The Wall Street Journal reports that the government review of AT&T Inc.’s $85 billion takeover of Time Warner Inc. has reached an advanced stage, people close to the situation said, a significant milestone in a deal that was closely watched for signs of how the Trump administration would view large mergers. WSJ subscribers can read the full story here.
WPP’s GroupM today announced it is imposing its viewability standards globally and strengthening them for social and mobile newsfeed environments. It’s also undertaking a research to study the performance of social and newsfeed video.
KRIV Adds Traffic Reporter, Lifestyle Correspondent
CoCo Dominguez has been named traffic reporter and lifestyle correspondent at Fox-owned KRIV Houston (DMA 8). Effective Monday, Aug. 21, Dominguez will serve as the traffic reporter for the Fox […]
Under a comprehensive contract, the streaming service will carry Sinclair’s ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox affiliates within their markets. The deal also includes carriage of the Tennis Channel and possibly later CW and MNT affiliates and the Comet TV diginet. Terms were not disclosed.
Nexstar-owned NBC affiliate WDTN Dayton, Ohio (DMA 64) is expanding its weekday local programming with the launch of 2 News First at 4, what it calls “the Miami Valley’s first and only […]
The executive with more than 30 years of broadcast experience promoted to oversee Nexstar’s Southeast television and digital media operations.
He will end a 45-year broadcasting career on Jan. 1, 2018. Since 2012, he has been divisional GM.
Sing Like a Star will air in 33 Tegna markets and be hosted by Arthel Neville. It will be produced out of WWL New Orleans and premieres Sept. 16.
GatesAir CEO Sets Sights On Repack, Beyond
In July, Bruce Swail took the reins as CEO of GatesAir as the company’s longtime chief executive, Phil Argyris, announced his retirement. Swail comes to the company having served as CEO of two private equity-owned tech companies. While Swail acknowledges company owner The Gores Group could divest the transmitter maker at any time, his focus is on growth and optimizing profitability, he says.
WAVE ‘Feel Good’ Facebook Video Is Just That
Thousands Of Animals To Escape Shelters Saturday
Paul Ossmann Named WGCL Chief Meteorologist
Three of Snap Inc.’s top executives sold their first batch of company shares, picking up an estimated $9.3 million, according to federal disclosures. Employees at the Snapchat maker became free Monday to sell shares awarded through options or other compensation plans.
Antitrust lawyer Joseph Simons is President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Trade Commission, according to three people familiar with the decision. Simons is co-chairman of the antitrust group at the law firm Paul Weiss and served as director of the FTC’s competition bureau during the George W. Bush administration.
WTSP, Tegna Sued For Sex Discrimination
Theresa Collington, the former digital director for WTSP, the CBS affiliate in Tampa, Fla., is suing the station and its parent company, Tegna, for sex discrimination. Her complaint alleges Tegna discriminated against her in her compensation and when she was ultimately terminated for violations of the company’s social media policy that male employees violated regularly with impunity.
Dish Offers Free Antennas In Retrans Dispute
Dish said Wednesday it could lose the signal for ABC affiliate WLNE Providence, R.I., due to a dispute with its owner, Citadel Communications, over carriage fees.
For networks and their affiliated studios, finding a way to hold on to top-tier talent used to be a relatively simple proposition. Big producer threatening to jump to another company? Back up a Brinks truck. And if money alone wasn’t the only concern, offer the talent more “creative freedom.” As important as both those factors remain in talent negotiations, Shonda Rhimes’s just-announced decision to sign with Netflix and leave ABC/Disney points to a bleak new reality for old-school broadcasters trying to hold on to big names.
In an important endorsement of the TrustX initiative launched earlier this year by digital publishing trade group Digital Content Next, the Association of National Advertisers is throwing its full weight behind the program to help facilitate trust and transparency in programmatic media buying.
Dow Adds 26, Nasdaq Gains 12
Stocks made bigger gains early in the day Wednesday, but they slipped after a group of CEOs, including the heads of 3M and Campbell Soup, said they were leaving a manufacturing jobs group over comments about made by President Donald Trump about the racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Virginia this past weekend.
Reporter Hilary Golston will join Fox-owned WJBK Detroit (DMA 13) on Sept. 5. Most recently, Golston was a reporter, anchor and multimedia journalist for WKYC Cleveland. Previously, she was a weekend […]
Trial Date Set For KWWL Reporter
WATERLOO (AP) — A judge has scheduled trial for a television reporter accused of violating an order not to take courtroom video of “The Bachelor” star Chris Soules. Prosecutors are […]
The traditional TV ecosystem of cable and satellite providers offering huge bundles of channels has been slow to respond to the shifts in consumer behavior toward on-demand, commercial-free streaming access to programming across any device. But now the largest programmers and forward-looking MVPDs, like Comcast and DirecTV, are taking baby steps. It’s a tricky line for Disney and its cohorts to walk, because MVPD affiliate fees are still the biggest profit engines for the largest media conglomerates.
With just a few weeks to go before the kickoff of football season, advertisers may be questioning whether primetime NFL games can still score as many marketing touchdowns as it has in the past. A Variety survey of commercial-ratings projections for the 2017-18 broadcast-network TV season finds that ad buyers believe fewer people than last season will watch commercials during such primetime stalwarts as NBC’s Sunday Night Football and the Thursday Night Football broadcasts on both NBC and CBS.
A new study charts trends affecting media buyers and sellers. It’s available from ComScore as a complimentary download.
As part of the collaboration with The Weather Channel for its “Chasing Eclipse 2017” live stream, special coverage from Tegna’s six solar eclipse communities will be featured on weather.com, on The Weather Channel app and across social media. The station group will also partner with Facebook for the #EclipseLive Facebook Live stream.
The second-quarter earnings season of 2017 has wound down for media companies and broadcasters. Here’s a roundup of the developments that highlighted the reports: OTT, retrans, subscriber losses and ad revenues under pressure.
WESH’s 2017 News Ratings: ‘Impressive’
KENS Anchor Jenny Suniga Leaving
President Donald Trump’s contentious relationship with CNN took another turn Tuesday when the network refused to air a new campaign ad unless changes are made. The ad, entitled “Let President Trump do his job,” accuses the media of “attacking” the president as a collage of TV news personalities, including CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon, appears on the screen.