The Media Rating Council (MRC) this morning published a notice advising media audience measurement services to have “objective criteria in place” to ensure they maintain “data quality in the face of unprecedented challenges presented by the current coronavirus crisis.”
CBS This Morning co-hosts Gayle King, Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil anchored the Monday morning broadcast from each of their respective homes as the coronavirus crisis continues. “Welcome to CBS This Morning — from our house to yours,” King said at the opening of the show. “We’re coming to you from each of our homes this morning because we, like you, are practicing social distancing out of an abundance of caution. Like so many Americans watching right now, we are at home.”
Television network ad sales executives said they are taking a day-to-day approach as some advertisers pull their campaigns, others quickly change the commercials they’re airing and other push commercials they’d planned to air in March and April back to later in the year.
The Walt Disney Co. said on Monday that executive chairman Robert Iger will forgo his entire salary and recently named CEO Bob Chapek will take a 50% pay cut amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to an email from Chapek sent to employees obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
Exclusives
The Tokyo Olympics will take place between July 23 – August 8 2021, following the postponement of this year’s event due to the coronavirus outbreak. The International Olympic Committee confirmed the news Monday.
As lockdowns and stay-in-place orders continue to be extended in countries around the world, millions of people are spending their days frequenting online publications to find out the latest about the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s part of the reason Facebook has announced it will spend an additional $100 million to support the news industry during the crisis.
Richmond’s Real Heroes Star In WWBT Promo
Bail Out Journalists. Let Newspaper Chains Die
The coronavirus is likely to hasten the end of advertising-driven media, Ben Smith writes. And government should not rescue it.
President Trump’s Primetime Pandemic
The coronavirus briefings have given Donald Trump a regularly scheduled reality show again — or, rather, a create-your-own-reality show.
The story of international sports over the past decade was one of unlimited growth, unrestrained spending and unwavering popularity. Coronavirus brought the sports business to an immediate standstill. The boom times went bust overnight. Now, owners, players and networks try to figure out the future.
Despite recently initiated efforts by major platforms to throttle back their use of the internet’s bandwidth during the surging use driven by the coronavirus pandemic, the internet is showing growing signs of strain. Potential shutdowns or compromised net service are of grave concern to governments and health care professionals around the world, of course.
Global TV executives are exchanging rosé on the Croisette for video conferencing as the event goes virtual for the first time. “The question is if we even need a physical market anymore, crisis or no crisis.”
WTTG Confronts Coronavirus With Steady Hand
A solid business contingency plan gave Fox-owned WTTG and WDCA in Washington, D.C., a leg up in pivoting for the coronavirus pandemic. VP and GM Patrick Paolini says a priority now is staying on top of the news deluge while keeping staffers and advertisers calm amid the uncertainty.
With most of the nation sheltering in place because of the coronavirus outbreak, CBS said today it will air an isolation concert special featuring Garth Brooks and wife Trisha Yearwood on Wednesday, April 1. The primetime special titled Garth & Trisha: Live! will feature the award-winning artists performing live from their home recording studio known as Studio G.
Maria Mercader, a veteran CBS News staffer, died at age 54 Sunday from coronavirus complications after being on medical leave since February. Mercader battled cancer and other illnesses for two decades, and said that the treatments left her vulnerable to the virus.
The credit card giant’s Team Visa scheme features 96 athletes across 27 sports, including soccer star Megan Rapinoe, gymnast Simone Biles — a quadruple gold medalist at the Rio de Janeiro Games — and two-time defending 800-meter Olympic champion David Rudisha.
Block Communications-owned WDRB in Louisville, Ky. is airing and streaming 30-second updates on the coronavirus pandemic. The segments, produced by its marketing department and hosted by its anchors, are revised throughout the day.
Steve Hartman’s “On the Road” segments are a hallmark of the CBS Evening News and CBS Sunday Morning and are highly popular with classroom teachers, who use them as teaching tools. Now sidelined because of the coronavirus pandemic, he says, “It’s certainly going to be hard to get the emotional stories we seek, over Skype.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s daily media briefings offer “a strangely compelling mix that is part “West Wing” revival, part therapy session and most important, a credible source of important information about the contagion,” writes Cynthia Littleton.
Watching The Nightly News Like Nana Is The Best Way To Feel Anchored In A Sea Of Information
Hank Stuever: “In two-plus weeks of staying home, I’ve renewed my faith in the broadcast networks’ nightly newscasts, perhaps out of some faintly nostalgic idea that watching it is what grown-ups do, come hell or high water. People who long ago gave up the habit — or never acquired it — are finding a similar solace at the end of the day with a half-hour of ABC’s David Muir or NBC’s Lester Holt or the CBS Evening News’s Norah O’Donnell.”
WRAL Raises $275,000 For Raleigh Restaurants
“We recognize that part of our role as a locally owned and operated television station is to support and help neighbors and businesses in need,” said Joel Davis, WRAL general manager.
The 66-year-old entertainment icon is quarantining and self-isolating at home with longtime partner Steadman Graham staying in the guest house, but she is still working. Winfrey interviewed actor Idris Elba, who tested positive for coronavirus, via FaceTime for an episode of Oprah Talks: COVID-19 on Apple TV.
Tamron Hall will return beginning March 30 with new segments originating from her home and focused on COVID-19, buttressed with encore segments from previous shows. The show, recently renewed for a second season, shut down two weeks ago when the coronavirus crisis began.
The three new streamers are poised to premiere in a coronavirus-spurred moment of surging viewership. “This might be the most unique moment in history to launch a streaming service,” says one analyst, but economic realities may prove a harsh awakening.
News executives from NBC, ABC and CBS pledge that no matter what, they’ll continue to stay on the air as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, even if those broadcasts are from someone’s living room. “That low-tech aesthetic may include fewer camera angles, or robotic cameras, staffers using iPhones and Zoom calls,” Jeremy Barr writes.
WarnerMedia has pledged to give $100 million in relief to workers affected by production shutdowns forced by the coronavirus pandemic, CEO John Stankey said in an internal memo on Friday.
Acting with unity and resolve unseen since the 9/11 attacks, Washington moved urgently to stem an economic free fall caused by widespread restrictions meant to slow the spread of the virus that have shuttered schools, closed businesses and brought American life in many places to a virtual standstill.
