Sean McLaughlin: To assess local TV’s compensation problem in the cold light of day means acknowledging hard market realities. Here’s what the industry needs to address them and some potential solutions that won’t be without controversy.
As social networks become less reliable distributors of the news, consumers of digital journalism are seeking out an older form of online real estate.
Chris Ripley, president and CEO of Sinclair, and Pat LaPlatney, president and co-CEO of Gray Television, explain how the new RUN3TV web platform for ATSC 3.0 can unlock valuable viewer measurement data along with other imminent ROI opportunities for the technology in this video from TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere conference. Click here to register as a TVN subscriber and get access to all videos from this exclusive event.
It was a year of pain for the entertainment industry and shareholders of (many) media companies with months-long Hollywood strikes and layoffs. Linear television continued to decline and a nascent theatrical recovery went sideways. However, most CEOs saw pay packages rise in 2023, some by big multiples.
Just days after Bob Bakish left Paramount Global as CEO, CBS President-CEO George Cheeks — one-third of the newly formed “Office of the CEO” that will now jointly run the company — spoke to reporters about what to expect moving forward. And so far, there’s not much he can say.
Apple‘s fiscal Q2 numbers beat Wall Street estimates on the top and bottom line in a market that was waiting for them with some trepidation — mainly news of iPhone sales in China. The dip there was less than anticipated. The stock is up more than 7% in after-hours trading. Apple shares had a huge 2023 but the stock has been nearly alone among the so-called Magnificent Seven tech stocks to lose ground so far in 2024.
Judge Amit P. Mehta tried poking holes in the closing arguments of a landmark monopoly case as he weighs a ruling that could reshape tech.
Major League Baseball and Roku are in advanced talks to make the service the new home for Sunday morning baseball this season, sources briefed on the discussions confirmed on Thursday. The games were previously on NBC’s subscription streaming service Peacock. Peacock has been interested in retaining the MLB Sunday Leadoff package of nearly 20 games. It paid $30 million per season, but was only willing to renew for about a third of that price, according to executives briefed on the discussions.
For the first time this year, CBS did not order any pilots during the traditional pilot season window. And it may not be the last. “Pilots aren’t dead, I would say pilot season is probably dead for us because why should we be held to that very specific window anymore, nobody else is,” CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach said during the network’s unveiling of its 2024-25 schedule. “We only get so many shots at bat, let’s make sure when we take those swings that the bases are fully loaded for us.”
Allen Media Group, the owner of the linear TV Weather Channel, will cut employees across the company. “Allen Media Group is making strategic changes to better position the company for growth that will result in expense and workforce reductions across all divisions of the company,” a rep for Allen Media said on Thursday. No details on the size of the workforce reduction were disclosed.
The network will fill the “bridge” between fall and midseason with a block of game shows, including the Drew Barrymore-led update of Hollywood Squares.
Medical dramas The Resident and Grey’s Anatomy were Nielsen's top two streaming titles for the week of April 1-7, finishing with 1.18 billion and 1.15 billion minutes of viewing time (both stream on Hulu and Netflix). Disney’s animated movie Wish had its streaming premiere on April 3 and racked up 1.02 billion minutes of watch time over its first five days on Disney+.
Kantar has released a new study showing the U.S. streaming market has hit a saturation point, with the household penetration rate stagnating and at near universal levels. Streaming services were available in 95% of, or 123 million, U.S. households, growing only 0.1% quarter-on-quarter, according to Kantar’s latest Entertainment on Demand (EoD) data on the US streaming market from January to March 2024. The study found, however, that the average number of paid services accessed per household continues to rise, with U.S. households now subscribing to 3.9 paid services on average.
Despite an impending challenge from Meta’s end to its Authorized Sales Partner program, Entravision Communications reported a strong financial performance for the first quarter of 2024. With net revenue rising 16% to $277.45 million, the company finished ahead of analyst expectations, but Entravision faced rising costs across the board, including a significant $49.44 million impairment charge. These escalated expenses contributed to a net loss of $48.89 million for the quarter, a stark contrast to the net income of $2.04 million reported in Q1 2023.
The Pulitzer Center has officially kicked off The AI Spotlight Series, a new training initiative that aims to teach 1,000 journalists how to do AI accountability reporting over the next two years. On April 21, roughly 40 journalists gathered at the University of California, Berkeley for the inaugural “Introduction to AI reporting” session, which was built to demystify basic AI concepts for reporters outside the tech beat.
Happy May Day. Advertise your TV job openings in May to save $100. What distinguishes our classified service is not just the look of the ad — the layout, market information, use of pictures and videos — but what TVNewsCheck does AFTER the ad is placed.
Social content creators from TikTok, Instagram and YouTube share how they bypassed TV’s gatekeepers and found enormous, loyal audiences thanks to compelling content, a strong narrative voice and exceptional production values (achieved with a skeleton crew) in this video from TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere conference. Click here to register as a TVN subscriber and get access to all videos from this exclusive event.
New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include an opening for a digital platform specialist. Other existing job openings include ones for an account executive, executive producer, meteorologist, weekend anchor, sales manager, senior newscast producer, digital video producer and reporter.
Streaming sales leaders from Gray Television, E.W. Scripps, Hearst Television, Ticker and Megaphone TV will share the latest developments in technology and strategy for OTT and FAST channels. Learn more about this critically important revenue source for broadcasters in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch Webinar on May 16. Register here.
16 May 2024
23 May 2024
