coronavirus

The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful will air their last original, pre COVID-19 shutdown episodes this week — Thursday, April, 23, specifically. So, bginning Monday, April 27, the network will dip into Y&R and B&B‘s collective 80-year library and present memorable theme weeks.

Margaret Sullivan: The Trump administration is muzzling government scientists. It’s essential to let them speak candidly to the press again.

Potential vice presidential pick Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is one of four senators, two Democrats, two Republicans, who are calling for more local broadcasters and newspapers to be included in future COVID-19 small business assistance legislation, pointing out they are essential businesses in helping communities stay safe and informed.

Teachers have begun recording classes at home, using whatever technology they can, for television in places including New Jersey, Nebraska and New Mexico, where officials have partnered with broadcasters to help students feel connected and to overcome hurdles with access to the technology needed for distance learning.

SmithGeiger research finds that TV consumption trend lines are reversing, with more adults 25-54 now watching linear TV than SVOD streaming services. It also shows local TV news has become the primary destination for trusted and relevant news and information, a trend on which Dr. Seth Geiger says local stations can capitalize.

In these pandemic times, local newscasts are developing creative stories that offer real answers to viewers’ main concerns. They are finally opening two-way communication channels with the viewers’ and answering their questions in meaningful ways. In short, local TV newscasts have finally found their way out of their self-created rut by becoming relevant to their audience once again. And ratings have followed.

Saturday night’s One World: Together At Home Concert aired on most of the major networks, along with some cable nets and streamers, bringing together a who’s who of A-list stars and musicians under the curation of Lady Gaga. Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel opened the show, which wasn’t a fundraiser, but promoted themes of unity and positivity.

Linear TV ratings are up nearly across the board during the past few quarantine weeks, yet delayed viewing, as measured by Nielsen, is almost exactly the same as its pre-pandemic numbers. That observation comes from a comparison of three- and seven-day ratings for some 70 shows across the big four broadcast networks.

WGCL Atlanta anchors Rick Folbaum and Shon Gables will anchor CBS Evening News this weekend. Folbaum anchors Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET and Gables anchors Sunday 6 p.m. The national newscast will originate from the CBS46 Studios in Atlanta. The CBS News Broadcast Center in New York is closed due to the coronavirus. For the first time, the newscast will be produced remotely with producers and writers based out of New York.

Horse racing is one of the few sports ongoing, albeit in a limited capacity at a handful of empty tracks, but its TV presence has expanded because of the dearth of other options. The New York Racing Association helps produce America’s Day at the Races on Fox Sports, TVG has partnered with NBC Sports for a dozen hours of coverage each week and the hope is the struggling industry can stay afloat and gain more exposure during these trying times.

San Diego’s annual Comic-Con, slated for July 23-26, has been canceled due to concerns over the coronavirus. The show is an important promotional stop for Hollywood television shows and films.

Disney shares jumped 4.5% Friday with investors encouraged by new federal guidelines setting a timetable for reopening venues including theaters and its theme parks. The company’s market cap jumped to over $192 billion on the news, ending Netflix’s two-day run as being worth more than Disney.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will evenly split a $75 million pool of federal disaster relief funds between public television and public radio. The 158 public TV stations in its Community Service Grant program will get $200,000 in stimulus funds, while small or rural stations will receive an additional $60,204.

Digital video advertising, which grew 35.5% last year, is projected to expand only marginally this year, due mainly to a second half crash in demand from U.S. advertisers. That’s the finding of revised estimates from eMarketer, which projects digital video ad spending will decline 5.2% during the second half of 2020.

Reliable work-from-home options may find a more lasting place in local weathercasts even after we’ve reached the other side of the pandemic. These are some possible scenarios for weekday and weekend forecasts, along with severe weather and traffic.

A debate over how much unfiltered airtime the president should get virtually every day during a pandemic is heating up. The coverage is a moving target, with CNN and MSNBC taking a more critical approach lately. Yet despite on-air talent like Rachel Maddow, Don Lemon, Chris Hayes and Joe Scarborough suggesting they’d pull the plug if it were up to them, their bosses have given no indication that they will.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought out the best in many people — and the worst in a few. It has also given local TV newsrooms the opportunity to connect with their communities in innovative ways and to re-think the roles of their most prominent personalities.

A couple of months into the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic, consumers, advertisers and media outlets are adjusting to new norms, and as far as the advertising marketplace is concerned, it means increasingly flexible terms and ways of doing business.

Crew members from Ellen DeGeneres’ long-running daytime talk show are distressed and outraged over their treatment from top producers amid the coronavirus pandemic, numerous insiders affiliated with the series told Variety. The core stage crew for the syndicated Ellen DeGeneres Show, consisting of more than 30 employees, received no written communication about the status of their working hours, pay, or inquiries about their mental and physical health, from producers for over a month, said two sources, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The coronavirus is changing how people buy cars and get them serviced — behaviors likely to last long after the pandemic is over. Confined by stay-at-home orders, people have discovered that getting a new car delivered is as easy as ordering groceries or takeout. Experts say they may never visit a showroom again, with consequences that will reverberate on every Main Street in America.

A TVB analysis shows the coronavirus pandemic has substantially increased levels of broadcast TV viewership, especially among adults 35+.

Washington’s WRC has launched a weekly half-hour show aimed at taking local kids’ wide-ranging questions on the pandemic and its impact on their lives. The show’s creator, Scott MacFarlane (above with his son Jonathan), says the questions are so good, he and his colleagues should’ve been asking them weeks ago.

Reliable work-from-home options may find a more lasting place in local weathercasts even after we’ve reached the other side of the pandemic. These are some possible scenarios for weekday and weekend forecasts, along with severe weather and traffic.

While there are no more live sports, the genre’s most die-hard audiences haven’t abandoned television, according to new Nielsen data. Instead, they are spending more time than ever watching TV, branching into several other genres — and still keeping a regular diet of sports content as well.

In lieu of the 60^th annual confab, the groups will offer 40 sessions over 10 weeks beginning June 15.

I wanted to know how a TV station’s creative services/marketing department could function when each member of its staff had to work from home. I know this is how things are being done now, but I couldn’t imagine how it is accomplished. So I reached out to a couple of station marketing directors to hear how they were managing working from home. In addition, I asked each if they would allow their staff to pen a few lines about their experiences working from home.

Costs are inhibiting a flood of 4K sports production, but 1080p HDR offers numerous practical advantages, among them that the improvement in picture quality is more readily apparent to consumers than the gain from 4K resolution. Above, Sony tested an 8K camera at the Sony Open in Hawaii last year, but doesn’t expect 8K to be used for regular sports production for several years.