QUARTERLY REPORT

Disney Sees Solid Quarter With Upbeat Streaming Outlook

Disney’s profit blew away forecasts although revenue fell a bit short in a key, and solid, earnings report that the company hopes will set the stage for more robust growth. Revenue was flat at $23.5 billion for Disney’s fiscal first quarter ended in December. Diluted EPS (excluding some items) was $1.22, up 23% from the year before.

BRAND CONNECTIONS

Digital OOH Video Climbing In Ad Spend

Video watched out-of-home (OOH) comprises more than one-third of programmatic OOH spend on video-enabled screens. Place Exchange, an OOH programmatic SSP, expects more investment in video as advertisers increase their use of short-form vertical video content from social campaigns on larger screens.

Ergen To Rosenworcel: Fix ‘Broken’ Retrans Consent Regime

Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen late last week made the rounds at the FCC. In a Feb. 2 meeting with FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, Ergen criticized one of her key pay TV initiatives: Making cable and satellite TV operators provide consumers rebates as compensation for lost programming during contract disputes.

Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch is certain that that the company’s new sports venture with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery will be “additive” and will not threaten Fox’s still-lucrative pay-TV business. The venture was announced Tuesday and has set media tongues wagging. The topic dominated Fox’s 30-minute quarterly earnings call, which was where Murdoch made his comments, enabling execs to largely elude tougher questions about a 20% year-over-year decline in advertising revenue in the quarter.

QUARTERLY REPORT

Fox Earnings Hit By Lower Ad Revenue Last Quarter

Fox saw revenue dip 8% last quarter to $4.23 billion on weaker advertising due in part to tough comps from the year before. The fiscal second-quarter numbers hit the day after Fox with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery set a fall launch date for joint streaming sports venture with. There’s no name or price yet for the service, which will pool the sports rights of the three media companies. CEO Lachlan Murdoch will say more on a call at 8:30 ET.

CBS News has chosen Alturo Rhymes for the newly created position of executive producer of daily news, while correspondent Jim Axelrod will be leading a new Eye on America unit. Rhymes will be responsible for “centralizing our daily Newsgathering offerings to the broadcasts, stream and digital so that we are positioned to aggressively advance stories in the news each day and ensure our best reporting flows seamlessly to all shows and platforms,” according to a note to staffers sent by CBS News President Ingrid Ciprián-Matthews.

MARKET SHARE

Tom Skilling, A Chicago Weather Institution, Retiring After 45 Years At WGN

On Feb. 28, 2024,Tom Skilling, longtime WGN meteorologist, and possibly one of Chicago’s most recognizable broadcast personalities, will retire. How do you celebrate the retirement of a meteorologist who’s been doing the forecasts on your station for 45 years? You go all in.

Gray To Shutter KGWN Scottsbluff

Last week, Gray Broadcasting announced it is selling its interests in the Scottsbluff, Cheyenne, and Casper television markets to Marquee Broadcasting Inc. in exchange for an FCC permit to construct a new station in Salt Lake City, Utah. Staff at the Scottsbluff station were notified late last week, and were told that Gray was not going to continue local operations.

Fox’s ‘Animal Control’ Renewed For Season 3

Fox is showing early confidence in Animal Control. The broadcast network has handed out a third season renewal to the comedy series starring Joel McHale, with the pickup arriving a month before its sophomore run debuts.

NAB Skewers Cable, Satellite TV Providers Over Subscriber Exit Fees

The National Association of Broadcasters sees a link between exit fees required of pay-TV customers and carriage disputes that pit TV stations against cable and satellite TV operators. NAB, in comments filed Monday with the FCC, asserted that cable and satellite TV providers rely on the fees to benefit from losing TV stations as a result of failed contract or retransmission consent negotiations.

Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery Team On Sports Streaming Platform

The three companies will each share one-third ownership in the joint venture. A name for the service and pricing will be announced later. The platform will include games from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, WNBA, NASCAR and college sports, including the men's and women's NCAA Tournament, as well as golf, tennis and the FIFA World Cup.

TVN’S MEDIA JOBS

New Jobs Posted To TVNewsCheck

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for Sinclair’s corporate engineering team; Hearst’s national consumer unit; Lockwood’s station in Augusta, Ga.; Nexstar’s Houston CW and Hearst’s CBS affil in Louisville.

Programming Everywhere Returns To NAB Show April 14

Programming Everywhere, TVNewsCheck’s conference gathering content executives and creators across platforms to provoke innovative thinking, will return to the NAB Show for its second year under the theme Ideas Beyond Boundaries on April 14. Register here.

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