As quarterly earnings season gets underway, the two station groups reveal dividend plans.
TV stations are arming themselves with software that allows them to slice and dice social media to gauge audience interest in stories, share viewer feedback and even predict what stories will become larger issues in the future. Other software speeds social integration into newscasts.
A judicial panel has consolidated at least 18 antitrust suits against five TV station groups for allegedly colluding on spot pricing in the federal district court in Chicago. The defendants, which include Tribune, Sinclair and in some cases Gray, Hearst, Nexstar and Tegna, had pushed for the consolidation. The proliferatng suits are an outgrowth of a Justice Department review of the merger of Sinclair and Tribune, which was scuttled after the FCC found evidence of misrepresentation by Sinclair. (Free registration required.)
He will lead the company’s legal team following Todd Mayman, executive vice president and chief legal and administrative officer, who is retiring early next year.
The suite of services is designed to reach consumers across television, email, social and over-the-top (OTT) platforms, including Premion, Tegna’s OTT advertising service.
WALB GM Jim Wilcox Announces Retirement
He will step down as head of Raycom’s ABC-NBC affiliate in Albany, Ga., at the end of this year. The station’s general sales manager, Bruce Austin, will succeed him.
Exclusives
Tegna’s Second Quarter Revenue Up 7.1%
The $524 million total was attributed to higher political ad revenue and growth in subscription revenue.
An Alabama law firm that advertised on television is accusing the six biggest owners of TV stations — Sinclair Broadcast Group, Tribune Media, Gray Television, Hearst Corp., Nexstar Media Group and Tegna — of scheming to artificially inflate the price of ads, according to a new antitrust class action lawsuit.
Tegna Wants Local News Binge Watchers
Ellen Crooke, VP of news at Tegna, says the company is doing a top-to-bottom overhaul of its approach to local news led by next-generation innovators with a digital mindset. The goal is drawing in younger viewers with binge-worthy investigative, episodic digital content that finds broadcast iterations afterwards.
Bobby Springer To Become KHOU VP-GM
Tegna taps the KUSA executive to succeed the retiring Susan McEldoon as head of its CBS affiliate in Houston next year.
Former Time Inc., Time Warner and NBCU executive Kurt Rao will oversee the company’s next-generation client and customer technology initiatives.
Tegna’s OTT ad platform is designed to let advertisers be able to target specific audience segments such as auto intenders, travel enthusiasts or homeowners.
Tegna Inc. on Friday appointed Emmy Award-winning producer Burt Dubrow the senior executive producer of Daily Blast Live, its entertainment and news program that crowdsources its content in real time […]
Compensation: Tegna Saves As Lougee Leaps
In 2016, Tegna CEO Gracia Martore clocked in as the highest paid executive among the nation’s pure-play television station groups. She left in 2017 and Dave Lougee now sits atop the Tegna organizational chart, costing the company far less.
Tegna Investigates Disappearance Of Little Boy
Tegna has appointed Jenni Ryall vice president of digital content. She comes to Tegna from Mashable where she was VP of content strategy. She will report to Adam Ostrow, Tegna’s […]
Lougee: Tegna Pumped For Political Plenty
The company sees itself well-positioned for this year’s midterm election campaign spending. It has stations in 19 of 36 governor contests, with eight appearing to be highly competitive; it has 16 of 34 Senate races, with eight competitive; and Tegna’s 33% U.S. footprint suggests it will benefit from some 150 House races.
Tegna’s 4Q Revenue Falls 10.3%
However, if political results are factored out, that changes to a 9.2% increase to $480.5 million.
It’s collaborating with Independent Media’s The Outline on mobile-first storytelling and investigative content across platforms.
Howard Elias has been elected as non-executive chairman of the board while Evolution Media’s Stuart Epstein joins the board. At the same time, the company declared a dividend of 7 cents per share, payable on April 2 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on March 9.
After closing the deal with Midwest Television, Tegna adds KFMB-AM-FM-TV to its broadcast portfolio that now totals 47 TV stations.
Turner and Tegna have made strategic investments in Vizbee, a crossplatform casting and data company, during Vizbee’s latest round of funding. “As we continue to shape the future of television, […]
Tegna will use the free streaming network to distribute its local content across its platform, offering viewers localized news and other digital content from Tegna stations. It will also feature Tubi TV’s advertising technology platform, which combines data targeting with an analytics platform to provide user-targeted, differentiated ads.
Sony Pictures Television will distribute all Tegna owned first-run programming, including the new series Daily Blast Live, as well as future development. The deal aims to “collectively launch shows to air on Tegna stations, with the goal of increasing their national footprint in broadcast and cable.”
Tegna & ‘Daily Blast Live’ Give $15K To School
The sale of KFMB San Diego by Midwest Television to Tegna Inc. tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA/Kelsey.
Tegna Buying Midwest’s KFMB-AM-FM-TV
It’s paying $325 million in cash for Midwest Television’s San Diego CBS-CW affiliate plus an AM-FM combo there.
Stations Press Ahead With Social Platforms
Major groups keep experimenting, looking to find the best ways to use Facebook and YouTube, both to expand their brands and eventually generate some revenue.
Melinda Witmer, a former executive at Time Warner Cable (now Charter Spectrum), has been elected to the board of directors of Tegna Inc., effective immediately, the company announced today. “We […]
What WFAA Has Learned From Tegna’s Verify
Tegna television stations use a segment called Verify to help news consumers discern what’s fact from fiction on social media. This is the second in a series about Tegna’s efforts to improve transparency and trust with viewers through its Verify project.
Nexstar, Sinclair, Tribune, Tegna launch TV Interface Practices (TIP), a standards-based project to bring streamlined business interfaces to local TV. They are inviting broadcasters, advertisers and others to join to improve competitiveness with other media.
Tegna today was named a top place to work for LGBTQ employees for the second consecutive year. The company received a perfect score of 100 on the 2018 Corporate Equality […]
Tegna Awaits Olympics, Super Bowl-ing For $
Looking ahead to next year, the pure-play group’s CEO Dave Lougee tells analysts that the 1Q 2018 convergence of both the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics is something that Tegna has not enjoyed for 12 years. Additionally, political is expected to storm back. He also says that while traditional M&A will be a part of the upcoming FCC ownership dereg, so, he believes, will be station swaps. And the company is ready for both.
Pure-Play Tegna’s 3Q Revenue Down 10.7%
But factoring out political and Olympics, revenue increased 5.4% to $460.5 million.
Tegna will be a charter broadcast launch partner in the new adventure and exploration multicast network set to debut in January and will hold a minority ownership stake.
Tegna Inc.’s board of directors on Thursday declared a dividend of 7 cents per share, payable on Jan. 2, 2018, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on Dec. 8. “We remain focused on our strategy of being an innovative, best-in-class operator that drives growth and delivers a strong return for our shareholders,” said Dave Lougee, Tegna president-CEO. “We continue to be well-positioned with strong cash flow, financial flexibility and multiple revenue initiatives that create value for our investors.”
