The membership of SAG-AFTRA has voted overwhelmingly to approve a strike authorization, maximizing the guild’s leverage ahead of negotiations that begin on Wednesday. The guild announced Monday night that 97.91% of the voting members supported the authorization. Turnout was 47.69%. The vote comes as the Writers Guild of America strike enters its sixth week.
The television industry’s advertising business had a rough first quarter, prompting analyst Michael Nathanson to cut his forecast for the full year of 2023. The bright spot in the outlook is sports. The companies and networks that have strong sports-rights portfolios are doing better than those that don’t. That makes keeping sports perhaps more important than growing streaming revenue, which declined in the first quarter and is expected to grow a bit slower than expected in 2023.
Dow Drops 200, Nasdaq Loses 11, S&P Slips 9
The majority of stocks on Wall Street sank after a report showed growth fell short of economists’ forecasts for businesses in the construction, accommodation and other U.S. services industries last month. It was still a fifth straight month of expansion, though.
In internal forecasts, the company projected that ad sales would keep declining, handing a tough challenge to its new chief executive.
The union representing the company’s newsroom employees criticized the CEO for cutting jobs and hurting local journalism.
Exclusives
Daytime may not be the new primetime, but at a time when linear viewing is shrinking, new research from iSpot.tv shows daytime programming growing and grabbing a bigger share of viewership. iSpot said that during the 2022-23 TV season, the advertising impressions generated by daytime programming grew 1.3% to 860.3 billion. By contrast, primetime ad impressions dropped 3%. Daytime programming’s share of all linear impressions hit 17.7%.
Phony imagery isn’t new to campaigns. What has changed is that synthetic media has become far easier to create with the rollout of so-called generative AI systems that can quickly transform simple inputs into sophisticated-looking videos, photos, music and text. That has left campaign officials bracing for 2024 to usher in a level of digital creation and proliferation unlike any previous election season now that millions of users have access to such tools.
Advertisers may wonder how the reversal of YouTube’s decision to take down content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors or glitches occurred in the 2020 or other elections will impact ad-placement decisions. The change, which YouTube announced Friday, will not impact its advertising policies or YouTube monetization policies.
Joe Benarroch is leaving NBCUniversal for Twitter, following his former boss Linda Yaccarino, who was named CEO by Elon Musk last month. In an email, Benarroch said he would be taking on a role focusing on business operations.
CBS is eyeing a momentous move from its longtime broadcast facilities on West 57th Street. Sources said the network, which merged with Viacom in 2019 into what’s now called Paramount Global, is expected to soon put out a request for proposals to solicit offers on two fronts. One might be to sell CBS’s sprawling, 600,000 square-foot broadcast center on West 57th between Tenth and Eleventh avenues — the long-ago site of a dairy depot, where CBS has had a presence since the 1950s.
The GM’s Role In Sales
The best general manages put in the hard work of learning sales processes and understanding the details. Those willing to make that effort are always rewarded on the bottom line.
The Directors Guild and the studios have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract. The deal includes wage increases and “a 76% increase in foreign residuals for the largest platforms,” says the DGA. The pact, which also addresses AI, comes on the 33rd day of the Writers Guild strike, and just four days before SAG-AFTRA sits down at the bargaining table with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers – and two days before Monday’s 5 p.m. deadline for SAG-AFTRA members to vote for or against strike authorization. Like the directors, the actors’ guild current contract with the studios expires on June 30.
Dow Climbs 701, Nasdaq Gains 140, S&P Rises 61
Wall Street leaped Friday, nearly escaping its bear market after a strong jobs report. Stocks got a boost after a report showed employers unexpectedly accelerated their hiring last month. It’s the latest signal that the job market remains remarkably solid despite much higher interest rates, and it offers a hefty pillar of support for an economy that’s begun to slow.
Tanya Vea’s new position is effective Aug. 1. She succeeds Darrell Brown, who is retiring at the same time.
Elan Closs Stephens has been named the acting chair of the BBC, replacing Richard Sharp who recently unveiled his resignation, effective June 27, following a report that said he had breached appointment rules by not fully disclosing his role in a loan given to former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Tegna said it received 8.64 million of its shares from Standard General, whose effort to buy the broadcaster failed as regulatory review extended beyond the data its financing expired. Standard General’s deal with Tegna called for a $136 million termination fee, and Tegna said the shares it received satisfied that obligation.
Kimberly Gilberti, a key executive in the launch of Nielsen’s Nielsen One measurement system, has joined Experian Marketing Services as chief product officer. Gilberti joins Experian as it is enhancing its product offerings by using technology from Tapad, which was acquired by Experian in 2020. Gilberti spent 23 years at Nielsen, which lost a number of senior executives at the end of last year.
A federal judge on Thursday disqualified himself from hearing Walt Disney Co.’s civil suit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials, citing a small financial interest in the company by a relative.
Widely used during the pandemic, AMC Theatres On Demand is now part of NBCU’s Fandango-operated movie sale and rental service.
In a symbolic rebuke of Netflix’s top executives, company shareholders voted against approving the compensation packages of leaders including co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters. At the streamer’s June 1 annual shareholders meeting, investors failed to approve the proposed exec pay packages for 2023. But the vote was a non-binding “say-on-pay” advisory measure, meaning Netflix’s board can disregard the result. The board had unanimously recommended voting for the 2023 compensation plans.
Judge Christopher Lopez made the ruling on Thursday in Houston. Diamond Sports, which owns 19 networks under the Bally Sports banner, has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of Texas since it filed in March. Diamond said in a financial filing last fall it had debt of $8.67 billion.
In Killing Kim’s Deal For Tegna, The FCC Showed Its Prejudice
Thwarted in his bid to buy Tegna by an overlong and deal-breaking FCC review process, Soo Kim (and his right hand Deb McDermott) is indeed a victim of prejudice and discrimination. Only it’s probably not the sort you may think.
Sinclair Broadcast Group has officially become Sinclair, a new holding company, following the exchange of Sinclair Broadcast Group stock for Sinclair shares, effective June 1. The company announced plans to set up the new holding company in April.
The award, NABLF’s highest individual citation, is presented in recognition of honorees’ charitable work and public service.
Dedrick Russell is returning to Gray Television’s CBS affiliate WBTV Charlotte, N.C., as executive producer of community content where the station says “he will have an integral role in the […]
