The season finale of American Idol led Sunday’s broadcast ratings pretty easily, although its early numbers are off some vs. a year ago. Broadcast ratings on the whole were steady despite a likely huge audience tuning in for the Game of Thrones series finale on HBO.
Chris Berend, an executive who has been overseeing digital video for CNN and helped launch Great Big Story, a streaming-video site aimed at younger audiences, will jump to NBC News to lead its digital efforts. Berend will replace Nick Ascheim, who will move into a new role that is described as “improving digital and product for NBCU and NBC News Group broadly.”
The manager of a credit union for CBS employees pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court on Monday to a $40 million embezzlement scheme. Edward Rostohar, 62, was arrested in March after the scheme began to unravel. According to prosecutors, he admitted to stealing money from the bank for the last 20 years.
Five reporters from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and Detroit will supply all the group’s stations with entertainment news as the Fox Entertainment All Stars.
From Jan. 1 through mid-May, $191.1 million was spent on national (and regional) airings of TV ads vs. $330 million a year ago, due to comparisons with the Winter Olympics in 2018.
As cable and streaming options continue to win a greater share of advertiser budgets, the broadcast networks are far from done. They showed last week that they are still major players, still the favorite of the big mass advertisers, the people who throw around billions. It won’t always be that way.
Disney’s veteran syndicated game show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, will end its run after this season, a spokesperson confirmed Friday. While it’s unclear whether Millionaire is being canceled to make room for Disney’s new one-hour talker, Tamron Hall, the ABC owned stations need to juggle an hour of syndicated programming to accommodate the new show.
There is every reason to believe advertising will continue to be the lifeblood of television, but the continuing growth of retransmission consent should remind us that future opportunities are unlimited.
The final season of Game of Thrones triggered strong reactions, with loyal viewers questioning everything from the writing to the lighting. The hit HBO drama from creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss concluded Sunday night. The ending was polarizing to say the least, with reactions burning up Twitter.
After airing every Indy 500 from 1965 through last season, ABC was outbid for the rights by NBC, giving the network exclusivity over the IndyCar Series. And that means Mike Tirico, who spent 25 years with ESPN before heading to NBC in 2016, will host the broadcast Sunday alongside Danica Patrick and a host of other celebrities, analysts and reporters.
David Begnaud, Jericka Duncan, Anna Werner and Vladimir Duthiers are the new members of the a.m. squad.
From 2018 to 2019, the percentage of six-second ads on YouTube declined by 20% YOY to 16.5% of all ads. By comparison, the number of 30-second ads rose by 19% YOY to 24% of all ads.
A new study reveals that many of the pro-Trump network’s stars, including its “hard news” anchors, have fattened their wallets by speaking at GOP events — an ethical no-no.
This past week on TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center, Nexstar, Cox, News-Press & Gazette, Pikes Peak Television, and one unnamed broadcast company posted job openings at stations in Boston, Memphis, Norfolk/Portsmouth, Idaho Falls, Colorado Springs and somewhere on the East Coast.
ABC News’ Kaizar Campwala, CBC’s Roma Kojima, Graham Media’s Jonathan Beard and Tribune Broadcasting’s Kerry Oslund will make up a panel examining some of streaming’s more vexing challenges at TVNewsCheck’s OTT News Summit on June 11. The Weather Channel’s Michael Senzon will moderate.
