Fourteen organizations note the risks of COVID-19 exposure during necessary newsgathering.
TVN Focus | Stations, Vendors Meet Challenge Of Nonstop News
News and technology executives from Fox Television Stations, Graham Media, Gray Television, Avid and Latakoo have embraced new technologies and workflows in a year of huge stories and largely remote production. They’re going to need to maintain that embrace while producing even more content in 2021, they said at a TVNewsCheck webinar last week.
Exclusives
Hollywood soldiers on, but the return to set has been fraught with shutdowns, positive tests and budget spikes. Above, ABC’s The Conners has been among a number of prime-time shows to shoot and return to the air during the pandemic.
More than $1 billion will soon start to flow back to U.S. pay TV subscribers in the form of refunds and credits, compensating them for the year’s many pandemic-related sports cancellations.
The co-hosts on Fox News Channel’s The Five went to a remote format Thursday, with reports that Juan Williams tested positive for the coronavirus.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti issued an emergency authority order to city residents on Wednesday evening, directing the community to “cancel everything” amid rising COVID-19 cases. The new order comes after Los Angeles County reported a total of 5,987 coronavirus cases on Wednesday, one day after a record high of 7,593 cases. Currently, 2,439 people are hospitalized with the virus in the county, with 40 additional deaths reported on Wednesday.
The eye network is about 75% to 80% sold out of commercial time in Super Bowl LV, with about eight to 10 spots left, according to media buyers and people familiar with negotiations. Buyers say there is a contingency plan in place to play the Super Bowl later in February if COVID complications make that necessary. While Super Bowl LV is slated to air on CBS on Feb. 7, there is a makeup date of Feb. 28, according to media buyers.
The host of the Fox Philadelphia O&O’s Good Day Philadelphia announced today on Facebook that he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently quarantining.
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences said Tuesday that all of its awards shows will remain virtual through 2021. This includes the Daytime Emmys, Sports Emmys, News and Documentary Emmys and Technology and Engineering Emmys.
The NFL’s decision to shift its Baltimore Ravens-Pittsburgh Steelers game from Tuesday to Wednesday has led NBC to revise its primetime lineups for Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Check out the new schedules.
HBO’s Scenes From A Marriage, the adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s classic miniseries starring Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac, is the latest high-profile project to shut down production as a result of COVID-19.
The NFL will shut down for two days to regroup from a weekend in which top teams were sidelined, a local government rendered the San Francisco 49ers homeless and the Denver Broncos had to play without a quarterback.
A team member working on the CW series The Flash in Vancouver has tested positive for Covid-19. The asymptomatic diagnosis was confirmed through the rigorous testing protocols implemented by The Flash studio Warner Bros. TV for all of its production employees. Out of an abundance of caution, production on The Flash has been temporarily suspended and contact tracing has been initiated.
TVN Focus On Programming | Syndies Weather The Pandemic With Viewers Down, Ads Steady
Syndication has taken viewership hits across the board in the COVID era, but first-run’s declines have been lesser than those suffered by broadcast primetime and ad dollars have been stable. Our comprehensive look examines how syndies across the board have fared this year and what 2021 will likely have in store. Topping the list of most-advertised-in syndies is Wheel of Fortune.
On Dec. 18, journalists from Fox Owned Stations, Gray Television and Graham Media Group will share the remarkable work they did to engage audiences on social media in when the pandemic, election and extreme weather events made local TV news more essential than ever. Register here.
The company discloses that it plans to cut about 4,000 more staffers than previously targeted, mostly in its theme parks unit, during the first half of fiscal year 2021 due to the coronavirus crisis.
Hollywood soldiers on, but the return to set has been fraught with shutdowns, positive tests and budget spikes.
After the Baltimore Ravens had at least 10 positive Covid-19 tests, the NFL postponed the team’s primetime matchup against the unbeaten Pittsburgh Steelers to Sunday. NBC had been scheduled to air the game and had been airing heavy promotions of its three notable Thanksgiving events, with the game preceded by the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and the National Dog Show. It wasn’t immediately clear which network will broadcast the game, or even what time it will be played. A decision on both matters is expected later today.
While the coronavirus pandemic and recent mergers have led to widespread layoffs throughout the entertainment and media industry, a number of high-level executives still in the prime of their careers at major Hollywood companies have voluntarily bowed out to regroup and rethink their futures.
Jennifer Jacobs, a senior political reporter for Bloomberg News, has come to dominate this only-in-2020 beat.
The National Press Photographers Association filed a request with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices asking “that journalists who have direct contact with the public on a regular basis, and particularly visual journalists, be expressly included in the phase of the COVID-19 vaccine that includes the essential and critical infrastructure workforce.”
Executives from CBS Television Stations, NBCU Stations, Graham Media and SmithGeiger will discuss changes looming for news programming, technology and audiences at TVNewsCheck’s virtual NewsTECHForum event in December. Register here.
Debuting in February 2020 during Black History Month, Black News Channel (BNC) operates out of its brand new headquarters facility based in Tallahassee, Fla. BNC is an independent network that is minority-owned […]
Employees at Fox Corp. had been told to get ready for a return to their offices as soon as January. Now they will wait until at least April. In a memo sent to staffers, Lachlan Murdoch, the company’s executive chairman and CEO, said Fox Corp. will push back a full re-opening of its facilities due to the rise of coronavirus cases around the nation.
TVNewsCheck Editor Michael Depp and writer Paige Albiniak discuss challenges broadcasters have faced in the COVID-era, where station visits and job interviews are virtualized and TV has had to work harder to sell itself to younger prospects.
For radio and TV stations, operating throughout the pandemic and bringing us news and entertainment day in and day out required so much more than a floor lamp, some well-curated books in the background and a working Zoom link. Let’s go behind the scenes of how several stations pulled it off.
Increasingly allied, the American far right and members of the Chinese diaspora tapped into social media to give a Hong Kong researcher a vast audience for peddling unsubstantiated pandemic claims. Above, Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui in 2017.
ViacomCBS is looking ahead to a post-coronavirus world, one in which approximately 70% of its more-than-20,000 employees will work at least partly from home, according to an internal memo from CEO Bob Bakish.
