Scripps

E.W. Scripps, one of the largest local TV broadcasters in the U.S., has hired a financial adviser to evaluate interest in acquiring Bounce TV, its over-the-air network geared toward African Americans, according to Scripps CEO Adam Symson.

He moves across town from Nexstar’s KGET Bakersfield to oversee the Scripps ABC affiliate there.

We are in the midst of a shift in the media industry in which many companies are pursuing business models that have yet to be proven and may never pan out. As consumers shift to an on-demand approach to television viewing driven mostly by digital delivery of video, many of the biggest media companies, far bigger than Scripps and our peer-group broadcasters, have taken steps to break their content out of the exclusivity of existing bundles that have served the industry so well for the last 50 years.

Local television station owners including Gray Television, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Hearst Television, Tegna and the E.W. Scripps Co. have invested in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, whose Run3TV platform can provide detailed data about over-the-air broadcast viewership. Run3TV also creates apps that provide NextGen-enabled TV sets that give viewers additional features and programming.

It’s a good time to be in the women’s sports business, and during the upcoming upfront, the E.W. Scripps Co. will be pushing its WNBA and NWSL franchise nights as a way to get more advertisers spending more money on Ion and its other television properties.

Campaigns and PACs are also spending on down-ballot races and issues, say executives from NBCUniversal Local, E.W. Scripps, Sage Media Planning and WideOrbit during a TVNewsCheck webinar last week. Pictured (clockwise from top left): moderator Paige Albiniak, TVNewsCheck; Bobby Mushroe, Sage Media Planning; Will Hildebrandt, NBCU Local & Telemundo; Samantha Osborne, E.W. Scripps; and Sean Harrington, WideOrbit. Watch the full video here.

The company promotes Kate O’Brian to president of news, overseeing all news operations across Scripps’ local media stations, Scripps News and Court TV.

Local broadcast station groups plummeted in value this week after Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox announced they will be launching a new joint venture focused on sports fans. However, according to EW Scripps CEO Adam Symson, says Wall Street is overestimating the new product’s popularity, saying investors appear to be pricing in that local ABC and Fox affiliates wouldn’t be part of the new skinnier bundle. They will be included, he said, citing assurances he’s been given in conversations with Disney executives. “Affiliates are going to be compensated for being carried along,” Symson said.

The media sales and marketing veteran will spearhead Scripps’ go-to-market strategy and drive long-term revenue growth across all Scripps’ national assets, with a strong focus on advanced TV, connected TV, sports and news.

With the video marketplace in a state of flux, federal regulators need to review rules that determine how local TV stations gain carriage on streaming platforms like YouTube TV, Scripps Sports President Brian Lawlor said Wednesday. Testifying on Capitol Hill before a House panel, Lawlor called on the FCC to update the rules, which many TV station owners consider outdated and a source of friction with the Big Four networks.

Scripps promotes her from senior director of sales to help with day-to-day operations and lead sales at the California NBC affiliate.

Waymark’s AI tech will roll out across all 61 Scripps broadcast stations. The launch comes after successful local advertising pilot program at select Scripps stations.

National News Literacy Week (Jan. 22-26) raises awareness of news literacy as an essential life skill and provides the public, educators, students and parents with easy-to-adopt tools and tips for navigating our information landscape.

Station managers, a new role at Scripps, help with the station’s day-to-day operations and serve as department heads. The latest additions are Whitney Grover, KJRH Tulsa, Okla.; Autumn Jones, WFTX Fort Myers, Fla.; and Vicki Bradley, WTXL Tallahassee, Fla.

The program recruits mid-career journalists and managers, training them to redeploy their reporting skills for video-driven reporting platforms.

E.W. Scripps CEO Adam Symson and NewsNation anchor Connell McShane told a NewsTECHForum audience Tuesday that TV news needs a more durable model based on more consistent community engagement and more room for conversation and discovery around subjects. (Image: Symson, left, and McShane)

An internal memo says it’s replacing GMs with station managers. “Station managers help with the station’s day-to-day operations and also serve as department heads. We have had success with this new position, and now we are expanding the station manager model to additional markets,” it said.

News leaders from E.W. Scripps and NewsNation will confront the high stakes the industry faces in a pivotal election year, the journalistic and technological resources they’ll bring to bear against it and the repercussions for American democracy itself in a keynote panel at TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum conference on Dec. 12 in New York. Register here.

Kevin Adell, owner of Adell Broadcasting and WADL Detroit, served WMYD Detroit a cease and desist letter after WMYD agreed to succeed WADL as the market’s The CW affiliate. The letter was hand-delivered to Scripps-owned WMYD, sister station of WXYZ.

The 4 p.m. “Scrippscast” technology, which de-emphasizes the anchor’s role, soon will be used on late Saturday night newscasts following ABC college football games. (John Kiesewetter photo)

Its execs tells analysts to expect more sports deals and more new CTV networks. CEO Adam Symson says his company is “leading the broadcast renaissance in live sports” with deals impacting results with both advertisers and MVPD distributors. Pictured: WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and Scripps CEO Adam Symson.

The decrease to $353 million was driven by lower core and political advertising. For the company as a whole, total Q3 revenue was $567 million, a decrease of 7.4%, or $45.6 million from a year ago.

Executives from NBCUniversal Local, Disney Advertising Sales Local, E.W. Scripps, Tegna and Ticker News shared their insights and experiences in maximizing streaming revenue and the most promising pathways to growth at a TV2025 session. Despite the expected election year bonanza, there are challenges. Among them: the lack of consensus about what currency should be used for transactions.

A new “executive reporter” position at E.W. Scripps stations provides storytelling tutelage for younger journalists via close daily collaboration, a model the company hopes will strengthen its reporting corps. Pictured, Channing Frampton at the WTXL Tallahassee.

The station group said the renewals also expand the number of stations on which Scripps is paid a distribution fee, “growing revenue and expanding distribution margins.”

E.W. Scripps has agreements to place in several markets to broadcast games where teams are worried that their games will no longer be telecast by Bally Sports regional networks. The local sports market is entering a potentially chaotic phase, with the Major League Baseball season ending and the NBA and NHL about to start play for 2023-24. Scripps Sports President Brian Lawlor said: “Every team associated with Bally is concerned about the future. As a result they are all doing contingency planning for the short term and the longer term.”

Leaders from E.W. Scripps, Sinclair, Fox Television Stations, ABC Owned Television Stations, Nexstar and Avid will discuss how cross-group collaborations and content sharing have ushered in a new era of efficiencies and content ROI at TVNewsCheck’s TV2025: Monetizing the Future Conference at the NAB Show New York on Oct. 25. Register here.

The internet-connected device pairs with a TV antenna and sends a live TV signal to smart devices allowing users to watch and record live broadcast TV anywhere in their homes.

The E. W. Scripps Co. has elevated general managers at five of its television stations to serve as regional vice presidents, a move that will put more TV stations under their direct oversight.

Adam Symson: “I think, ultimately, the strike is going to lead to higher costs for streamers. As the streamers end up with higher expense structures, even more than they have today, they will continue to look for new ways to offset that expense, or to monetize their own costs. And I think that will open up additional programming opportunities for linear broadcasters like us.”

The decrease to $352 million was driven by lower core and political advertising. For the company as a whole, total 1Q revenue was $583 million, a decrease of 2%, or $11.6 million from a year ago.

In a post on the Scripps News LinkedIn page, the group’s president, Kate O’Brian, announced today that Scripps local stations have begun airing national-focused content produced first for Scripps News.