The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten TV report is out, and for the week ending February 7 — inclusive of Super Bowl LV, the biggest advertiser using broadcast TV remains GEICO.
Not far behind it is category competitor Progressive. But, there are two new entrants — and that’s a good sign for a big spring for spot television.
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The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report has been released, and it shows a huge jump in commercial airings by one of the nation’s largest department store brands.
For the week ending February 7, Macy’s finished at No. 7, powered by more than 36,000 radio spots.
That’s the big news of the week, as language learning app Babbel dips behind Progressive.
Here’s the full report:
The AWARN Alliance has elected its 2021 Steering Committee, the organization’s governing body that provides guidance to the AWARN Alliance and its executive director.
The Alliance also clarified its core education, promotion and collaboration mission, while embracing its vision to “save lives and protect communities by leveraging advanced emergency alerting, news and information powered by ATSC 3.0 NEXTGEN TV.”
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With Deloitte LLP Vice Chairman Kevin Westcott’s ascension to industry leader of its U.S. technology, media and telecommunications practice, a position opened up at Deloitte.
It needed a leader to specifically focus on telecom, media and entertainment.
Deloitte has found that person.
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It’s known around Plattsburgh, N.Y. for offering “everything that rocks.” With a Class A signal, this FM also scrapes the Burlington, Vt., area across Lake Champlain.
Now, this property — with a broadcast tower just down the road from the infamous Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y. — is being spun.
The seller? It’s none other than Randy Michaels.
The deal is hardly a surprise: The buyer has been operating the station for months.
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Streamline Publishing’s Radio + Television Business Report is pleased to once again acknowledge the individuals in command of local television with the opening of our 2021 nomination window for Broadcast Television’s Best Leaders.
As was seen in 2019 and in 2020, these television industry executives have demonstrated in various ways how to motivate their local and regional teams to success. They are all winners, and will appear in a ranked list based on RBR+TVBR reader voting and the RBR+TVBR editorial board.
These power players represent an industry that’s sprung to action in a time of crisis,
and they deserve full commendation for their leadership today.
You may cast your vote through Friday, February 26, 2021, at 5pm Eastern Time.
With the biggest media merger in recent months poised to potentially propel its stock price in the coming months, Gray Television has selected the day it will release its fourth quarter and full-year 2020 financial results.
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BONITA SPRINGS, FLA. — In June 2019, the CBS affiliate serving Southwest Florida was the subject of a RBR+TVBR feature story for one unfortunate achievement: it had been prevented from being received by Dish Network subscribers in a DMA that includes such fast-growing cities as Fort Myers, Naples, Estero, and Marco Island.
And, this retrans impasse had stretched into its sixth month.
Eventually, the locally based TV station owner and Dish struck a new agreement. Alas, that agreement expired — right before Super Bowl LV.
This, once again, put CBS viewers who are Dish subscribers in Lee, Charlotte and Collier Counties in the dark once again.
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With much of the company’s executive leadership team still mourning the January 27 death of legendary radio programming pro Bill Tanner, SummitMedia has entered into a fresh — and bigger — agreement for ratings and audience measurement services from the nation’s dominant provider of consumption data.
The Birmingham, Ala.-based radio broadcasting company led by Carl Parmer has inked a new long-term agreement for Nielsen Audio services across SummitMedia’s nine markets.
The new accord incorporates “an expansion and enhancement” of the service level to include Continuous Diary Measurement (CDM).
As such, SummitMedia now has what Nielsen Audio describes as “full, unqualified subscriber access to the monthly CDM currency ratings, TAPSCAN software and Nielsen Scarborough in all markets where available.”
In addition to its home market of Birmingham, SummitMedia’s stations are located in Greenville-Spartanburg; Honolulu; Knoxville; Louisville; Richmond; Wichita; Omaha; and in Iowa. The company was formed in 2013, when Cox Media Group sold to Parmer 24 stations comprised of the Alabama; South Carolina; Hawaii; Kentucky; and Virginia properties.
“We are looking forward to utilizing Nielsen’s measurement and data analytic capabilities to showcase SummitMedia’s value to the advertiser and agency communities,” said Parmer, who serves as Chairman/CEO of SummitMedia. “Consumers’ media habits are evolving at an incredibly rapid pace and having a faster read on audience trends is imperative. Continuous Diary Measurement will enable our teams to react more strategically and quickly.”
Nielsen Managing Director Brad Kelly added, “SummitMedia has placed their trust in us to deliver an accurate and timely read on radio audiences. Equipped with CDM, SummitMedia’s talented sales pros will be well positioned to optimize revenue and attract new advertisers by delivering better, faster, keener insights to the local radio ad marketplace.”
— RBR+TVBR West Coast Bureau
EUREKA, CALIF. — In the region of California behind the “Redwood Curtain,” National Football League fans largely support the San Francisco 49ers or the Raiders. Still, when it comes to the Super Bowl, everyone with an interest in the NFL — or the commercials in-between the game action — are of interest to just about anyone.
As such, not getting the game due to a retransmission consent “blackout” is a big frustration — one that fueled the ire of a Member of Congress, in addition to pro-MVPD lobby ATVA.
Lo and behold, just before 11am Eastern on Game Day, AT&T and Cox Media Group scored a touchdown for DirecTV subscribers in markets where CMG owns TV stations.
Among those markets: Humboldt County, Calif.; Dayton, Ohio and Seattle.
There, CMG owns the CBS affiliate, home of Super Bowl LV.
In a joint statement, AT&T confirmed that the DirecTV owner and CMG entered into a new multi-year retransmission consent agreement. As such, the prevention of any DirecTV customer receiving a CMG-owned station was immediately lifted.
Had a deal not been reached, viewers in the Seattle and Dayton DMAs with DirecTV as the television service of choice would have been left scrambling for an alternative to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by Tom Brady, smother the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 in Tampa.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
“The parties appreciate consumers’ patience during this negotiation,” the companies said Sunday.
The stations impacted by the retrans impasse and Sunday signing include not only the legacy Cox Media Group stations but also those acquired by Apollo Global Management from Brian Brady’s Northwest Broadcasting and later merged into a new CMG under Apollo majority control.
The stations now back on DirecTV include:
The return of all of these stations to local DirecTV lineups on Sunday morning (2/7), after being yanked Tuesday (2/2), came following an all-out assault on Apollo and CMG by the American Television Alliance (ATVA).
“As a result of Wall Street giant Apollo Global Management’s ongoing and egregious broadcast blackout of its Cox Media Group subsidiary stations, fans in players’ hometowns and college towns won’t be able to watch them suit up with their team for Super Bowl LV this Sunday,” the ATVA stated in a communiqué released late Friday.
It noted how viewers in Seattle with DirecTV were threatened from being able to watch two former University of Washington football players now on the Buccaneers roster.
The ATVA also pointed to Alex Cappa, a Bucs Guard who once played at Humboldt State University in Eureka, Calif.
Chalk that up as another frustration point for locals who had to ensure a “blackout” of CMG-owned CBS affiliate KVIQ-14 and NBC sibling KIEM-3 on Suddenlink systems across much of January. That impasse led some in Humboldt County to drop Suddenlink and shift to DirecTV. Then came the DirecTV/CMG impasse.
Across the impasse with AT&T, CMG stuck to its guns — and even offered a statement that is wholly false.
We cannot force AT&T/DIRECTV to keep retransmitting our stations – we are dark because AT&T/DIRECTV has chosen to remove KIEM and KVIQ from its service. We are hopeful that AT&T/DIRECTV will abandon its blackout of our stations to the detriment of viewers in favor of meaningful negotiations that lead to a mutually beneficial deal for all parties.
In retransmission consent negotiations, both the MVPD and the TV station owner are responsible for reaching a retransmission fee accord that is both prudent and fair to each party.
As AT&T and CMG fought just days after CMG and Altice USA-owned Suddenlink scuffled over a fresh retransmission consent deal, Rep. Jared Huffman spoke up, noting that he’s moving forward with a bill that would go far to end retrans impasses such as these.
“My constituents are tired of these finger pointing exercises where big media conglomerates blame each other while consumers get screwed by blackouts,” Huffman said. “I’m sure there’s some blame to go around, but CMG is the common denominator in the two recent blackouts. At a minimum, that suggests they’re not working proactively to protect consumers. At worst, it suggests they’re using consumers as hostages by letting blackouts happen to maximize their negotiating leverage. Either way, it’s unacceptable.”
While viewers in big markets such as Seattle and Dayton were in the crosshairs of the potential Super Bowl “blackout,” it is smaller markets such as Eureka-Arcata, Calif.; Yuma, Ariz.; and Greenwood, Miss.; that have seen repeated squelching of signals presently owned by CMG.
In late January 2020, former Northwest Broadcasting stations under Apollo/CMG control were blocked by Dish Network due to a retrans impasse.
That followed a “blackout” by DirecTV of the Northwest-owned stations in October 2019, a reprise of earlier problems between the DBS provider and Brian Brady-led Northwest. In January 2011, the then-Northwest stations were prevented from reaching DirecTV customers in January 2011 and did not return until four weeks later, just in time for the Super Bowl. Then came a new impasse and “blackout,” in late August 2012.
Reporting by Ethan Hunt in Eureka, Calif. Editing by Adam R Jacobson in Boca Raton, Fla.
MORE FROM THE RBR+TVBR ARCHIVES:
Suddenly, Suddenlink Impasse With Cox Ends RBR-TVBR It was hardly expected, considering all of the back and forth rhetoric and typical “it’s their fault” statements between a TV station owner and an MVPD in the midst of heated negotiations during a retransmission consent accord impasse. But, Altice USA-owned Suddenlink on Thursday restored each of the Cox Media Group stations that had blocked from viewers. Could Suddenlink/CMG Impasse Lead To Congressional Action? Adam Jacobson CMG stations once owned by Brian Brady’s Northwest Broadcasting have been blocked from Suddenlink customers due to a retransmisson consent fee impasse entering its third week. Now, the Member of Congress serving Northwest California is ready to take action on Capitol Hill that could help thwart such disputes — and the consumer harm they create. Apollo-Controlled CMG Caught In a Small MVPD Retrans War RBR-TVBR Despite what station management led by Rob Rohr (pictured) calls its “best efforts,” the dominant TV station serving Ohio’s Miami Valley was “blacked out” by a small MVPD serving a county due north of metropolitan Dayton. There’s a lot more to the story, as the county impacted is the subject of a 2018 FCC action that amended the market for this Dayton TV station.
Its share price hasn’t been this strong since April 2019.
Now, armed with new vigor and ION Media properties in its stable, The E.W. Scripps Co. is busily preparing for a “special investor presentation” with its President/CEO and its Local Media President, among other C-Suite members.
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HIALEAH, FLA. — The nation’s largest Hispanic-owned media company superserving Latino audiences through radio, TV and digital properties has launched a senior secured notes offering.
The offering is designed expressly to repay its 12% senior secured notes … due four years ago.
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HIALEAH, FLA. — They’re just preliminary numbers, but they are certainly worth a gander.
Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) on Friday offered a sneak peak of its Q4 2020 results. What does the company led by Raúl Alarcón Jr. have to say?
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GroupM released a blog post on Friday that shares more details on how it is operationalizing data ethics with a proprietary scoring logic, criteria, and standardization tool.
The topic could be of key interest to broadcast TV and radio executives. As such, we are sharing it in its entirety to RBR+TVBR Members.
Data collection in advertising is accelerating faster and the ability to responsibly use that data is becoming more and more crucial. Advertising’s responsibility is to ensure we are protecting the data of our customers, members and audiences.
As a result of the increased collection, we’ve seen increased privacy protection laws worldwide over the last couple of years. While that reflects the growing interests and concerns from consumers about how their data is used, the reality is that regulations and legislation are usually one step behind what consumers really want and how they’re feeling.
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With suspended or smaller quarterly dividends and double-digit ad revenue declines still being seen across the radio broadcasting industry’s big publicly traded players, one may mistakenly believe that all is not well with the oldest form of social media in the world.
The Radio Advertising Bureau has released new data that thwarts such chat.
“Years of refining digital strategies” paid off for the radio industry in 2020, it says.
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According to RAB data compiled in association with Borrell Associates, digital ad revenue in 2020 hit $1.1 billion.
This accounts for greater than 14% of total ad sales.
Local radio stations saw digital sales increase nearly 12%, with growth forecast to accelerate 18% this year.
“The due diligence the radio industry has put into expanding its digital platforms and advertising offerings over the last few years contributed mightily to the 2020 bright spot of digital growth,” said RAB President/CEO Erica Farber.
And, says Gordon Borrell, “The pandemic actually delivered a gift to the radio industry last year. Stations saw very clearly how digital products can be a linchpin, especially when core-product sales are challenging. Digital kept the conversation going.”
The report also shined a light on how additive digital revenue can be for a radio station. The average station made $290,150 in digital revenue in 2020; the average market cluster made $1.3 million. The average revenue for the top five performers ranged from $2 million for top-performing clusters in the smallest of markets, to $17.8 million in the largest.
The findings are included in RAB and Borrell’s report, “Defying the Gravity of 2020, Radio’s Digital Sales Rise 11.8%.”
It is being released today to RAB members and analyzes online ad revenue from 3,621 radio stations, as well as survey responses from 944 local radio buyers and a survey of 238 radio managers.
Among the topline findings:
The report and upcoming live-video presentation are both sponsored by Marketron.
On June 21, 2007, a group of AM and FM radio stations were placed into the Aloha Station Trust.
It involved properties owned by iHeartMedia predecessor Clear Channel Communications, which was forced to divest of the properties after it became a reconstituted operation through a now-infamous investment by private investment groups right before the great economic downturn of the late 2000s.
Nearly 14 years later, the last station to be placed in that trust, originally overseen by the late Jeanette Tully, is heading to a new owner.
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With esteemed WFAA-8/Dallas VP/Station Manager Carolyn Mungo pinch-hitting following the retirement at the end of 2020 of John Remes, TEGNA’s NBC affiliate Minneapolis has been seeking his formal successor.
TEGNA has now found that individual. As such, its KARE-11 is preparing to welcome the News Director since 2018 of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s ABC affiliate in Seattle.
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LOS ANGELES — The largest independent sell-side advertising platform has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SpotX from RTL Group for $1.17 billion in cash and stock.
SpotX is one of the leading platforms shaping Connected TV and video advertising globally.
And, it is poised to become a part of Magnite.
When combined, Magnite and SpotX will create the largest independent CTV and video advertising platform in the programmatic marketplace.
“Sellers have been looking for a scaled independent alternative to the giant companies who dominate the CTV marketplace,” said Michael Barrett, President/CEO of Magnite. “The combination of Magnite and SpotX will make this a reality by bringing together the best CTV technologies and teams at a critical time. Ad-supported CTV is just beginning to draw budgets from linear TV and we will be well-positioned to participate in the strongest segment of industry growth for the foreseeable future.”
Mike Shehan, Co-Founder and CEO at SpotX, added, “As CTV flourishes and the media industry continues to turn to programmatic, there is a huge opportunity for an independent scaled company to offer the single most comprehensive technology in the market. We built SpotX with the mission of becoming the leading global video advertising platform, and our goal is now coming to fruition with Magnite. I am thrilled about what we will achieve together.”
Together, Magnite and SpotX will serve some of the world’s leading programmers, broadcasters, platforms and device manufacturers, including A+E Networks, Crackle Plus, The CW Network, Discovery, Disney/Hulu, Electronic Arts, Fox Corporation, fuboTV, Microsoft, Newsy, Philo TV, Pluto TV, Roku, Samsung, Sling TV, Tubi, ViacomCBS, Vizio, Vudu, WarnerMedia and Xumo.
Transaction Details
Magnite is targeting in excess of $35 million in run-rate operating cost synergies, with more than half of the synergies realized within the first year of combined operations.
Magnite plans to finance the transaction with cash on hand, 14 million shares issued to RTL Group and committed financing from Goldman Sachs. The company expects the transaction to close in the second quarter, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
Until the transaction closes, both companies will continue to operate independently.
Goldman Sachs and LUMA Partners acted as financial advisors to Magnite and Goldman Sachs is providing committed financing for the transaction.
Gibson Dunn provided legal counsel to Magnite.
In early 2019, Community Broadcasters, the company led by Bruce Mittman and Jim Leven, agreed to sell their radio stations serving the Twin Tiers of New York and Pennsylvania to a growing radio station owner led by CEO Kristin Cantrell and COO Jim Loftus.
Nearly one year later, in December 2019, Cantrell’s Kentucky-based company struck again, snagging three more stations serving a portion of the region that includes Corning, Elmira and Watkins Glen, N.Y.
Guess what? Seven Mountains Media is at it again, and this time two other players are involved.
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In the Spanish language, “humo” means smoke.
But, there’s definitely no smoke and mirrors behind a new effort from NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises that gives a breath of fresh air — and life — to parent Comcast’s free ad-supported streaming TV service.
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