Christina Spade, Showtime’s chief financial officer, has been named EVP and Chief Financial Officer at CBS Corp., the latest move from president and interim CEO Joe Ianniello in restructuring the company’s exec suite after the departure of longtime CEO Les Moonves.
The company said that refinancing senior secured term loans and revolving credit facility will reduce its annual interest expense by approximately $7 million.
Dow Finishes Down 327, Nasdaq Sinks 158
Stocks sank Thursday on weak industrial earnings. At the start of trading, stocks took small losses as bond prices fell and interest rates spiked. While the gain in interest rates didn’t last, stocks turned lower late in the morning, and by the end of the day they had wiped away most of their big rally from Tuesday.
Marketers who are suing Facebook over allegations of inflated video metrics say the company’s errors were worse than it previously acknowledged. “Facebook’s records also show that the impact of its miscalculation was much more severe than reported,” marketers allege in court papers filed in August, but only unsealed on Tuesday. “The average viewership metrics were not inflated by only 60%-80%; they were inflated by some 150% to 900%.”
Disney’s sales process for Fox’ 22 RSNs took a big step forward last week when the company sent the official bid book to prospective bidders, according to several sources. Said to be more than 150 pages, the book was sent to networks, digital companies, distributors and investment banks who agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Allen & Co. and JP Morgan Chase are handling the sale for Disney, sources said.
Exclusives
The streaming service surprised Wall Street with huge gains in subscribers in the third quarter. The results showed why AT&T and Disney spent big on their latest acquisitions.
In the lawsuit, eBay said Amazon representatives signed up for eBay accounts and messaged sellers to get them to sell their goods on Amazon.com, which eBay said violated its user agreement. According to the complaint, Amazon representatives spelled out their email addresses and asked eBay sellers to talk on the phone in order to evade detection.
For businesses with 500 or more employees, this spending averages $4.48 million for advertising and $2.18 million on promotions, according to a new survey from BIA Advisory Services.
How To Take Advantage Of OTT Opportunities
Stations can get tools and platforms that will deliver ads, target ads and do all the backend content distribution and data analytics. But to be successful, “it really goes back to understanding who your audience is and how they want to interact with your content.”
Will Stations’ Retrans Bubble Burst?
Panelists at TV2020 examine various scenarios for the future of this important revenue stream in light of growing competition from OTT services and increasing reverse comp demands from the networks.
Obstacles Slow Advanced Advertising Adoption
While addressable advertising is seen by many in the ad buying business as “the holy grail,” progress toward making it an industry reality has been slow. Why that is and what can be done about it was the focus of a panel at TVNewsCheck’s TV2020 conference.
Dow Slumps 72, Nasdaq Slips 3
Stocks erased most of their early losses Wednesday after a huge gain. Stocks slumped in morning trading as homebuilders and retailers took sharp losses after the Commerce Department said construction of new homes dropped in September. Technology companies fell as IBM suffered its biggest loss in five and a half years after it reported weak sales. Stocks were coming off their biggest gain in more than six months.
On Group CEOs Minds: FCC Cap, 3.0, Live Programming
Not all broadcasters believe that the cap should go away completely. Graham’s Emily Barr: “The problem is, 39% seems wrong and 100% seems wrong.” Other topics at the TV2020 conference Wednesday: The panelists were extremely bullish on how much live programming will play into the overall health of the broadcast industry. And they expressed enthusiasm for ATSC 3.0, saying that there is no need for a solid business 3.0 business plan to make sense of the massive initiative. L-r: TVNewsCheck’s Harry Jessell, Graham Media’s Emily Barr, Nexstar’s Perry Sook, Fox Television Stations’ Jack Abernethy and Gray’s Hilton Howell. (Photo: Wendy Moger-Bross)
Several public funds that hold shares in Facebook Inc. on Wednesday backed a proposal to remove Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg as chairman, saying the social media giant mishandled several high-profile scandals.
The Hollywood Reporter’s annual rundown of the most influential creators includes those executive producers with the Netflix gold — congratulations again, Ryan Murphy — as well as emerging talents like Jordan Peele and Lena Waithe.
CBS Will Aggressively Pursue NFL Rights Deal
The network plans to go all out to renew its current NFL deal that is up for renegotiation in 2022, says CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus (r) with TVN’s Harry Jessell. He called live NFL games “the most valuable programming on television” and said CBS “will defend its territory and defend the AFC package.” McManus confirmed that CBS is getting $5 million-plus per Super Bowl 30-second ad unit, and said Super Bowl ad sales are “very strong.” (Photo: Wendy Moger-Bross)
Auletta: Broadcast Nets Making New ‘Frenemies’
Author Ken Auletta, who opened TVN’s TV2020 conference, says it’s risky for broadcast networks to sell programming to streaming platforms because advertising will continue to be a main revenue source for broadcasters and that allowing viewers to be conditioned to watching programming without advertising will not be beneficial to them down the road. (Photo: Wendt Moger-Bross)
Equities researchers at Guggenheim initiated coverage on shares of Sinclair Broadcast in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday. The brokerage set a “buy” rating on the stock.
Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios has appointed Ronnie Ng chief financial officer and head of corporate development. Ng will work out of the Entertainment Studios headquarters in Los Angeles. Last month, Entertainment Studios announced it had […]
WGEM Quincy Signals Returned To Dish
Quincy Media’s NBC-Fox affiliate WGEM Quincy, Ill. (DMA 174) are once again being carried on Dish Network after a new retransmission agreement was reached.
It’s purchasing Triton Digital, which serves the growing digital audio marketplace through a software-as-a-service business-to-business revenue model. Triton powers or measures streaming music and podcasting for many of the biggest names in audio.
Jukin Media, a global digital media company, has signed a deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group to take over operations of the company’s TBD Network that specializes in bringing digital-first programming to broadcast television as well as streaming it on TBD.com and the TBD app.
WarnerMedia joins an armada of well-funded competitors looking to take on Netflix’s over-the-top dominance, but a crowded landscape may become a zero-sum game.
Univision has sent a letter to the heads of the FCC and Federal Trade Commission buttressing its case that Dish continued to market the channels that had gone dark on the satellite service. The two are embroiled in a retransmission consent impasse that has resulted in Dish not carrying Univision, UniMas and Galavision since the end of June.
Wall St. Loves Netflix’s 3Q Sub Growth
The video-streaming service added 7 million subscribers worldwide from July through September, far above the company’s target of 5 million and exceeding analyst projections. Investors lifted Netflix’s stock by more than 11% to $386.30 in extended trading.
The GMs Powering Fox Television Stations
As TVNewsCheck honors Fox Television Stations as its TV Station Group of the Year with a three-part special report, here is a who’s who of the people on the front line of responsiblity for the performance of each of the group’s 28 outlets. Part 1 focused on the station group’s strategy going forward as a crucial component of New Fox. Part 2 offered a profile of FTS CEO Jack Abernethy. You can read those stories here.
Dow Jumps 547, Nasdaq Closes Up 215
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and UnitedHealth led a parade of companies that reported profits for the third quarter on Tuesday that surpassed analysts’ expectations. Technology companies also jumped after taking steep losses during the market’s rout last week.
CBS has selected Los Angeles real estate investment firm Hackman Capital Partners as the winning bidder for the company’s iconic Television City facility near the corner of Fairfax and Beverly, a source familiar with the deal says. The transaction is not yet final, but the value is said to be well north of $700 million.
Tom Hicks Jr., the Texas-based chair of America First, a super PAC that’s aligned with Trump, is reported to be teaming up with Cerberus Capital to bid for Tribune Media and its 42 TV stations.
