Business

Univision, the Spanish-language broadcaster that is operating under new ownership, has secured double-digit percentage increases in advance advertising commitments for its next programming cycle, the latest traditional broadcaster to benefit from an unusually speedy “upfront” market, when TV companies try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory.

The most recent job posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center is for a vice president and general manager in the Livability-ranked No. 1 small-to-mid-size city in the country.

When the young Oracle heir entered the entertainment industry, no one expected much. Instead, he’s built the rarest of businesses — a thriving, all-audiences, independent studio, Skydance Media.

News this past week that Sinclair Broadcast Group and investment banker LionTree are raising $250 million to launch a sports streaming service may not be quite as big a deal as, say, that $43 billion spinoff/merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery. But despite the difference in the number of zeroes involved, a Sinclair streaming service could  dramatically reshape the sports streaming leader board, and not incidentally, what’s left of the cable bundle and broadcast TV, too.

Adam Ware, VP of national networks and platforms for Sinclair Broadcast Group, says the company’s STIRR network of local streaming channels is seeing robust revenue growth in spinning up bespoke channels and “long-form” advertising content for local advertisers. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

A group of more than 300 MSNBC employees are mounting a unionization drive with the Writers Guild of America East to represent writers, talent bookers, fact-checkers and others in editorial at NBCUniversal’s all-news cable network.

People have 11 hours a day to spend on leisure time, Bourkoff insisted during a Q&A Friday, and if that’s mostly video it’s a problem. “We have gone overboard on video streaming, which is why the rise of audio has happened,” he said.

New data shows the U.S. ad market surged 56% in May, following a 53% gain in April and a 22% increase in March, which was the first to show a year-over-year rebound from the pandemic-influenced advertising recession.

Gray Sports + Entertainment Sales is responsible for revenue generation of Gray-owned media and sponsorship assets. It’s led by Bill Lancaster, currently vice president of sales for both Raycom Sports and RTM Studios. He’s joined by Joel Lewin as senior director of revenue development.

A new monthly Nielsen measurement called The Gauge shows just how much the pandemic has catalyzed streaming among a broad ranger of consumers with May usage across all television homes climbing to 26% of time spent on TV — outpacing broadcast, with an audience share of 25%. The streaming video data included SVOD and AVOD. Streaming and broadcast now account for half of television time. Cable accounted for 39%, and “other” viewing for 9%.

Most stocks fell Thursday with markets around the world finishing mixed but mostly calm after investors in Asia and Europe got their first chance to react to the Federal Reserve’s signaling on Wednesday that it may start raising short-term interest rates by late 2023.

Comcast, Charter Communications and Vizio, among others, have created a consortium to identify ways to simplify and scale an increasingly complex TV ad business.

Employees at MSNBC, the 24-hour cable news channel with a slate of prominent liberal anchors, said on Thursday that they planned to form a union representing about 315 workers including producers, bookers, writers and fact checkers. The announcement is the latest example of a workers’ rights movement that has swept major media organizations, as print, digital and broadcast journalists seek to unionize amid a precarious outlook for their industry.

Fox Television Stations promotes her from news director to oversee all aspects of the Fox-MNT Minneapolis duopoly.

While many media companies have instituted layoffs (Meredith, Sinclair, CBS, NBC, etc.) or furloughs (Tegna) during the pandemic, Gray Television did not. And while groups like Sinclair have frozen employee raises for 2021, Gray is upping its game by giving its employees raises across the board. The staff was sent an internal memo Wednesday that said they would be getting a bump in pay, by up to 4%.

Fox saw increases in advance ad commitments for its primetime schedule and expanding digital venues as part of the industry’s annual “upfront” sales process, the latest of the nation’s big media companies to see robust activity as advertisers try to move forward as the coronavirus pandemic diminishes.

NBC is working up a new play for the Super Bowl. Eager to generate millions of dollars in revenue from the Big Game, the Comcast-owned media conglomerate is talking to potential advertisers about a price tag of $6 million for a 30-second spot in the event, according to executives familiar with current negotiations, marking a new high-water mark in pricing for Super Bowl commercials. Super Bowl LVI is slated to be broadcast on Feb. 13, 2022, from Inglewood, Calif.

Veteran TV and radio talk-show host Tavis Smiley, who continues to deny the claims of unwanted sexual behavior that led PBS to drop his long-running show, is attempting to rebound with the purchase of a Los Angeles radio station that will offer a Black and progressive perspective on the city and nation.

Stocks finished down Wednesday as the Fed discusses dialing back economic support. The S&P 500 fell 22.89, or 0.5%, to 4,223.70 after the Fed unveiled a highly anticipated set of projections by its policymakers, which showed some expect short-term rates to rise half a percentage point by late 2023.

The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), a division of the Advertising Research Foundation, this morning said it is launching new research to “better understand how time is spent across every platform available on TVs today.” The initiative, dubbed the “Passive TV Measurement Study,” will explicitly look at how American consumers spend time with linear TV as well as OTT (over-the-top internet-connected) devices, smart TV apps and video game consoles.

Diageo and the NFL have completed a comprehensive spirits marketing pact, which will be the league’s first sponsorship in that category. Sources said that Diageo gets exclusivity across spirits broadly, but the sponsorship will be used to market three main Diageo brands: Smirnoff vodka, Captain Morgan flavored rum and Crown Royal whiskey. One agency source estimated the all-in cost at $30 million per year, with around half of that being rights fees.

The selection of legal scholar Lina Khan to head the Federal Trade Commission is seen as signaling a tough stance toward tech giants Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple. Khan was sworn in as FTC chair just hours after the Senate confirmed her as one of five members of the commission on a 69-28 vote.

In a shift that could help Google’s YouTube sidestep future political controversy, as well as make it more attractive to a broader audience, the social video site has announced that it has stopped taking ads related to elections and political content, alcohol, gambling and prescription drugs in its masthead ads.

The purchase of W27EB-D Sugar Grove, Ill., by Sovryn Holdings tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Advisory Services.

U.S. stocks dipped from records on Tuesday ahead of a decision by the Fed on rates. The S&P 500 dipped 8.56, or 0.2%, to 4,246.59, as the Federal Reserve began a two-day meeting on interest-rate policy. A day earlier, the index returned to an all-time high amid optimism that ultralow interest rates pegged by the Fed, COVID-19 vaccinations and financial support from the government are revving up the economy.

When it comes to NFT investing, Fox apparently has diamond hands. The network is staking its new NFT business unit, Blockchain Creative Labs, with a $100 million creative fund, Fox announced Tuesday. Fox is partnering with Bento Box Entertainment on the project and has now named Bento Box co-founder and CEO Scott Greenberg as CEO of the new company. Blockchain Creative Labs will build, launch, manage and sell NFT content and experiences, and fungible tokens, as well as digital goods and assets.