Scripps

RSNs carried by pay TV services are struggling in the face of cord-cutting and are looking for new ways to reach fans old and new. Pictured (l-r): Adam Wiener, Dan Marshall, Ed Desser, Kerry Bubolz, Lee H. Berke and Brian Lawlor. (Alyssa Wesley photo)

Brian Lawlor, president of the new Scripps Sports division, said cord cutting has become a “massive problem” for teams and leagues, making his company’s broadcast stations and linear networks attractive to rights holders looking to reach a bigger share of fans and potential fans.

Executives from Gray Television, Fox Television Stations, E.W. Scripps, Sinclair and Dalet will discuss how hubbing, news sharing and collaboration, AI, the cloud and cutting-edge video acquisition strategies are enhancing the ability of content creation teams to expand their productivity in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum event at the New York Hilton on Dec. 13. Register here.

Afternoon Focus debuts on several E.W. Scripps stations today. The show offers stories of home and inspiration from around the country, celebrating “people making a positive impact in their communities,” Scripps says. “There will be stories of hope, resilience and innovation.”

DirecTV said it has added Bounce and Grit, two of E.W. Scripps’ digital multicast networks, to its satellite system, effective Thursday.

E.W. Scripps and Vizio said they made a deal that adds four Scripps channels to Vizio’s Watch Free Plus streaming platform. The agreement is the latest in the last few weeks that give the over-the-air Scripps networks–led by Ion and Bounce–carriage as free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels.

Jim Iovino has joined The E.W. Scripps Company to lead the new Google-backed Scripps Journalism Journey Initiative. The multiyear initiative is designed to transition experienced journalists with primarily print news backgrounds into video-driven news careers. Google has made a financial commitment to Scripps to underwrite the newly created program. (Photo: Jim Iovino, Scripps)

Executives from NBCUniversal, Fox Television Stations, E.W. Scripps, Gray Television and Estrella Media told a TVNewsCheck webinar last week they’ve needed to embrace a wide range of tools and tactics to grow audience and revenue for their streaming channels. Ubiquity and flexibility, they said, are key.

Scripps promotes her from local sales manager and an interactive account executive at KNXV Phoenix to oversee its Nebraska CBS affiliate.

Scripps moves him from senior director of news at its WXYZ-WMYD Detroit to oversee its Nevada ABC affiliate.

Scripps moves him to Texas from KMTV Omaha, Neb., to succeed Andrés Chapparo who is now GM of its WSFL Miami.

Broadcasters widely increased their political revenue guidance for 2022 following an earnings season in which spot saw continued growth across categories except for the still-beleaguered automotive industry.

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Brian Lawlor: “We reached our 2019 core advertising performance in Q4 for the second quarter in a row, despite the headwinds of automotive. In fact, our forecast for the first quarter is that we’ll be up in results for five consecutive quarters of core advertising growth for Scripps, which is remarkable since it includes automotive.”

Scripps moves her up from assistant ND to oversee journalism at its Bakersfield ABC affiliate.

The former GM of KDEN Denver is tapped by Scripps to lead its ABC affiliates in Texas.

Scripps picks the former station manager of KPEJ Odessa, Texas, to oversee its CBS affiliate in Nebraska.

Executives from Dentsu, Publicis Media, UM Worldwide and E.W. Scripps entertained the prospect of buyers and sellers being their own source of TV audience data in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s TV2025 last week, prompted by the industry’s threadbare patience with Nielsen.

The broadcaster seeks GenZ viewers, ad dollars with eSports deal.

Some Scripps employees were sent an email Wednesday, informing them that they were getting a one time bonus of $1,000 and an extra day off. The bonus and the PTO day were given to employees whose jobs required them to be in the office or in the field at least 60% of the time during the pandemic.

E.W. Scripps said Friday that it topped its guidance with same-station advertising up 48% and services seeing a 35% year-to-year spending jump, leading all other categories.

Scripps-owned WPTV, the NBC affiliate in West Palm Beach, Fla., has debuted a new set from Devlin Design Group. The upgrade coincides with the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, a time when many NBC stations take advantage of increased viewership to run additional promotional spots and debut changes.

Executives from Tegna, E.W. Scripps, Hearst Television, Gray Television and Bitcentral will explore the possibilities for hubbing some or all TV station group operations — and how much of a role the private or public cloud may play in those future designs — during an Aug. 5 TVNewsCheck webinar. Speakers are (clockwise from upper left): Dave Burke, SVP and CTO, Gray Television; Kurt Rao, SVP-CTO, Tegna; Ray Thurber, VP engineering, E.W. Scripps; Stefan Hadl, VP engineering, Hearst Television; Sam Peterson, GM, core business unit, Bitcentral. Glen Dickson, TVNewsCheck contributing editor, will moderate. Register here.

The Florida 24 Network highlights reporting from Scripps’ six stations in the state and is available over-the-top in every TV market across the state.

Scripps promotes him from sales director to lead the NBC affiliate, succeeding Evan Pappas.

Michael Teicher will be responsible for developing the company’s ad sales strategy for all the Scripps networks across all platforms, including general market, direct response, programmatic/digital, long-form and sponsorship advertising.

Trends driven by the pandemic are likely to persist into 2021 and beyond, while transitions to IP infrastructures will accelerate and aging on-prem infrastructure will give way to increased reliance on the cloud. NextGen TV will also likely pick up speed after COVID’s cooling effect on its rollout this year.

Scripps moves her from station manager to oversee its Boise, Idaho, ABC affiliate starting next year.

The Fox affiliate is the latest Scripps station to announce plans to expand local news this year.

It will combine it with Scripps’ Katz networks and Newsy “to create a full-scale national television networks business” and will spin off  23 of Ion’s 71 stations to comply with FCC ownership regulations. Scripps has agreed to a transaction with a buyer, who has agreed to maintain Ion affiliations for the stations. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway gets a warrant to purchase as many as 23.1 million Class A Scripps shares as part of the deal.

The veteran Louisiana broadcaster is tapped by Scripps to lead its ABC affiliate in Lafayette, La.

Sales veteran Ramon Pineda moves from Univision to lead KRIS and KDF in Texas.

The first phases of dynamic, addressable advertising trials include participation from Fox, ViacomCBS, NBCUniversal, Scripps, AMC Networks, Disney Media Networks, Discovery, Hearst Television and WarnerMedia.

The group’s television stations will have access to the full suite of TV solutions including Nielsen’s Local TV Measurement, Nielsen Scarborough, NLTV, Ad Intel, Arianna and Nielsen Grabix.

The recently acquired Miami CW affiliate extends Scripps’ coverage in the key political battleground state of Florida to six stations.

The former VP of strategy and business development for Tribune Broadcasting will lead the company’s next-generation television efforts including its ATSC 3.0 strategy and will help identify, develop and evaluate investment and partnership opportunities.