coronavirus

After a five-month break, CBS drama S.W.A.T. on Tuesday started production on its upcoming fourth season. Like with everything else right now amid spiking COVID-19 infections, the situation remained fluid until the last minute but all preliminary testing was completed and shooting began yesterday morning as scheduled.

Princell Hair, newly-installed CEO off the fledging Black News Channel, brings a wealth of general management experience to a venture that had the bad luck to launch in the pandemic. One of his biggest challenges is the network’s COVID-stunted reach.

More people continue to watch TV or other forms of video in the midst of the pandemic, but Madison Avenue is spending fewer dollars to dazzle them. National TV advertising fell 9% in June to $3.2 billion, according to Standard Media Index, a continuation of negative trends that have been in place since the coronavirus pandemic struck in March. But the June figures show losses narrowing: the 9% figures come after a 19% dip in May and a 28% tumble in April.

Local TV marketers are navigating new territory so far in 2020, one few could have seen coming.  How did they respond? Fourteen local TV creative services directors shared  their thoughts and 42 examples of their stations’ marketing in the five-part  series, The New Us: Local TV Marketing In 2020.

Ellen Crooke, Tegna’s VP of news, says the Black Lives Matter movement has promoted greater “intentionality” in the group’s efforts for diversity and inclusion in its news organizations and leadership. She adds that COVID-19 has also supercharged Tegna’s Verify fact-checking project and data visualization efforts.

Sinclair has repeatedly defended the independence and objectivity of the local news reporting that is carried on its many stations. But its nationally distributed news and commentary programs, produced in Washington has stayed largely faithful to President Trump’s pronouncements about the virus. Above, Sinclair TV hosts Sharyl Attkisson and Eric Bolling.

As coronavirus resurges across the country, medical data is no longer just the purview of epidemiologists (though a quick glance at any social media comments section shows an unlikely simultaneous surge in the number of virology experts and statisticians). Journalists reporting on COVID, however, have a particular obligation to understand the data, to add context and to acknowledge uncertainty when reporting the numbers. This guide to common COVID metrics is designed to help journalists know how each data point is calculated, what it means and, importantly, what it doesn’t mean.

COVID-19 has had numerous tectonic effects on broadcast technology vendors, from accelerating a move to IP- and cloud-based systems to making for much uncertainty and probable consolidations ahead.

Local TV news is where viewers are turning now because the COVID-19 pandemic is a neighborhood story. And it’s not going away any time soon, it appears. Creative services directors from markets in Florida, Virginia and Indiana share their most recent marketing messages. The phrase “information you need” is truer now than maybe it’s ever been.

The Detroit automaker had to close its plants from March 18 to May 18 due to the coronavirus, but production didn’t resume fast enough to hold off a net loss.

Two of America’s longest-running game shows, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy are heading back to the studio. Both shows were hit by the COVID-19 production shutdown, but both syndicated shows, which come from Sony Pictures Television and CBS Television Distribution, are set to start filming this week and next. There will, however, be a few adjustments.

Larger multicast networks are retaining their viewers while newer players have successfully rolled out distribution.

The marketing business is going through a period of innovation as it sheds workers and tries to hold on to clients. Above: A Chipotle ad was shot in Idaho at “a fraction of what a full-blown production would have cost,” according to its chief marketing officer.

Could changes to telecasts made during the coronavirus pandemic become permanent?

One of the worst affected industries during the coronavirus outbreak has been, ironically, a profession that should have been reporting on it. The long-struggling industry faces an “extinction event” amid COVID-19, robbing large swathes of the U.S. of news coverage.

Fremantle, ITV Studios and BBC Studios say they will not attend the Mipcom TV market in Cannes (Oct 12-15) amid coronavirus concerns. ITV will host the ITV Studios Fall Festival, a series of virtual content sessions for buyers held over three weeks from Sept. 14.

On Monday, Dawn Baker, an anchor at Gray Television’s WTOC Savannah, Ga.,  became the first volunteer to receive an injection in the first Phase 3 clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine in the United States. She said the many lives lost and impacted by the coronavirus pandemic inspired her to volunteer.

Sinclair Broadcast Group will not air a report prepared for Eric Bolling’s America This Week that blames Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, for creating the COVID-19 pandemic. In a tweet late Monday, Sinclair said that given the nature of Judy Mikovits’ claims to  Bolling, the segment was “not appropriate” to air, adding: “We also reiterate our appreciation for all that Dr. Fauci and his team have accomplished for the health and wellbeing of Americans and people worldwide.”

Multiple outlets are reporting that Major League Baseball will hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the remainder of the already-truncated 2020 season, after more than a dozen members of the Miami Marlins tested positive for COVID-19.

Marketing at TV stations across the country is undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts in 2020. In this first of a multi-part series, TVNewsCheck’s Paul Greeley shares the work — and the thinking behind it — of local TV marketing executives around the country to see how it’s changed to reflect the news events so far this year.

An employee at daily entertainment newsmagazine Access Hollywood has tested positive for the coronavirus. The case was discovered through routine testing. According to a person familiar with the situation, the production has not shut down, and contact tracing has been implemented and completed.

Broadcasters are prepared to stick with their remote production workflows for the long haul as the pandemic stretches on with no end in sight. A TVNewsCheck webinar last week found they’re continuing to try to bring as much of the studio into staffers’ homes as possible, not only for anchors and reporters but producers, director, editors and graphic artists, too.

The network and producer ITV Entertainment have started preproduction work at a Las Vegas resort, where cast and crew can be inside a bubble — a la the NBA in Orlando — during filming. The goal is to have the show back on the air by the end of summer.

Because of the disruption to business caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, advertisers plan to put more money into digital ads and decrease spending on TV during the upcoming holiday season, according to Advertiser Perceptions.