Business

One month after NBCUniversal finished its upfront negotiations but offered few specifics about its haul, the company is finally sharing some specifics about its biggest upfront ever — and revealed that it is well on its way to wrapping Super Bowl 56 ad sales in record time. NBCU has secured as much as $6 million per 30-second spot, according to sources close to negotiations, a 9% increase over what CBS charged advertisers to appear in February’s Super Bowl 55.

The sale of the ABC affiliate in Flint-Saginaw, Mich., will pave the way for closing Gray’s purchase of Meredith’s station group. It boosts Allen’s portfolio to 24 stations in 20 markets.

Stocks ended Wednesday mixed. The S&P 500 eked out a 0.1% gain after recovering from an early stumble and then losing much of its momentum by late afternoon. The benchmark index recovered some of its losses from a day earlier, but finished just short of its all-time high set on Monday.

Fox News Channel may have the biggest average audience, as well as gross revenues of the cable news networks, but when it comes to a key Madison Avenue metric — CPMs — MSNBC is the most valued. A MediaPost analysis of data released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center analyzing the 2020 audience size and economics of the major cable news networks, reveals that MSNBC generates an average of $423 per primetime household reached annually, which is about 10% more valuable than the second most valued cable news network, Fox News’ $386 per primetime household reached.

Nexstar Media Inc. filed a suit against Comcast Cable Communications charging that the cable company was breaching its retransmission contract by failing to pay fees for carrying WPIX New York. In the suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, Nexstar is seeking unspecified damages, interest and other costs, including attorney’s fees.

Over-the-top advertising has become a surprisingly important business for companies that have been stockpiling television stations. Streaming revenue is letting broadcasters, including Cox Media Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group and the NBC and Fox O&Os, claim a foothold in the technology field and create advanced advertising products for clients enamored of digital and social media.

Grady Tripp, VP and chief diversity officer at Tegna, explains how fostering diversity, inclusion and equity at TV stations can be cultivated by maintaining an inclusive work environment, recognizing and valuing underrepresented groups and securing buy-in from leadership. This is the latest installment of How To, a TVNewsCheck original video series that solicits innovative, practical and actionable advice from TV experts in news, technology, sales and marketing. Earlier episodes: How To Make A Better News Story Working Solo, How To Sell Local OTT Advertising and How To Animate A News Story.

The purchase of 17 unbuilt LPTV construction permits by Gray Television tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Advisory Services.

On Tuesday, stocks eased below recent records as earning reports began rolling in. The S&P 500 fell 0.4%, with most of the companies in the benchmark index losing ground. Banks, industrial stocks and companies that rely on consumer spending accounted for a big share of the decline. Technology stocks bucked the trend, helping counter some of the broader slide.

The broadcast executive with nearly 30 years of leadership experience will oversee Nexstar’s KVEO, valleycentral.com and Mission Broadcasting’s KGBT.

The consensus, an ongoing compilation of forecasts and revisions from the Big 4 forecasters  Dentsu, WPP’s GroupM, IPG Mediabrands’ Magna, and Publicis Media’s Zenith units — improved to an 11.7% expansion in global ad spending vs. +10.6% when GroupM and Magna published their most recent updates in June.

Mediaocean agreed to acquire Flashtalking, combining its budget management capabilities with the ability to serve ads in digital environments. Terms were not disclosed, but according to published reports Mediaocean is paying $500 million for Flashtalking.

France’s competition regulation agency threatened fines of another 900,000 euros (around $1 million) per day if Google doesn’t come up with proposals within two months on how it will compensate publishers and news agencies for their content.

Roku has finished its upfront TV-video advertising market, posting rising “commitments” from marketers, two times that of the previous year, according to the company. For the entire 2021, MoffettNathanson Research projected Roku to have amassed $902 million in total advertising revenue — up from a $566 million estimate for 2020. Above, Roku original Chrissy’s Court.

Griffin Communications will relocate its corporate headquarters and CBS affiliate KWTV facility to downtown Oklahoma City in 2022. The company will spend more than $25 million to purchase and renovate the Century Center building at the corner of Sheridan and Robinson.

The internet and cable provider is still trying to figure out the best way to compete in the streaming wars.

Think your SVOD streaming experience is completely ad-free? Non-traditional ads, “sponsored by” positions and dynamic product placement put the lie to that.

Stock indexes notched more records Monday ahead of earnings reports. The S&P 500 gained 0.3% after bouncing back from an early stumble. The benchmark index, which has notched three straight weekly gains, hit a new high, as did the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq composite. The indexes have managed multiple new highs despite choppy trading in recent weeks.

As of Aug. 13, the cost of a subscription will go to $7 a month, from $6, mirroring a recent uptick for Disney+. A full-year subscription will now run $70, up from $60.

TV transactions of late have also included deals involving unbuilt low-power TV stations. With a sign-on deadline of Tuesday, time is rapidly ticking for those seeking to spin these facilities and cash out. Then, there’s a group of LPTVs for sale that are a bit unique. How so? They don’t need to be built until 2023.

New jobs posted on TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for general managers, a news director and an executive producer.

The sports channels still lack YouTube TV, Hulu, fuboTV carriage. Dish negotiations are expected in August.

The global entertainment and media industry was hurt less than the overall economy by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and is expected to grow faster through 2025, according to PwC’s new Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report. After dropping 3.8% to $2 trillion during the COVID-19 impacted year of 2020, entertainment and media revenues are projected to increase to $2.2 trillion in 2021 and continue to climb reaching $2.6 trillion in 2025, according to PwC.

Kevin Adell’s WADL Detroit (DMA 15) has secured the market’s MyNetworkTV affiliation, and will make the switch Sep. 20. WMYD, known as TV20 and owned by Scripps, is the current MyNetworkTV station in Detroit.