NBC’s Chicago Fire was Wednesday’s most-watched show (6.3 million/0.5), while CBS’s Survivor dominated the night in the 18-49 demo (4.7 million/0.7).
The former executive has earned nearly $1.2 billion through TKO Group stock sales to date. TKO Group was formed last year through the Endeavor-led merger of UFC and WWE. Endeavor maintains a majority interest in TKO.
Cohen's hedge fund Point72 revealed the approximately 5% stake in Fox this week with a market value of about $350 million as of writing.
What started as a public statement condemning Florida's so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law devolved into a years-long, bitter feud in which neither side wanted to give the appearance of surrendering.
Televised political combat existed in earlier times, like Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick's "point-counterpoint" segment on "60 Minutes" in the 1970s. Politics and journalism had its share of cross-fertilization with figures such as George Stephanopoulos and the late Tim Russert. Yet the idea of building rosters of paid political contributors took off with cable news. MSNBC, CNN and Fox News Channel are, in large part, political talk channels and seek experts to help fill the time. News streaming has similar needs. Being on call to opine can be lucrative work; several reports had NBC agreeing to pay McDaniel $300,000 a year.
For Bolstering Local News, Weather Remains The Most Powerful Tool
How a station handles weather — and the caliber and connectedness of weathercasters in a local market — are critical to a successful news reinvention.
Activist Disney investor Blackwells Capital has filed a lawsuit against the media giant over what it sees as an inappropriately cozy relationship with another shareholder, ValueAct Capital. In the lawsuit filed Thursday in Delaware Chancery Court, Blackwells lays out concerns about whether ValueAct has been paid to take a pro-Disney position in a brewing proxy fight with activists. Blackwells and Trian Fund Management have both agitated for fresh voices on Disney’s board of directors ahead of next Wednesday’s annual shareholder meeting, when ballots in board elections will officially be tallied.
Dow Adds 47, Nasdaq Drops 20, S&P Moves Up 6
Wall Street rose to more records on Thursday to close out its latest winning month. The stock market has been on a nearly unstoppable run since late October, and the S&P 500 just capped its fifth straight winning month. It's leaped as the U.S. economy has remained remarkably solid despite high interest rates meant to get inflation under control.
Episodes will get a second run on Game Show Network after the daily show premieres in broadcast syndication starting this fall. Jaleel While to host.
Love Is Blind eclipsed Avatar: The Last Airbender to take No. 1 on the Nielsen streaming charts as Season 6 of the reality dating series started to heat up. From Feb. 19 to 25, Love Is Blind tallied 2.1 billion viewing minutes, which was slightly down from the week prior but enough to claim the top spot. This coincided with the release of the second batch of episodes in Season 6, which dropped on Netflix on Feb. 21.
Only a few short steps stand between MSNBC's on-air protests and ESPN outrage and Howard Beale screaming "I'm mad as hell..."
Major media firms are bullish on the emerging tech as a profit driver, but a close read of the risk factors portends far less rosy scenarios.
Karamo has been renewed for a third season, Tracie Wilson, executive vice president, NBCUniversal Syndication Studios & E! News, said Thursday. The conflict talker is hosted by reality television personality, author, actor, producer and activist Karamo Brown.
On opening day Major League Baseball said it has taken over production and distribution of all local Colorado Rockies games this season, following the shutdown of AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain by Warner Bros. Discovery. DirecTV, Comcast’s Xfinity, Charter Communications’ Spectrum and Fubo have all set up channels where subscribers can watch Rockies games on Rockies.tv.
YouTube TV, the fast-growing virtual multichannel video programming distributor, is expected to post a profit for the first time in 2024, according to analyst Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson. Nathanson sees YouTube TV having operating income of $200 million in 2024, following a loss of $300 million in 2023. He sees net income continuing to rise, hitting $600 million in 2026.
Despite an improving economic outlook, media buyer Magna forecasts that weakness of linear networks will result in national TV ad revenues falling 4.7% to $44.2 billion in 2024. Magna sees spending on linear networks dropping 8.8% to $34.2 billion, while streaming, including ad supported video on demand, connected TV and free ad-supported streaming television is expected to jump 12.9% to hit the $10 billion mark, accounting for 22% of national TV ad market.
The Saturday games will air in at least 34 markets where Gray has stations beginning April 27.
The Big Four affiliates want federal regulators to drop plans of keeping a record of signal blackouts that result from contract disputes between TV stations and cable and satellite TV providers. Lawyers for some 600 stations affiliated with ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox networks delivered that message to the FCC this week along with a fresh request that online linear video providers like YouTube TV should be classified as the legal equivalent of cable and satellite TV operators and brought within the carriage distribution system known as retransmission consent.
ESPN is planning another Monday Night Football pregame shake-up, according to executives with knowledge of the network’s plans. A year after a complete makeover of the set under the stewardship of Scott Van Pelt, Robert Griffin III’s spot is in jeopardy, while the network is aggressively pursuing retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce for Monday nights. (Matt Rourke/AP)
Biden and his top aides say the road to reelection isn’t only through the national television and print outlets, where many of the viewers and readers are familiar with his record. As they begin the general election, a core part of their media strategy will be done at the local level, especially in an effort to move the ball forward with critical swing voters. Pictured: President Joe Biden visits his Wisconsin election campaign office in Milwaukee on March 13. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Major League Baseball set up a DTC streaming platform for the team after its RSN went belly-up, but no local linear deals have emerged yet with the Rockies' regular season starting Thursday night.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has sued Media Matters in an attempt to protect Elon Musk and X from the nonprofit watchdog group's investigations into hate speech on the social network. Bailey's lawsuit claims that "Media Matters has used fraud to solicit donations from Missourians in order to trick advertisers into removing their advertisements from X, formerly Twitter, one of the last platforms dedicated to free speech in America."
By hiring and then quickly firing the former RNC chair, the organization managed to alienate nearly every constituency that matters. Insiders blame a byzantine structure and a lack of news chops at the top.
Walmart plans to redo and refile documents pertaining to antitrust issues regarding its proposed acquisition of Vizio. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Vizio, “following informal discussions with the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, Walmart notified the antitrust agencies that Walmart will voluntarily withdraw and refile the Hart-Scott-Rodino notification report form for the merger in order to give the antitrust agencies additional time to review the proposed transaction.”
Paramount Global‘s credit rating has been lowered to junk status by S&P Global, which cited the toll of ongoing pay-TV declines as a key factor in the downgrade. The company said Wednesday it dropped Paramount’s rating to BB+ from BBB- due to the “accelerating declines in linear media and the shift toward a more competitive and less certain streaming model.”
He will continue to oversee the legal, regulatory, distribution and network affiliate functions for the entire company, as well as serve as part of the executive leadership.
Executives from CBS, Fox Television Stations, Fremantle and Apploff Entertainment to discuss the need for cross-platform interactivity and other strategies to keep viewers more engaged in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere conference at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on April 14. Register here.
New Jobs Posted To TVNewsCheck
New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a reporter in coastal California and a media salesperson to work remotely.
Companies may now create master accounts, buy TVN Plus subscriptions in bulk and assign “sub-accounts” to their executives, managers and professionals. Try it here.