To Improve TV Reporting, Start With Station Priorities
TV stations throw many impediments in the way of reporters trying to produce quality work. Clearing the way for their success starts with asking hard questions about where station resources are allocated and considering options like shared field resources.
Using AI In Media Planning And Buying
The benefits of AI and generative AI are becoming glaringly evident in the world of media buying and planning, where smarter trendspotting and better targeting and optimization rise quickly to the surface.
Faced With Unprofitability In ’25, Station Groups Must Pivot Now
Some local station groups must lean into creativity, experimentation and the prospect of divorcing their networks if they’re to survive an ominous 2025.
Local TV News Faces An Iceberg In ’25. Here’s How To Steer Clear Of It
Local audiences no longer see the value of TV news, and newsrooms are barreling towards the end of their runway to change that. But there are changes they can make immediately to repair trust and relevancy and secure their future.
A Cure For Media Malaise
The media industry, roiled by layoffs, coverage of a deeply contentious election and trust issues, is seeing morale plummet. Good managers can redirect that through refocused communication.
Why TVNewsCheck Matters
TVNewsCheck’s daily newsletters and original stories are essential reading for our industry. It’s absence from our inboxes is already keenly felt, so let’s help bring it back.
New Sports Joint Venture Is Too Small
Ted Hearn: The joint venture formed this week by Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery promises a massive slate of sports programming ripped from the traditional cable bundle yet deeply discounted from the roughly $200 or so that many pay each month to cable TV giants like Comcast and Charter. the Disney-Fox-WBD venture has a clear defect: It is too small. The market capitalization of the three JV partners is $238 billion combined. Netflix alone is worth $432 billion. Toss in Amazon/Prime at $1.8 trillion, Google/YouTube $1.85 trillion, and Apple/Apple TV at $2.9 trillion and it seems obvious that the streaming world eventually belongs to Big Tech absent a massive rival.
Tucker Carlson’s Putin Interview Wasn’t Journalism. It Was Sycophancy
Margaret Sullivan: The Russian president was waiting for the right stooge. With Carlson, he got just that.
Byron Allen Is A True Believer
The syndicator, station owner, cable network empresario, force of nature has gotten some attention from Shari Redstone with his $30 billion offer for her Paramount Global. He’s got a lot going for him because Allen believes in the future of our business. Virtually every investment he has made, every deal he has reached for, has been about his belief in linear television.
The News Business Really Is Cratering
The state of the industry is more dire than ever. Journalists across the country burst into flames of panic last week, as bad news for the news business crested and erupted everywhere all at once.
Cable Giants Insist That Forcing Them To Make Cancellations Easier Violates Their First Amendment Rights
Neither the FCC nor FTC has a particularly good track record of standing up to broadband and cable giants when it comes to their longstanding track record of anticompetitive behavior, price gouging or nickel-and-diming their often captive customers with bogus, hidden fees. Though occasionally one of the two agencies does step in to try make a bare minimum effort to rein in the industry’s worst impulses, such as the FTC’s attempt, unveiled last March, to force companies to stop making canceling service a pain in the ass. But the cable and broadband industry, which has a long and proud tradition of whining about every last consumer protection requirement (no matter how basic), is kicking back at that requirement.
It’s Time For A Deeper Embrace Of Community Journalism
Dak Dillon: ”
Local broadcast news faces an existential crisis. As viewing habits rapidly evolve, these outlets confront crumbling business models, fleeing audiences and withering trust in journalism overall. The meteoric rise of ad-supported streaming and the slow death of cable present new pressures. Shareholders demand growing returns while journalistic integrity is strained. In this tumultuous landscape, business as usual is no longer an option. Providing steady “coverage you can count on” will not cut it. With local newspapers obliterated, broadcast is one of the last bastions of journalism left in each market. Reinvention is imperative, or these critical community voices will disappear.”
Edgio’s Eric Black: In an economically squeezed 2024, media companies that shift to a managed services model can find greater flexibility, efficiency and profitability.
Why Your Best Young TV Journalist Just Left
Some of local TV’s brightest and most ambitious talents are leaving beloved jobs — and the industry — behind facing salary prospects that fall far too much below an acceptable mark.
Why TV Tentpole Ad Buys Are Worth It
Ocean Media’s Jay Langan: Social media, clever creative can help ad buys during big events to build buzz.
Margaret Sullivan: “Huge swaths of the country have turned into ‘news deserts’, lacking credible journalism. I fear for the Baltimore Sun.”
Viant’s Tom Wolfe: Yes, linear TV is dying, but the cable coterie was right: a la carte doesn’t work for consumers. As the industry sorts it out, how will advertisers win?
Four Big Questions About Gen AI
With AI advancements proliferating and its role in media growing, media companies should step back and ask some key questions about the data being used to fuel its advancements.
With Election Coverage, Local TV News Gets A Last Run At Trust
This year’s election offers television stations an opportunity to rebuild trust with viewers by super-serving them with substantive coverage of the candidates and a forum for debates.
‘Happy Days’ Got Us Unstuck In Time
At 50, the classic sitcom is the model of a kind of nostalgia that’s as much about what we forget (the bad stuff) as what we remember. (Aaaay!)
Ted Hearn: On Friday, Comcast won a TV station carriage dispute at the FCC. In siding with Comcast, FCC Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer likely handed victory to a second cable operator: Hawaiian Telcom. The Honolulu-based cable company last July filed a retrans complaint against Nexstar with allegations identical to those lodged by Comcast.
The FCC Vs. The News In Your Neighborhood
Holman W. Jenkins Jr.: Local broadcasting might have a future if the agency’s ownership rules would get out of the way.
Jon Nevitt: The proving grounds for the recent evolution of cloud-based broadcast operations has been free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST), a linear TV streaming format that shares many advantages with internet-connected, NextGen TV broadcasting. This convergence of FAST and OTA workflows is an exciting development that gives broadcasters an excellent opportunity to experiment with delivering diverse content over the airwaves.
The Underappreciated Gems In Black TV’s Canon
In charting the evolution of Black TV, don’t forget the shows that faded from popular memory, struggled to get their due or were canceled before their time. Pictured: L-r: Daphne Maxwell Reid, Virginia Capers and Tim Reid in CBS’s Frank’s Place in 1987. (Everett Collection)
Hey FCC, It’s Not The 1960s Anymore
The FCC has held tight to anachronistic structural regulations, dealing a massive blow to broadcasters in dire need of regulatory relief. Localism will be one of the casualties.
FCC Gives Broadcasters A Lump Of Coal For The New Year
Entrenched in the past, the commission has held firm — and even tightened — its deeply out-of-date regulations, dealing a deep blow to broadcasters.
Ted Hearn: “Did the FCC just say that Nexstar and Amazon do not compete in the video programming marketplace? Didn’t Amazon Prime announce today that it will begin showing ads on TV shows and movies starting on Jan. 29? Financial pressure on TV station owners isn’t new, but it isn’t going away, either. But that didn’t seem to bother the FCC. The FCC’s new rulebook is long and complex, technical and tedious – which means a full understanding of the new rules won’t surface until the agency reviews proposed transactions or issues enforcement rulings against a TV station that pushed the limits.”
The entertainment giant has real issues, and now the CEO has to deal with the Greek chorus of Ron DeSantis, Nelson Peltz and Elon Musk at the same time.
Next Year Will Bring Plenty Of Programming Gifts For Broadcasters
Award shows, major sporting events and the Summer Olympics are among a rich slate of programming broadcasters can look forward to, offering a 2024 boost.
Local News Has An Edge On CTV And FAST
Recent research shows news outperforms all other categories in the FAST ecosystem, yet another reason for local broadcasters to leverage their content there and on as many CTV platforms as they can.
Digital news startups and struggling newspapers can make excellent partners with local TV stations that still have the power and platforms to engage like no other media.
Bitcentral’s Greg Morrow: Broadcasters embracing FAST channels target the “average” viewer with advertiser at their peril, as relevancy for specific can be a game-changer for retention.
Oliver Darcy: “The American press is facing, arguably, the gravest potential threat to its freedom in a generation. The four-time indicted, twice-impeached disgraced former president, Donald Trump, who admitted Tuesday that he will govern as a “dictator” on “day one” should he win office again, is overtly vowing to weaponize government and seek retribution against the news media, showing no regard for the First Amendment protections afforded to the Fourth Estate.”
Norman Lear, TV’s Greatest American
Perry Bacon Jr.: “The cancellation of Mehdi Hasan’s show is the latest in a series of recent moves by MSNBC that are pushing the network in the direction of being the television arm of the Democratic Party leadership, as opposed to a news outlet that upholds left-wing values and perspectives. The network should reverse its decision on Hasan and make clear that it embraces progressive criticism of President Biden and other Democratic leaders.”
The Broadcasters Foundation Deserves Your Support
The foundation has helped many a broadcast employee through hard times. It can use every bit of possible support to keep seeing that mission through.
Stuart Brotman, the former Museum of TV & Radio chief, recalls his encounters with the media-savvy former secretary of state.
For Streaming, It’s Only The Beginning
Former FCC chair Mignon Clyburn says regulations shouldn’t stifle the progress of indie streamers serving underrepresented audiences.