Amid much commentary about the negative impact high-valued sports streaming initiatives could have on local TV stations and MVPDs there’s another much more optimistic view emerging from the ranks of several publicly traded station groups. In sharp contrast to those who feel threatened by sports rights owners’ surging embrace of streaming, these station owners contend they are making significant headway with opportunistic adjustments to the new reality.
The season seven premiere of 9-1-1 in March delivered a cumulative audience of 11.76 million total viewers within the first seven days, and marked the series’ highest-rated multiplatform telecast in nearly two years in Adults 18-49. It paid homage to the disaster thriller The Poseidon Adventure. The drama stands as ABC’s most-watched current series across all platforms this season.
Game Show Network is gearing up to premiere three new original series this year: Beat The Bridge, hosted by Cameron Mathison, based on BBC’s Bridge of Lies, in June; Tic Tac Dough, hosted by Brooke Burns, in August and previously announced Jaleel White-hosted Flip Side, which is launching in national syndication, in September. The news was announced by GSN as part of Sony Pictures Television Advertiser Sales upfront today in New York City. Pictured: Beat the Bridge, Tic Tac Dough and Flip Side.
The talker is cleared in 95% of the U.S. on stations from groups including Fox Television Stations, Nexstar, Sinclair, Hearst, Gray and Scripps.
The specials will be part of the Beat the Odds nationally syndicated sports betting and entertainment television series produced by Tupelo Media Group and KVVU. They begin this weekend for college basketball and will also air on dozens of Gray’s stations.
WDJT and WMLW, Weigel Broadcasting’s CBS and independent stations in Milwaukee, debut Deer Wisconsin, a 30-minute lifestyle program centered around food, fun, entertainment and people.
The partnership will see a wealth of Lionsgate and Starz content featured on Amazon streamer MGM+ including Outlander, Power Book and The Serpent Queen. It is the third instalment in a series of content deals that MGM+ has closed recently with Lionsgate for Europe and Latin America.
Huffman will guest star in Paramount+’s Criminal Minds spinoff Evolution, playing the brilliant ex-wife of original series star Mandy Patinkin.
Social media stars who’ve parlayed content niches into massive, cross-platform audiences will share their unique approaches to content creation in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere conference at the NAB Show on April 14. Register here.
The annual international television market, struggling for years, could be coming to an end: “The TV bubble has burst.”
Georgia lawmakers have rejected a bill that would have limited what the state can spend on tax incentives for film and TV production.
WWE’s weekly shows saw improvements in the Q1 key demo ratings year over year while remaining mostly steady in total viewership. Compared to the same time period last year, Smackdown is up 15% in the adults 18-49 demo to an average of 892,000 viewers per episode and up 3% in total viewers with 2.4 million viewers per episode. It should be noted, though, that those numbers do not include the episode that aired on March 29. Raw is up 6% in the demo with an average of 733,000 viewers, but down 7% in total viewers with 1.7 million viewers per episode. NXT saw the biggest increase percentage-wise of the three shows, up 31% in the demo to 242,000 viewers and 7% in total viewers with 646,000 per episode.
AXS TV said it will be running a new series from Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship starting April 4 at 11 p.m. Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship will continue to appear in that time slot until April 18, which it will move to 10 p.m. With 13 hour-long episodes, the series will debut with a review of top matches from BKFC 38 and feature fighters including Dat Nguyen, Daniel Straus, Bostwick and Isaac Doolittle.
NEW YORK (AP) — James Patterson is launching a true crime series on the streaming service Fox Nation. “Unsolved With James Patterson,” hosted by the million-selling author, premieres Monday and […]
The police procedural diginet is now available on ABC Owned Television Stations that add more than 4 million new, over-the-air TV households as well as 3.73 million new pay TV/cable households.
The city of Oakland plans to present MLB‘s Athletics ownership with an offer to extend the team’s lease for five years, with an opt-out after three. The Athletics have announced plans to move the franchise to Las Vegas, where a proposed stadium is scheduled to be completed by 2028. The current Athletics lease in Oakland ends this season, leaving a substantial gap in their home schedule.
The Formula 1 owner, led by chairman John Malone and CEO Greg Maffei, agreed to acquire an 86% stake in the Madrid-based commercial rights holder Dorna Sports.
Generate more ad revenue with sponsored UGC segments
Morris Multimedia’s WWAY Wilmington secured Center for Quality Care as an interactive sponsor for its Weather Photo of the Day user-generated content (UGC) segment. Sponsored UGC segments can be a great source of revenue for local broadcasters and an excellent opportunity for brands looking to drive instant leads and sales.
Gossett broke through on the small screen as Fiddler in ABC’s groundbreaking 1977 miniseries Roots, which depicted the atrocities of slavery on TV. The sprawling cast included Ben Vereen, LeVar Burton and John Amos. Gossett’s performance won him an Emmy. He was 87.
Fierce media rivals like ESPN and Fox Sports aren’t often eager to see the other do well. But the competitors may be cheering one another this weekend. Fox and ESPN will this weekend each broadcast two games from the new — depending on how one looks at it — UFL, a league that has been built out of the former USFL and its rival, the XFL.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s branded content studio Courageous is helping game app Candy Crush promote its annual All Stars Tournament with custom videos featuring on-air talent.
‘Chicago P.D.’ Rises, ‘Med’ Dips On Wednesday
NBC’s Chicago Fire was Wednesday’s most-watched show (6.3 million/0.5), while CBS’s Survivor dominated the night in the 18-49 demo (4.7 million/0.7).