday both in the demo and in total viewers with 6 million/0.6). Superman & Lois (666,000/0.1) inched up to its best audience since April 4 (and third-largest of the season), with just two episodes left to go.
#PayUpHollywood, the organization founded in 2019 to promote pay equity for Hollywood’s assistants, said Wednesday that it has relaunched its Hollywood Support Staff Relief Fund as a permanent emergency fund to aid film and TV support staff impacted by the ongoing Writers Guild strike and any other industry work stoppages in the future.
Tiffany Haddish is expanding into unscripted series after inking a development deal with the Hearst Media Production Group. The Emmy-winning actress, comedian and author will initially executive produce two original unscripted series. The first is a documentary about successful women who had long romantic relationships with homeless men.
Spectrum Reach, Charter Communications’s ad-sales unit, said it will use Beachfront Media as its sell-side ad server. Working with Beachfront will enable Spectrum Reach to sell ads to programmatic buyers across traditional set-top box TV, connected TV and online video platforms.
The CW is the new home for Inside the NFL. The show debuted on HBO in 1977 and moved to Showtime in 2008, then Paramount Plus in 2021. In its broadcast TV debut, Inside the NFL premieres on The CW Tuesday, Sept. 5. It will be season 47.
The GM of Fox’s Houston duopoly will now also head programming for the streaming network.
Also, Collin Jones becomes Radio Board chair and Pat LaPlatney is new TV Board chair.
The change was announced at CNN's editorial meeting Wednesday morning and came just two days after Licht said he would "fight like hell" to earn the trust of those around him. David Zaslav, CEO of CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, appointed a four-person interim leadership team, and said at the editorial meeting that he would conduct a thorough search for Licht's replacement.
The company says the quarterly report provides streaming metrics at the local market level for the first time.
Since leaving CNN a year ago, Jeff Zucker, the network’s former president, has been on the hunt for deals, flush with $1 billion in backing from big investors in the worlds of media and finance. RedBird Capital Partners, a private-equity firm, and International Media Investments, a funder with connections to the government of the United Arab Emirates, are betting that Zucker’s record in the media industry will help him zero in on promising investments in digital media, sports, entertainment and news.
The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia-backed challenger LIV Golf avoided calling their proposed partnership a merger. But their shock announcement is already raising serious concerns with US and European antitrust enforcers, according to people familiar with the matter. The tie-up, which was announced Tuesday, is being viewed by officials as a brazen play loaded with red flags, not the least of which is creating a giant monopoly in an industry that had only recently gained a competitor, said the people, who asked not be identified discussing non-public matters.
Instagram, the popular social-media site owned by Meta Platforms, helps connect and promote a vast network of accounts openly devoted to the commission and purchase of underage-sex content, according to investigations by The Wall Street Journal and researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The company says it is improving internal controls.
Rather than simply reporting on the increase in youth crime, Scripps Fox affiliate WXMI Grand Rapids, Mich., is leading an initiative, A Path Forward, that seeks to connect families with crucial resources, address obstacles, celebrate successes and create lasting change.
Tucker Carlson launched his promised new show, Tucker on Twitter, Tuesday with talk of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, UFOs, who killed JFK and what really went down on 9/11 — and the one-time Fox News host was a hit. In just over four hours, the low-tech 10-minute video posted on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform attracted 27 million views.
The CW, which is under new ownership following Nexstar’s acquisition last year, is developing its own true-crime strand. Heather Olander, head of unscripted programming at The CW, said Tuesday that the network is currently working on its own version of NBC’s Dateline, CBS’s 48 Hours and ABC’s 20/20. “What’s nice about true crime is it also can be scaled, you can do a lot of episodes, and it’s very efficient,” she said.
The Directors Guild of America’s national board of directors has unanimously approved the tentative agreement reached by the guild’s negotiating committee late Saturday, a deal that aims to set parameters around the use of artificial intelligence and boost streaming residual rates. With the board’s approval, the contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will be sent to a ratification vote by DGA membership. The guild expects to send materials to its members this week.
Chelios was hired in 2021, which coincided with ESPN acquiring the NHL’s broadcasting rights.
The purchase of W33ER-D Augusta, Ga., by Bridge News tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Advisory Services.
High-profile proposals to help build a stadium for the Oakland Athletics and lure major film makers to Las Vegas through billions of dollars in tax credits are in flux after Nevada lawmakers adjourned their four-month legislative session.
New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include an opening for a meteorologist at Hearst’s ABC affiliate in Milwaukee, WISN.
Leaders from Warner Bros. Discovery, Sinclair, Tegna, TAG Video Systems and Ross Video will discuss how the cloud’s use for live production is likely to advance this year in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch Webinar on June 22 at 1 p.m. ET. Register here.
TV stations now connect with audiences on many different platforms, and changing technology offers an opportunity to expand on a key strategy, weather alerting, making it the catalyst for a broader approach that includes lifestyle forecasts, school closings and more. Join TVNewsCheck and The Weather Company for an in-depth conversation about the changing world of alerting during a June 8 webinar. Register here.
8 June 2023
22 June 2023
