Business

After days of marathon negotiations, representatives from the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and from the studios and entertainment companies who employ them reached the three-year contract agreement before a Monday strike deadline, avoiding a serious setback for an industry that had just gotten back to work after long pandemic shutdowns.

Stocks ended higher Friday, giving the S&P 500 its best week since July, The latest rally came as investors welcomed encouraging quarterly report cards from several companies.

The company veteran is moving from KOVR-KMAX Sacramento, Calif., to oversee WBZ and WSBK starting Oct. 25.

A new outlook report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, based on a survey of nearly 20 buy- and sell-side industry leaders by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and insights from other IAB research, forecasts digital ad spend to reach $165.5 billion next year.

After spending nearly 15 years in the Crescent City, Vilmenay is leaving. He’s jumping from New Orleans, the No. 50 television market, to Los Angeles, the No. 2 television market, to be president and general manager of the CBS duopoly of KCBS and independent KCAL.

Ty Carver’s “Open Mike” opinion piece, Local TV Faces ‘The Great Resignation’ on TVNewsCheck on Oct. 8 started quite the debate. Here Paul Greeley responds specifically to some of Carver’s observations in his op-ed.

On Thursday, U.S. stocks rallied the most since March as momentum builds. The benchmark S&P 500 index rose 1.7% a day after breaking a three-day losing streak.

TikTok, an app best known for dancing videos with 1 billion users worldwide, has also become a shopping phenomenon. National chains, hoping to get TikTok’s mostly young users into its stores, are setting up TikTok sections, reminiscent of “As Seen On TV” stores that sold products hawked on infomercials. Above, a column of candy, left, featured in TikTok videos is displayed at It’Sugar candy store on the Upper East Side of New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

NBCUniversal announced members of its Measurement Innovation Forum, a group aimed at looking at the way media and advertising is measured and creating alternatives to Nielsen, which has monopolized the industry. Measurement companies are not included in the forum. Advertisers participating include Citicorp, Ford, L’Oreal, Rocket Mortgage, Target and Volkswagen.

In a series of transactions totaling nearly $100 million, Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting has acquired two stations serving the New York market as affiliates for the company’s MeTV digital networks.

On Wednesday, a modest gain broke a three-day losing streak for the S&P 500 index. However, the benchmark index is still on pace for a 0.6% weekly loss.

Former Meredith exec Todd Brown today was named vice president and general manager of Cox-owned Boston Fox affiliate WFXT.

IAB Tech Lab, the digital advertising technical standards body, on Wednesday released id-sources.json to help increase transparency around the use of ID solutions as the advertising industry prepares to transition to a post-cookie world. Today, the id-sources.json standard becomes available for public comment until November 12.

Graham Media Group moves her from news director at WRTV Indianapolis to oversee its Jacksonville, Fla., duopoly.

Univision will operate two Florida stations — WVEN and WOTF Orlando — and named executive Eddy Elguezabal the president and general manager of its Orlando and Tampa operations. Univision will also take over operations WMDO-CD Washington.

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees International President Matthew Loeb said Wednesday that the strike would begin at 12:01 a.m. Monday unless an agreement is reached on rest and meal periods and pay for its lowest-paid workers.

The sales executive will oversee Morgan Murphy Media’s CBS affiliate in Joplin, Mo.-Pittsburg, Kan., beginning Oct. 18.

Automakers spent almost $12 million more this September on national television ads compared to a year ago but impressions were down, according to iSpot.tv. The estimated spend in September 2021 was $239.5 million compared to $227.7 million in September 2020.

Viewers are increasingly ditching broadcast entertainment for streaming, Nielsen is being challenged as the default for metrics and tech giants are siphoning ad dollars once spent on linear television — but that doesn’t mean TV ads are dead.

The growth potential in the nascent market for American sports betting is huge. But for now, operators are still losing money — a lot of it. Sports betting is taking a page from the playbook of tech giants like Netflix, Amazon and Twitter, sacrificing profitability in the early days in the hope of engraining themselves in customers’ lives.

Disney’s strategic move into streaming conflicts with ESPN’s business, which profits handsomely from linear TV. ESPN probably won’t consider a direct-to-consumer service until the pay-TV bundle falls below 50 million U.S. households, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. ESPN’s near-term strategy is to incrementally increase the price of ESPN+, its limited streaming service, and add more content.

The purchase of WJLP and WNWT New York by Weigel Broadcasting tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Advisory Services.

Stocks edged lower Tuesday ahead of company earnings and inflation data. The major indexes wavered between small gains and losses for much of the day, before the selling gained momentum in the final minutes of trading. The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% after having been up 0.3% in the early going.

Network affiliates are again pushing the FCC to bring some over-the-top video providers under the retransmission consent regime so they will have to negotiate directly with TV stations for carriage. That push came in comments to the FCC on the agency‘s latest quadrennial review of media ownership regulation.

Mobile advertising is expected to surpass direct mail for the first time as the economy grows and overall spending reaches $161.5B in BIA’s 2022 U.S. Local Advertising Forecast.