Despite strikes that wiped out original programming last season and a narrative about viewers streaming more and watching less linear TV, the big broadcast networks largest retained their reach, according to a report from measurement and analytics company iSpot.tv.
Nielsen released a new ranking of companies in the media distribution business, including broadcast, cable and streaming, and The Walt Disney Co. was at the top of that list. At a time when it appears that streaming is taking over the television business, the new ranking has YouTube as No. 2 followed by traditional media companies NBCUniversal, Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Among the headlines were Shakira announcing that her song Punteria will be the official song of TelevisaUnivison’s coverage of the 2024 Copa America soccer tournament. Univision also announced the creation of “Sistema Uforia,” offering advertisers a way to take advantage of all of Univison’s Latin music assets and new festivals tied to some of its award shows.
For its record 21st season, Grey’s Anatomy is getting a new time slot, shifting from 9 to 10 p.m. on Thursday to make room for another medical drama, Ryan Murphy’s Doctor Odyssey. Meanwhile, fans of The Conners will have to wait until midseason to bid farewell to the family sitcom as well as get new episodes of The Rookie and Will Trent. And ABC's signature Wednesday comedy block has shrunk to one half-hour, Abbott Elementary, at 9:30, with the first hour and a half going to The Golden Bachelorette.
The network will air 11 Oregon State and Washington State home games. Coverage kicks off on Aug. 31 with a doubleheader featuring Portland State at Washington State and Idaho State at Oregon State.
As streamer bundling accelerates, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said today the company will introduce a combo of Peacock , Netflix and Apple TV+ this month “at a vastly reduced price to anything that is in the market now.”
Broadcasters’ most recent round of quarterly earnings reports fell under the shadow of a prospective Paramount sale, which brought M&A back into earnings call narratives. Streaming and sports also continued to shape growth trajectories.
Lionsgate Studios began trading as a single class of stock under the Nasdaq ticker symbol LION on Tuesday. This news comes as the company continues its split from the premium cable network Starz. Lionsgate Studios encompasses both Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group and the Television Studio segment as well as the company’s 20,000-plus title film and television library. This transaction is a major step in Lionsgate’s plan to fully separate its studio and Starz businesses. Lionsgate Studios currently has an enterprise value of $4.6 billion.
Sam Feist, the longtime Washington bureau chief of CNN, will become the next CEO of C-SPAN. Feist will succeed Rob Kennedy and Susan Swain, who have been in the role as co-CEOs since 2012. Founding CEO Brian Lamb remains on the board of directors.
Amazon’s Prime Video has ordered Pop Culture Jeopardy!, a spinoff of the long-running gameshow. The series, which comes from Sony Pictures Television’s Game Show Division, marks the first time that a Jeopardy! series has been created for a streaming service.
The journalism will be shown on air and across Scripps News and ProPublica digital platforms. Scripps News will also feature ProPublica reporters on local and national programming regularly to highlight the organization’s original reporting.
With no cameras recording Donald Trump’s criminal trial, anchors and producers are improvising to animate dramatic moments like Michael Cohen’s testimony. Pictured: Michael Cohen leaving his apartment building on his way to Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday. (Julia Nikhinson/AP)
Shows like Law & Order: SVU, NCIS and Grey’s Anatomy have kept fans hooked for 20 seasons or more. How do they do it?
Marketers expect economic uncertainty, making the tenor of advertising deals difficult to predict — much like last year.
Late Night will continue its run on NBC as its host will continue to develop new projects for the company.
OpenAI's latest update to its artificial intelligence model can mimic human cadences in its verbal responses and can even try to detect people's moods. Pictured: OpenAI has introduced a new artificial intelligence model. It says it works faster than previous versions and can reason across text, audio and video in real time. (Michael Dwyer/AP)
Tokyo-based Sony Corp.'s quarterly profit totaled 189 billion yen ($1.2 billion), up from 141 billion yen the year before. Quarterly sales for the maker of the PlayStation game machines rose 14% to 3.48 trillion yen ($22 billion).
Former NFL linebacker Shawne Merriman has soft-launched Lights Out Sports, a free ad-supported sports streaming service. Content partners include Glory Kickboxing, World Poker Tour, Swerve Combat, Chess.com, Streetbeefs, Outdoor America, Speedvision, Cineverse and A7FL.
Programming leaders from Gray, E.W. Scripps, Graham and Sinclair discuss a future for syndication with more groups selling to each other and a growing role for FAST channels in this in this panel at TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere conference. Click here to register as a TVN subscriber and get access to all videos from this exclusive event.
Viewers without a Roku device can stream the games on the Roku Channel app, which is free and available on Amazon Fire devices, Samsung TVs and Google TVs. It also is accessible via therokuchannel.com with no login required. (Morry Gash/AP)
New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a station vice president and general manager and a lifestyle show producer. Existing jobs include openings for a director of student media, a national operations manager, a digital platform specialist and an account executive.
Streaming sales leaders from Gray Television, E.W. Scripps, Hearst Television, Ticker and Megaphone TV will share the latest developments in technology and strategy for OTT and FAST channels. Learn more about this critically important revenue source for broadcasters in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch Webinar on May 16. Register here.
