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SM-KSGF-FM, LLC enters into consent decree to resolve political file investigation

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Comcast-owned FreeWheel Advisory Service’s latest research report, “The Definitive Guide to Video,” explores the differences between linear and digital TV advertising.

Author David Dworin examines the progress the industry has made in bringing these two worlds together, specifically across two dimensions, in this report.

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Where Arkansas meets Oklahoma via U.S. Highway 412 sits a dormant broadcast tower that’s home to a transmitter for a 5kw daytime/31 watt nighttime AM that has been owned by regionally known licensee Jay Bunyard for nearly 13 years.

Most recently, this station was an ESPN Radio affiliate. Now, it’s being sold — and a change in language is most likely on the way for this forlorn station.

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With the last broadcast transaction of the year — a $55.8 million TV deal — the broadcast deal volume for 2020 passed the $1 billion line, closing with a total of $1.02 billion.

That’s an 87% drop from 2019, Volker Mörbitz of S&P Global Market Intelligence notes, clearly highlighting the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is, however, a volume 27% higher than that of 2010 when the deal market felt the full impact of the 2008-2010 financial crisis.

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Summit Technology Group says it has added features to its ATMOS Weather Reporting product, including an IPAWS integration that provides more natural-sounding emergency alerts.

“Stations that choose to ignore optional EAS alerts can instead provide an unobtrusive, natural-sounding announcement in its place to convey the same message,” the company said.

“Furthermore, users can use ATMOS’ advanced scripting language (known as ATMOS Markup Language) to create scripts that suit their station branding and include their station name or slogan. When integrated with automation, the product can produce an alert announcement and gracefully insert it into the playlist.”

ATMOS is used by radio and TV stations to automate weather reports in a natural-sounding manner. It uses customizable script templates and AI-powered synthesized speech.

Summit President Paul Stewart was quoted in the announcement saying the intent of the IPAWS integration was to improve public safety in creating alerts that deliver the message without a robotic voice and are delivered without preempting a station’s programming.

“We heard far too often that optional alerts were being ignored on account of the National Weather Service voice engines sounding too robotic and jarring,” he said.

Summit worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to implement the interface needed to receive IPAWS alerts, he said. The interface is built on a cloud-based process that is hosted by redundant, geographically-separated tier-3 data centers.

Also new, Sponsor Manager provides a tool to manage advertisers and underwriters and appending their messages to weather reports.

“The new tool allows a user to create a sponsor, write a script, schedule the message and even track the number of times the weather report was performed. This is important considering each weather report may be aired numerous times an hour as prescribed by a station’s format and audience behavior,” the company said.

While the concept isn’t new, Stewart said, the environment makes it easy to edit, synthesize and schedule messages.

Also, ATMOS can now integrate with EAS equipment manufacturers, providing the ability to automate Required Weekly Tests from within ATMOS or through most automation or playout software suites. “This functionality is especially useful when inserted into a playlist to provide graceful execution of RWTs that do not interfere with programming or traffic breaks.”

ATMOS can be configured to provide a linear PCM (wav) file for ingest into automation or can be configured to play out the audio report directly. Subscribers are delivered a desktop application compatible with Windows 7, 8, 10, and Server 2014 or newer.

The post Summit Integrates IPAWS in ATMOS appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters announced a digital campaign called “Voices From the Field,” that is intended to highlight stories of broadcasters using first-person accounts.

The first segment features Shomari Stone, general assignment reporter for WRC-TV in Washington, who talks among other things about his experiences covering the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

“The campaign, part of NAB’s ‘We Are Broadcasters’ initiative, will spotlight how broadcasters are using their expertise, experience and dedication to local broadcasting to serve their audiences and uplift their communities,” the NAB stated in a press release.

Subjects will share why they became broadcasters and what they are passionate about in their careers.

“The campaign will focus on local reporters, on-air radio talent, photojournalists, broadcast engineers, producers and editors to highlight the people responsible for delivering news, weather, emergency information and public affairs programming to local communities.”

NAB said the campaign will use podcasts, video interviews and Q-and-As.

 

The post NAB Celebrates Broadcast Voices appeared first on Radio World.

February 11 saw the release of the second in a series of Borrell Associates reports that examine 2021 spending plans for a dozen different types of local ad buyers.

This 14-page analysis, drawn from a survey of 373 local businesses that buy TV ads, shifts focus to Broadcast TV Advertisers.

To share additional insights into the findings, Gordon Borrell spoke exclusively with RBR+TVBR in this fresh InFOCUS Podcast presented by DOT.FM.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Gordon Borrell” on Spreaker.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The NAB has officially launched a new digital campaign highlighting stories of local broadcasters through first-person accounts.

The “Voices From the Field” campaign, part of NAB’s “We Are Broadcasters” initiative, is designed to spotlight how broadcasters are using their expertise, experience and dedication to local broadcasting to serve their audiences and “uplift” their communities.

Using first-person storytelling features such as podcasts, video interviews and Q&A dialogue, “Voices From the Field” seeks to provide a platform for subjects to describe why they became broadcasters, what makes them passionate about their career and what they love most about being a local broadcaster.

The campaign, the NAB says, will focus on local reporters, on-air radio talent, photojournalists, broadcast engineers, producers and editors to highlight the people responsible for delivering news, weather, emergency information and public affairs programming to local communities.

“Every day, thousands of local broadcasters work tirelessly on-air, online and behind the scenes to deliver invaluable service to their communities,” NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith said. “This campaign will celebrate the real people who are providing vital information from the front lines to keep Americans safe, informed and engaged, even when they themselves are in harm’s way.”

The first “Voices from the Field” story focuses on Shomari Stone, the distinguished general assignment reporter at NBC O&O WRC-4 in Washington, D.C.

In the report, Stone shares the moment he knew he wanted to be a broadcaster, his insights into how he views his role as a journalist and his experiences covering the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building.

New “Voices from the Field” segments will be regularly available at WeAreBroadcasters.com.

With some companies, focusing on net revenue and earnings per share Street beats is core to determining just how healthy a company is. But, that’s not the arbiter for investors of Dish Network stock.

In the case of Dish, subscriber gains or losses is key to where the company’s health is, even as it swiftly tilts away from DBS television services to 5G telephony player. And, with the revelation Monday that Dish lost more subscribers than financial analysts expected, the company’s stock slumped.

That dip in value will likely continue in the short term, as a key analyst just downgraded DISH on that poor subscriber report.

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Record performance. It’s a statement some companies may state, yet only tells part of a story that’s inclusive of some blemishes and bruises.

That’s not the case with respect to Nexstar Media Group. With founder and Chairman/CEO Perry Sook beaming as he discussed “another year of record financial performance” as he opened the company’s quarterly earnings call, Nexstar surpassed consensus expectation by delivering impressive Q4 and full-year 2020 results.

With CFO Tom Carter on the call, Sook reviewed the key Q4 highlights.

Net revenue jumped to $1.38 billion, from $1.1 billion. Analysts expected revenue of $1.34 billion.

Net income attributable to Nexstar soared to $364.25 million ($7.97 per diluted share), from $113.21 million ($2.36), thanks in large part to the addition of Tribune Media properties into the fold.

The EPS smashed the analyst forecast of $6.07.

Total funded debt declined in 2020, to $7.67 billion from $8.49 billion. However, Nexstar’s unrestricted cash also fell, to $152.7 million as of Dec. 31, 2020 compared to $232.1 million a year earlier.

The debt includes partner Mission Broadcasting, licensee of such stations as WPIX-11 in New York.

“Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, 2020 was a year of historic financial growth for Nexstar,” Sook said, noting that “sequential improvements in core advertising” — a story heard across the radio industry — is also a tale being told by Nexstar’s broadcast media properties and its WGN America TV network, soon to be rebranded as NewsNation.

Those challenges are reflected in a 9.9% Q4 core ad revenue dip to $473.5 million, from $525.5 million. That said, political displacement was significant, with political advertising revenue of $298.27 million against Q4 2019 political dollars of $36.53 million. Ownership of stations such as NBC affiliate WSAV-3 in Savannah, Ga.; the CBS affiliate in Columbus, Ga.; and the ABC affiliate in Augusta, Ga., helped in achieving this feat.

Then, of course, there is retransmission fee revenue, noted in the Q4 and full-year 2020 report as “Distribution Fee Revenue.”

For Q4, this increased by 18.4% to $527.99 million from $445.83 million.

What’s in store for Nexstar in the months ahead?

“While we continue to operate in a dynamic environment, full year 2020 free cash flow was in line with our pre-pandemic expectations and 2021 is off to a solid start,” Sook said. “As a result, we are reinstating guidance and expect to generate pro-forma average annual free cash flow of approximately $1.27 billion over the 2021/2022 cycle which supports our view that Nexstar’s path to growth, expanded returns of capital and enhanced shareholder returns remains on plan.”

How did investors respond to the results? Nexstar shares started Tuesday’s trading session with a 6.5% rise, to $136.81 as of 9:37am Eastern.

No matter where Nexstar finishes, it will be a new record high.

With the growth seen this morning, Nexstar has now surpassed its 1-year target estimate set by financial analysts. And, it marks a return to strong, steady growth that began at the start of 2013 and was only briefly squelched by the COVID-19 pandemic.

On that note, Nexstar shares have grown by roughly $85 per share since March 30, 2020.

 

 

In September 2019, NBCUniversal first announced a move to impressions. But, clients and agencies who were not trading on impressions were granted additional time to transition while they evaluated the impact the change would have on their business and clients.

That evaluation period is coming to an end very soon.

With the close of the transition period at the end of Q1, all of NBCUniversal’s owned TV stations and regional sports networks will be measured using CPMs only.

This means that as of April 1, all 42 NBC and Telemundo owned-and-operated broadcast TV stations and seven NBCUniversal-owned regional sports networks will officially move to 100% impressions-based buying for all local advertising campaigns.

“Our local businesses were among the first to put a stake in the ground around the move to impressions-based ad buys more than a year ago, giving local marketers a better currency for measurement,” said Frank Comerford, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations’ Chief Revenue Officer. “Utilizing impressions puts local TV on a level playing field with digital, since advertisers will no longer need to convert ratings to impressions in order to evaluate an overall ad buy. As always, our teams are ready to work hand-in-hand with local advertisers to deliver successful campaigns across all DMAs.”

The move to 100% use of impressions, instead of traditional ratings points, by stations and RSNs will, in NBCUniversal’s view, “enable marketers to plan holistically across platforms and screens, and will more accurately showcase the increase in viewers as a result of the addition of BBO households.”

As it turns out, Nielsen‘s introduction of broadband-only (BBO) homes into local market samples begins on April 1, answering questions one may have about Nielsen’s involvement or perhaps that of rival Comscore.

“Moving to impressions brings the added benefit of eliminating zero cell quarter-hours, which had previously resulted in a reduction in inventory,” EVP of NBC & Telemundo Owned Television Station Sales Michael Chico said. “Ratings, unlike impressions, are held to Nielsen’s minimum reporting standard thresholds. Ratings that do not meet these minimums are reported as zero viewership, while impressions are reported when viewing occurs in all quarter hours, effectively adding back anywhere from 5-20% of viewers depending on the daypart. This provides additional inventory for agencies and clients to reach their impressions goals on buys.”

NBCUniversal in December 2020 said it would expand its available digital inventory, addressable products, and advanced targeting by scaling NBC Spot On across One Platform. As a result, sales teams at NBC and Telemundo owned stations gained greater access to digital inventory from both NBC owned and operated properties and third parties.

That came following the February 2020 launch of advanced video advertising business NBC Spot On, which the company says is designed to give local, regional Connected TV and OTT access to premium video inventory.

“Given 2020’s extenuating circumstances, I am extremely proud of the company’s performance and the efforts of the entire Cumulus team to meet the challenges posed by COVID-19.”

That statement from Cumulus Media President/CEO Mary Berner set the tone for the audio media company’s release of its year-end and fourth quarter 2020 financial bill of health.

Just how healthy is Cumulus and all of its divisions, including Westwood One?

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Listeners that have been seeking a hybrid radio experience now have the ability to do so, thanks to the implementation of “RadioDNS” services for radio stations by SurferNETWORK.

The features dynamically switch between broadcast and internet radio, and include enhanced “now playing” information.

“RadioDNS offers an enhanced listening experience by combining the technologies of both
broadcast radio and the internet,” SurferNETWORK notes. “This technology can add an app-like functionality to radio broadcasts, allowing listeners with a RadioDNS Hybrid Radio enabled device to experience their favorite radio stations in a new and interactive way.”

SurferNETWORK President and Co-Founder Bill Grywalski notes that Vox-owned WEZF-FM “Star 92.9,” serving the Burlington, Vt.-Plattsburgh, N.Y. market, is the first station using the technology.

Since its establishment as a not-for-profit organization in 2010, RadioDNS has served as a link between Broadcast Radio and IP-delivered web services.

 Learn more at https://www.surfernetwork.com/

Quicklink, which provides hardware and software platforms for video and audio media, has opened its first U.S. office.

It’s in response to “immense growth” for the company stateside in recent months.

The office is located just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, in Hackensack, N.J.

By opening the office, Quicklink says it is strengthening its sales, services and support operations in North America.

“Quicklink is now able to provide local support to customers with repair and service facilities,” the company says.

Support team hours have been extended.

Furthermore, inventory will be housed in warehouse space in both California and New York.

U.K.-based Quicklink CEO Richard Rees said, “We can now provide more localized support and services with inventory available for immediate access in the United States. We have experienced astronomical growth, and as a result, it was very important for us to expand our operations to service the requirements of this region.”

 

Quicklink’s U.S. operations are now open for business and can be reached via telephone by dialing 1-551-587-7692, or by emailing sales@quicklink.tv.

The NextGen Video Information Systems Alliance (NVISA)has introduced its first recommended practice document: Visually Integrated Display Symbology (VIDS). The VIDS recommended practice represents an industry breakthrough — a powerful and impactful new way of displaying emergency alerts based on easily discernable graphical elements.

The VIDS recommended practice is intended to enhance the impact, usability, and accessibility of emergency information by incorporating graphical elements. NVISA’s objective is to contribute to a more inclusive reach of emergency information that works for all audiences, regardless of visual media, language, ability, or culture.

NVISA is a worldwide coalition of developers and manufacturers working to help accelerate the industry’s evolution toward next-generation broadcast and OTT television systems. Alliance members are pooling their cross-industry expertise to collaborate, implement standards, and create best practices to help broadcasters accelerate their transformation toward advanced ATSC 3.0 systems.

VIDS is the first-ever recommendation for integrating universally understood graphical elements, including symbols and dynamic elements, into emergency alerting information for broadcast. Until now, visual displays of public warnings have been typically text-only, and usually limited to a single language. VIDS creates a commonly defined relationship between the type of alert, the message text, and any graphical elements.

The VIDS recommended practice lays out a compelling new approach, providing a standard look and feel for advanced multimedia alerts that is fully compatible with national emergency alert requirements. The VIDS recommended practice explicitly accommodates the requirements of emergency alert systems in the United States and Canada, while providing the flexibility to be applied anywhere else in the world.

VIDS can be adopted across all manner of display technologies including broadcast media, cable and IPTV systems, and digital signage. The VIDS visual presentation is based on a set of display directives for integrating alert information in which specific icons or symbols graphically represent an emergency event. Each symbol is presented with the alert text in a highly accessible manner.

For broadcasters and cable operators, systems using the VIDS recommended practice will deliver an integrated look and feel for advanced emergency alerts, with enhanced accessibility and appeal for viewing audiences. For manufacturers and developers, the recommended practice offers a standardized method to integrate, package, and display alert text and graphics.

“Associating graphics with the audio and visual components of an alert is highly meaningful to audiences,” said Bill Robertson, chair of the NVISA VIDS Working Group 2 and vice president of business development at Digital Alert Systems. “The symbology communicates the context of the alert without requiring viewers to read the text or even understand the language. Leveraging well-known symbols and unifying them in a presentation makes it far easier for users to engage and understand the message, ultimately bringing greater impact to broadcasters’ mission of public awareness and safety.”

Integrating a range of technical and regulatory requirements, the NVISA VIDS document makes recommendations for visual presentation of emergency information on display systems, including the Emergency Alert System (EAS), Advanced Emergency Information (AEA) applications in ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV, OTT applications, digital signage, mobile applications, and other visual media. The set of graphical display elements in VIDS is derived from public policy and social science research conducted by FEMA IPAWS, the DHS Geospatial Management Office, the DHS Science and Technology Directorate, and the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS (NAPSG) Foundation.

“A significant strength of VIDS is that it provides a common, recognizable, and informative alerting and warning methodology that transcends the display device,” said Jim Altemose, President of DigIt Signage Technologies. “Whether the alert is targeted for EAS television broadcast, AEA applications, NextGen TV platforms, digital signage, or personal devices, the common symbology conveys the nature of the emergency as well as the severity in a visual way that viewers easily understand, even those with barriers such as language or color recognition.”

“NVISA created the VIDS recommended practice to benefit the entire industry, including consumers,” NVISA Chairman and executive director Edward Czarnecki said. “VIDS showcases what can be done to enhance the accessibility and visibility of emergency information in current broadcast and cable technologies, and advances what could be included in next-generation technologies like ATSC 3.0 and advanced cable applications.”

The NVISA Recommended Practice for Visually Integrated Display Symbology (VIDS), NVISA-WG-1-001.01, is freely available from NVISA for download and review at www.nvisa.org/documents. 

Technology infrastructure company PMG has selected a new EVP to leading its software and cloud platforms.

And, in connection with the hire, PMG has acquired the media management and workflow orchestration software that this new executive developed over the past seven years in anticipation of ATSC 3.0.

With the addition of Azita Manson and her software platform, PMG believes it can provide broadcasters with a “comprehensive, end-to-end orchestration solution to manage content workflows across platforms.”

As such, PMG says is now engaged to design, build and operate the Public Media Education Platform (PMEP) on behalf of public broadcasters across five states.

The PMEP is a national education datacasting service that will be initially deployed in ATSC 1.0 but is already optimized for ATSC 3.0. PMG’s software and cloud architecture will ingest educational content from stations, content producers and educators, and then deliver that targeted content to students across the country, with a focus on students that lack broadband connectivity.

As PMEP affiliates transition to ATSC 3.0, PMG’s software and cloud architecture will allow stations and educators to leverage new interactive and addressable features to further enhance the service.

“Bringing Azita and her software to PMG added another crucial piece to the PMG platform,” says PMG CEO Joe Chinnici. “Her software combined with the reach of our Single Frequency Networks allows us to provide both our commercial and public broadcast clients with an end-to-end solution to drive new ATSC 3.0 innovation and revenues.”

In the coming months, PMG will be announcing the launch of an open architecture application layer to allow for greater ATSC 3.0 innovation and use cases.

“By powering edge devices with PMG’s open architecture middleware and application software, the industry will benefit from a more entrepreneurial environment in which a greater number of businesses and industries participate in ATSC 3.0, driving greater value to, and demand for, broadcasters’ spectrum,” PMG says.

As part of this open architecture, PMG will make its application authoring tools available so that stations can customize their own NextGen TV apps.

Earlier in her career, Manson was the Director of Technology at TiVo and Senior Director of
Architecture at SeaChange International. For Comcast, TimeWarner and CableLabs, Manson
designed the first connected home protocol, and the security for the first downloadable
microchip software.

Telestream, a  provider of workflow automation, media processing, quality monitoring and test and measurement products for the production and distribution of video, says its Telestream Cloud Stream Monitor and Wirecast streaming solutions have each achieved “SRT Plugged” status by successfully completing interoperability testing at the SRT InterOp Plugfest.

SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) is an open-source video transport protocol, developed by Haivision and driven by the SRT Alliance, that enables the delivery of high-quality, secure, low-latency video across the public Internet. This allows for optimized streaming performance across unpredictable networks, bringing the best quality live video over the worst network connections. SRT represents an alternative to costly satellite links, purpose-built fiber networks, or proprietary transport solutions.

Telestream Cloud Stream Monitor and Wirecast live production and streaming software participated in the SRT Alliance’s recent “InterOp Plugfest” kick-off event. The event is held annually for developers to test interoperability and compatibility between different technologies and vendors using the SRT protocol. Stream Monitor now enables users to monitor live video quality from streams transported via SRT. By repeatedly demonstrating compatibility and interoperability with other SRT Alliance members, SRT Plugged status was validated. Tests confirmed interoperability with over 20 different SRT enabled devices from a variety of market-leading encoding and content delivery systems. The latest Wirecast release was used as a live video contribution source via the SRT protocol.

“This is great news for customers looking to either monitor or contribute video over SRT, which has become an emerging standard for anyone delivering live video over public internet and cloud backplanes,” said Kenneth Haren, Director of Product Management at Telestream.