Business

Hearst says it is donating $1 million to the Greater Houston Red Cross to aid in Harvey rescue and recovery efforts and will match employee donations up to an additional $1 million.The Walt Disney Co. and its Houston ABC O&O KTRK have pledged $1 million to the Red Cross for Harvey relief efforts and will also match, dollar for dollar, employee donations to the Red Cross and other organizations involved in Harvey relief.

Among this year’s honorees are the teams behind a voice-navigation system for TV content, a video-conferencing service, video ID tech and a 3D Doppler radar system. In addition, Robert Ross, SVP, CBS Engineering, and Richard Friedel, EVP, Fox Engineering, will receive Technology & Engineering Lifetime Achievement Awards on April 8 in Las Vegas.

The company will have access to audience measurement data for TV programs and commercial content in broadcast syndication and across all seven of the Entertainment Studios’ HD cable television networks.

WLS, ABC’s O&O in Chicago, is ahead in social media actions in the market over the last six months according to data from audience insight firm Shareablee. WLS has almost 25 million actions on social, 36% of the total engagement generated in the DMA (No. 3), with more than 69 million social actions. WLS was also first on Instagram with almost 950,000 actions.

After eschewing banner ads for years, BuzzFeed is finally embracing them. BuzzFeed will introduce display ads that will be bought and sold using third-party ad technology on a global basis. The move is a bid to tap into its scale and monetize its owned-and-operated platforms more effectively.

All money raised by Tegna’s 46 stations in 38 markets stations will be donated to the Red Cross Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund. In addition, the Tegna Foundation will match the first $100,000 of donations.

There is a small but savvy crowd of consumers who know exactly what they want out of their TV experience. Cost-conscious and empowered by the Internet’s convenience-at-a-click mentality, these consumers take advantage of free trials, no-contract commitments and the media industry’s own struggle in the face of technological change to help guard their wallets.

Comcast may be best known as a cable company, but it is banking on remote-controlled door locks and cameras as well as other “smart-home” offerings to accelerate its growing home security business. The push to diversify comes at a time when more U.S. consumers who are dropping traditional cable television packages, or cutting the cord, in favor of cheaper alternatives. Comcast and its rivals want to offer more services in the home to increase their revenues and create more loyal customers.

Accenture’s R&D division has spent the last year developing breakthrough product placement technology that can seamlessly insert a brand into online video, including the ability to replace existing labeling.

Continuing its crackdown on “fake news,” Facebook will no longer let publishers advertise on its network if they are found to be spreading such content. If a page repeatedly shares stories that have been marked as false by third-party fact-checkers, they will no longer be able to buy ads on Facebook.

Would you smoke a strain of weed based on the feeling you get from one of your favorite TV shows? That’s something Netflix tried to provide for fans this weekend with a pop-up dispensary in West Hollywood, Calif., to promote its new series Disjointed. The streaming giant partnered with a dispensary, Alternative Herbal Health Services, or AHHS, to distribute 12 strains of marijuana based on 10 of its shows.

CBS said it plans to use the takeover of Ten Network to launch its subscription streaming service CBS All Access in the Australian market.

NEW YORK (AP) — HBO’s “Game of Thrones” set yet another audience record Sunday with its seventh-season finale. Nielsen says an all-time high of 12.1 million viewers were tuned in […]

With August coming to a close, Monday was one of the quietest days of the year on Wall Street. Biotech drug companies rose after hepatitis C and HIV drug maker Gilead Sciences agreed to buy cancer drug maker Kite Pharma for $11.9 billion. Travel booking website Expedia tumbled as investors expected the company’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, to leave the company to become CEO of ride-sharing company Uber.

The Minneapolis My Network TV affiliate will be known as Fox 9+. In addition to the new evening newscast, it will also rebroadcast co-owned KMSP’s 10 p.m. news at 11.

Disappointing results from ad holding companies like WPP have shed a light on the pressure agencies are facing to evolve their existing structures. Many ad industry observers see a need for agencies to rethink their structures. “I think the future model is going to be a reconstituted agency a la the days of ‘Mad Men.’ The difference is Don Draper will report to Harry Crane, not the other way around,” said Lou Paskalis, a media executive at Bank of America.

Showtime Networks has hired Erin Calhoun as the new senior vice president of corporate communications, the company announced today. Calhoun joins Showtime from NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment where she was VP of corporate communications, managing trade and business strategies and internal communications for USA Network, SYFY and Chiller.

The Broadcasters Foundationof America’s emergency relief program distributes one-time grants of $1,000 each after a disaster, such as a hurricane, tornado, fire, flood or other serious misfortune. The expedited emergency grant application process is streamlined to provide assistance as quickly as possible to broadcasters affected.

As president of CBS Entertainment, Kelly Kahl, 50, oversees all aspects of the television network’s entertainment division, including programming, scheduling, marketing and promotion, digital initiatives and research. He also sits on the board of the CBS-owned cable channel Pop.

Texas TV stations sitting under a stalled Tropical Storm Harvey are using Facebook, especially Facebook Live, to keep users/viewers informed during this cataclysmic flooding event. Many residents without power can’t watch TV so stations must turn to social media to put information in the palms of people’s hands. Above: KHOU, the Tegna-owned CBS affiliate in Houston, went off the air for a time on Sunday when its studios were flooded.

The deal thwarts Lachlan Murdoch’s attempt to gain control of the broadcaster. The sale price will be revealed in a report to creditors within days.

Stocks rose on Friday, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index cruised to its first winning week in the last three.