The stations went dark on Feb. 3 as a result of a standoff between Cox and DirecTV. The impasse included 12 stations in nine metro areas.
Cox Media Group said its television stations are no longer available to DirecTV subscribers because of a retransmission consent dispute. The previous distribution agreement expired Feb. 2. CMG has 12 stations in nine markets.
After locking horns before agreeing to their last broadcast retransmission deal two years ago, DirecTV and Cox Media Group appear ready to do the old dance again, with the station group on Thursday evening accusing the pay TV operator of “attacking local journalism.” The current agreement expires on Feb. 2.
Cox Media Group said it has launched Neighborhood TV, a free ad-supported streaming service that focuses on neighborhoods in the markets where it owns broadcast stations. The service was tested on desktop and mobile devices in 70 neighborhoods around Atlanta and 30 neighborhoods in the Charlotte area, two markets where GMG owns broadcast stations. It is already generating more than 100 million impressions monthly.
Automated Local TV Ad Sales Finally On Near Horizon
New platforms from Matrix, Operative and WideOrbit aim to make local broadcast competitive with digital. Note: This story, originally published for TVNewsCheck Premium members only, is now available to everyone thanks to a sponsorship by Revenue Analytics.
Exclusives
Verizon Fios customers in Boston, Pittsburgh and Providence, R.I., may soon lose their ability to watch Fox affiliate networks. The company recently told customers that it was negotiating with Cox Media Group, who owns WFXT, the Fox affiliate in Boston known as Boston 25 News. The contract between Verizon and Cox ends on Dec. 15, according to Verizon. When content deals expire, Verizon must renegotiate with content providers like Cox to continue broadcasting their programming.
For News Streamers, Content And Workflow Challenges Are The Next Frontier
Executives from E.W. Scripps, Fox Television Stations, NBCUniversal Local and Cox Media Group told a TVNewsCheck webinar last week that hiring challenges are frustrating their efforts to swiftly build out robust streaming channels, but forays into automation and hub-and-spoke models are easing some of the pressure.
The $7.2 million purchase from California Oregon Broadcasting adds KLSR (Fox) and KEVU (MNT) to the group’s TV station portfolio.
Cox Media Group, Capitol Broadcasting, Graham Media Group and other broadcasters are participating. Magnite, an independent omnichannel sell-side advertising platform, will make CTV inventory available to agencies and programmatic buyers.
The Fox-MNT duopoly has been owned by California Oregon Broadcasting Inc. since 1993.
Cox Media Group has signed an agreement to stream its local content on the VUit national streaming service. VUit was started by tech company Syncbak with backing from Gray Television. With Cox Media Group’s stations, VUit now has local coverage and programming in 150 of the nation’s 210 markets.
Eric D. Greenberg joins from the law firm Perkins Coie to oversee all legal responsibilities for CMG’s business and operations, as well as corporate governance, transactions, and regulatory compliance.
Over-the-top advertising has become a surprisingly important business for companies that have been stockpiling television stations. Streaming revenue is letting broadcasters, including Cox Media Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group and the NBC and Fox O&Os, claim a foothold in the technology field and create advanced advertising products for clients enamored of digital and social media.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) has written to Cox Media Group saying it should restore its stations to DirecTV ASAP and suggesting the broadcaster is not negotiating in good faith as the FCC requires.
The organization cites five times that Cox Media has pulled stations just ahead of the big game.
AT&T’s TV services, including DirecTV, U-verse and AT&T TV, this morning lost roughly 25 stations in 20 markets due to a fee fight with Cox Media Group, and its owner, Apollo Global Management.
On Tuesday night, Dish and Cox Media agreed to their fourth temporary carriage pact this month, allowing 18 stations to continue in the satcaster’s lineup. (The 18 are owned by Apollo Global Management, an equity firm, but they are managed by Cox Media.)
Dish and Cox Media, which is owned by Apollo Global Management, have agreed to a second seven-day temporary agreement, ensuring that 18 Cox-managed stations stay in the satcaster’s lineup for now.
Dish and Cox Media have dodged a blackout bullet for 18 stations for at least a week. The stations earlier this week posted notices on their websites saying Dish subscribers could lose their signals at 7 p.m. ET on Oct. 1. But a new notice posted late Thursday night says the deadline for a new carriage agreement has been moved one week.
Dish subscribers have been blacked out from watching Cox Media Group stations in 10 markets due to a retransmission consent dispute. The stations had been enjoined from interfering with Dish’s ability to retransmit the signals under an agreement reached before Apollo Global Management last year, according to Dish. The case moved from state court in Illinois to federal court, which dissolved the restraining order Wednesday.
ViacomCBS said it reached a new multi-year extension of its CBS network affiliation deal with Cox Media Group. CMG is among the 10 largest operators of CBS affiliates. The deal covers KIRO Seattle-Tacoma, Wash.; WJAX Jacksonville, Fla.; WHIO Dayton, Ohio; KYMA Yuma-El Centro, Ariz.; and KVIQ Eureka, Calif.
From Part-Time Master Control To Corporate VP
Maryann Balbo, vice president at Cox Media, started her broadcast career as a part-time master control operator in her hometown of Watertown, N.Y. Today, she lives in lives in Wichita, Kan., and is responsible for operations and advertising sales in Cox’s Kansas and Arkansas markets. She talks about her career, how she went from being the only woman in the engineering department to eventually being a station general manager and then corporate VP with stops in sales, programming and marketing along the way.
Big Data Portends Big Changes To Spot Buys
Ad sellers — broadcasters and cable networks — are wading deeper into data pools so that they are helping advertisers and their agencies program-target their buys and avoid undervaluing their time.
A News Director’s-Eye View Of Hurricane Irma
Bob Longo, news director of Cox Media’s CBS-Fox (WJAX-WFOX) duopoly in Jacksonville, Fla., explains the challenges his station faced, and overcame, while covering the powerful hurricane.
But only by a slight margin, according to Shareablee. Over the last six months, KOKI has more than 1.7 million social media actions, 27% of the market’s total 6.4 million actions. KOKI also leads on Instagram with just over 22,000 actions. KOTV, the CBS affiliate owned by Griffin Communications, was in second place with more than 1.4 million actions.
Cox Media announced Thursday night that it has reached a new carriage agreement with Dish Network, avoiding a blackout of Cox’s 14 stations in the satcaster’s lineup. Meanwhile, Media General said last night that it has granted a “short-term extension” in its carriage talks with Dish. The broadcaster did not reveal the length of the extension.
Cox Media and TubeMogul have entered a partnership that will enable ad buyers to purchase linear TV ads and Web video ads via the same digital interface. At the same time, Cox’s local ads sales force will be able to sell local TV ads along with Web video ad space from a variety of sites, such as YouTube, Crackle and MLB.com.
In Dayton, Cox Media Works On Collaboration
Cox Ohio has gathered WHIO-TV, the Dayton Daily News and six other newspapers, three radio stations and various websites under one roof and has established a Breaking News Team that is the key to its cross-media collaboration, gathering stories for all of the company’s Dayton properties.
On the heels of similar partnerships with DirecTV last May and Verizon FiOs in July, Google TV announced a new arrangement this morning with Cox Media, the advertising arm of Cox Communications, the third largest U.S. cable operator with 6.2 million subscribers. Google will give its advertising partners—companies like Lenovo, Bloomberg and Coldwell Banker—the opportunity to run television spots on Cox’s 75 networks.
