Business

Charter Communications is offering customers who switch to Spectrum Mobile up to $2,500 to pay off their existing plans. In an era of cord-cutting and competition from wireless broadband, cable companies are still seeing significant growth in the mobile phone business.

In an attempt to avoid a jury trial, Google has tendered a cashier’s check to the U.S. government for monetary damages resulting from alleged antitrust violations. The company said in court papers that the check was for triple the amount of damages the government sought and interest, but the exact dollar figure was blacked out of the version available to the public.

The networks played “Can You Top This” with bold-faced names and ad capabilities. Pictured: Stars like Emma Stone, on stage at Disney’s presentation, were back in force at the 2024 upfronts. (Jennifer Pottheiser/Disney)

Available to advertisers on AMG’s The Weather Channel, Local Now And HBCU Go CTV apps, the formats are designed for brands targeting engaged streaming audiences without disrupting programming flow. The Weather Channel “Frame” ad unit, wrapped around live content from HBCU Go. (BrightLine/AMG)

Watson’s lawyer has argued that many other media leaders lured investors with “puffing and bluffing,” and that he is being singled out because he is Black.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a vice president and general manager. Existing jobs include openings for a vice president and general manager, a lifestyle show producer, director of student media, a market manager and a digital platform specialist.

The social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has taken the final step to complete it rebrand, ditching Twitter.com. The site’s URL now reads X.com, a pop-up told users. The change comes about a year and a half after billionaire Elon Musk bought the company and began the changes. (Rick Rycroft/AP)

How does a company like Netflix ramp up the production infrastructure needed to streamcast NFL football … and make it cost-effective for just two games a season? Amazon had to make that commitment for Thursday Night Football, and it cost them a fortune. As much free cash flow as it may have right now, Netflix isn’t Amazon.

Bingaman has been executive VP, domestic licensing and distribution for Paramount’s CBS Media Ventures unit. In his new post, Bingaman will be responsible for sales to SVOD, FVOD, cable and digital outlets.

Bundling is back in a big way, with all the major streaming companies and many pay TV operators exploring ways to simplify the consumer experience by offering bundles of content and streaming services. But as the pay TV industry learned in the last decades not every bundle is a recipe for success. Bloated, ill-conceived, expensive bundles of content and services can also be a recipe for disaster.

Sales leaders from Hearst, Gray, Scripps and Ticker explained that a holistic approach to streaming ad sales is a critical alternative to the programmatic-heavy approach adopted by tech giant competitors in the space in a TVNewsCheck webinar last week.

The non-disclosure agreement comes two weeks after a Paramount’s monthlong exclusive negotiating window with David Ellison’s Skydance ended with no deal but the indie studio still hanging in, still interested. Sony and private equity giant Apollo kicked things off previously with a preliminary bid of $26 billion, but what’s being contemplated now is not that, but something narrower. A look at the books is necessary to move forward in any case.

Julia Phelps, Paramount Global’s EVP, chief communications and corporate marketing officer will leave the company at the end of May. Her group — which encompasses corporate communications, marketing, social impact, ESG, creative & strategy, production, board relations and events and brand experience — will report to studio chief Brian Robbins on an interim basis.

The Dow finished above 40,000 Friday to cap Wall Street’s latest winning week.

Thursday marked the conclusion of the third week of negotiations between IATSE and the AMPTP on a new three-year deal for the L.A. Locals. The union had planned to wrap up talks on the basic agreement by the time the clock struck midnight, but the parties were unable to reach an agreement and will be extending talks.

Fox’s nascent sales house has struck its first third-party distribution agreement for a TV series, taking rights to Australian docu-soap Billion Dollar Playground.

A new Aluma study indicates that pay TV subs are far more likely to buy the new Venu Sports service, which would accelerate cord cutting.

Warner Bros. Discovery and the NBA continue to have discussions about reaching a new broadcast deal. WBD has matching rights if the NBA signs a deal with NBCUniversal for a package of games. If WBD matches NBCU’s bid, it’s unclear if the league has full discretion to walk away from the matched offer, sources say.

It was intended to be a teaser for future research validating ad attention measurement by medium, but the Advertising Research Foundation this week teased an anecdotal finding from its latest phase indicating TV outperforms the attention of social media by a margin of more than two-to-one.

In a major licensing deal for the artificial intelligence firm OpenAI, the organization says that it has inked a multifaceted deal with the web platform Reddit. OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman is among Reddit’s largest shareholders.

An unsettling trend of putting GMs in charge of multiple markets is creeping into the industry. It doesn’t bode well for those who hope for any degree of proficiency at that scale.

Wall Street edged back from records Thursday after the Dow briefly topped 40,000.

Netflix’s programmatic advertising deal with demand-side platform The Trade Desk is estimated to yield major revenue results for the streaming platform and the DSP. Morgan Stanley estimates that 10% share of Netflix advertising dollars for Trade Desk would add around 2% of the DSP’s 2026 revenue. It estimates Netflix will generate over $3 billion in advertising revenue by 2026 for its “Basic With Ads” subscription option.

In July of 2023, recently returned Disney CEO Bob Iger shocked the media industry by indicating he might be open to divesting the company’s declining  linear assets. By last fall, he’d changed his mind, declaring them not for sale. On interviews and earnings calls since, he’s explained why — most recently at the MoffettNathanson media conference, and in the midst of annual upfront presentations to advertisers.

In its biggest completed deal so far, the company adds the production firm behind such series as The Traitors (pictured), Squid Game: The Challenge and The Tourist, and films like 1917 to its media portfolio.

Using Samba TV data, StackAdapt is providing clients with Reach Forecasting and Incremental Reach Measurement features.

The CW is looking to keep acquiring sports rights and is eyeing an expansion on Sundays as well as potential team-ups with other rights holders, President Dennis Miller said. In an upfronts briefing alongside Brad Schwartz, president of Entertainment, Miller said the pace of sports rights dealmaking has surprised “everyone, from Perry [Sook, CEO of parent company Nexstar] on down.”