Astute Wall Street watchers on Tuesday may have wondered what, exactly, was going on at Emmis Communications.
It appeared that Emmis’ stock, traded on the OTC Pink Sheet, had suddenly plummeted in value. On Wednesday (10/6), there was no movement.
What’s the story?
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According to section “47 U.S. Code § 331” of the Communications Act, the Rules that the Federal Communications Commission enforces, it is the policy of the FCC to allocate channels for VHF commercial television broadcasting “in a manner which ensures that not less than one such channel shall be allocated to each state, if technically feasible.”
But, does that language require that station to focus on content for that state’s viewers?
A group of Capitol Hill Democrats say yes, and they want to use the language to help craft legislation that would force a Secaucus, N.J.-licensed station owned today by FOX to turn its attention away from the Big Apple and focus instead on the Garden State.
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The organization that represents some 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other entertainment and media professionals has reached a tentative three-year agreement for a new contract with Telemundo.
It’s positive news for unionized employees, and comes four years after a trio of unfair labor practice charges filed against the NBCUniversal-owned Hispanic television network on behalf of certain telenovela actors by the labor union were settled.
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Happy Diwali … and earnings release day, Gray Television investors.
The broadcast TV station owner has finalized the date and time for the distribution of its Q3 2021 fiscal report card.
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As of October 25, the FOX brand won’t be known for solely news, sports, business news, and for reality programming including The Masked Singer.
It’s a new entrant in the growing desire to offer consumers more coverage of a subject largely free of political bias concerns — the weather.
Introducing FOX Weather, which will use FOXWeather.com and an app available via download from the Apple App Store and for Android-based phones, too.
“You’ll be able to read all the awesome web stories we’ve been writing over the past several months … Excited for everyone to see!,” Scott Sistek, a meteorologist at FOX TV Stations-owned KCPQ-13 in Seattle, Tweeted on Wednesday morning.
The new service marks FOX News Media’s eighth platform under the leadership of CEO Suzanne Scott, as its original linear FOX News Channel network celebrates its 25th anniversary this week.
Who can viewers expect to see when they log on to FOX Weather? WABC-7 meteorologist Amy Freeze has joined FOX Weather as an anchor; her departure comes after the notable exit of Bill Evans from WABC-7 in late 2019.
FOX News Media President Sharri Berg said, “We have been working towards this moment for the last nine months and are thrilled to debut FOX Weather with our talented and innovative team, including Amy Freeze whose versatility and decades of experience are a great addition.”
A free service, FOX Weather will also be available on internet-connected TVs via FOX NOW, the FOX News app, and Tubi.
It is defined as “a claim or assertion that someone has done something illegal or wrong, typically one made without proof.”
That said, allegations, in today’s world, can create myriad concerns for the individual being accused of a crime, or inappropriate behavior. It can also present a host of challenges for their employer.
When the allegations involve a high-profile personality at a broadcast media station, extra scrutiny can only exacerbate the matter for the station’s local management and, ultimately, its owner.
What’s a market manager to do if a situation mirroring that of Hubbard Broadcasting in Chicago surfaces at their stations?
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Jim Thompson, President of the Broadcasters Foundation of America since 2009, will retire at the end of 2022.
A succession plan is in place, which sees Thompson and broadcast veteran Tim McCarthy serve as Co-Presidents through 2022, at which time Thompson will move into an active consultancy role.
The changes are effective November 1.
Thompson is well-known across the broadcast industry. During his 40+ year career, he was President of Westinghouse Broadcasting’s Radio Division, President and Co-Owner of Liberty Radio Group, and served as General Manager of KYW-3 in Philadelphia.
The BFA says its Search Committee unanimously chose McCarthy as the best candidate for the position, and that its Board of Directors unanimously endorsed him and the succession plan.
Scott Herman, Chairman of the Broadcasters Foundation, commented, “I have known Tim for almost 20 years. He is an outstanding leader and I look forward to working with him and Jim for a seamless transition. Jim has done a phenomenal job getting the word out about our mission and increasing the number of broadcasters we help. The entire Board and I are delighted that he will remain with the Foundation as Co-President and then as a Consultant.”
“Serving the mission of the Broadcasters Foundation has been the most rewarding experience of my career,” said Thompson. “I cannot think of a more worthy task then helping our colleagues in their darkest moments. The search committee and the Board have made an excellent choice in Tim — I know I will be leaving our mission in good hands.”
Chairman Emeritus Phil Lombardo added, “I worked with the search committee 12 years ago to bring Jim onboard, and I am pleased to again have worked with the current search committee to identify Tim as the best person to take on our mission of helping broadcasters in acute need.”
Commenting on his new role, McCarthy said, “I look forward to working with Jim and the entire Board to continue the important work of the Broadcasters Foundation. I have been in broadcasting throughout my career, and it is an honor to be in a position to give back by providing aid to those in our industry who need it most.”
McCarthy is widely known for his lengthy tenure at The Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN Audio, and before that with ABC Radio under Disney ownership. He served as SVP/GM of Audio Play-By-Play and General Manager of New York and Los Angeles, overseeing ESPN Radio stations in each market. He joined ESPN in 1998 as President/GM of WABC-AM in New York and for ESPN Radio and Radio Disney. McCarthy began his career in radio at WABC Radio in 1990, in an era when its Talk format was surging in popularity, fueled by local hosts including Bob Grant and the syndicated Rush Limbaugh.
The Broadcasters Foundation has distributed millions of dollars in aid to broadcasters who have lost their livelihood through a catastrophic event, debilitating disease, or unforeseen tragedy. Personal donations can be made to the Foundation’s Guardian Fund, corporate contributions are accepted through the Angel Initiative, and bequests can be made through the Foundation’s Legacy Society. For more information, please visit www.broadcastersfoundation.org, call 212-373-8250, or email info@thebfoa.org.Yet another battle royale over retransmission consent fees is taking shape.
This time, it involves one of the nation’s two direct broadcast satellite (DBS) companies and the company that Standard General, headed by Soo Kim, and Apollo Global Management seek to own.
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Vistar Media, a programmatic technology provider for the digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising segment, has extended OpenRTB integrations to include audio-only out-of-home opportunities to marketers.
As such, The Trade Desk is the first omnichannel demand-side platform (DSP) to support this extension, allowing it to programmatically purchase audio inventory from networks such as Vibenomics.
An emerging category within the out-of-home media landscape, audio OOH “allows brands to influence consumers with engaging messaging seamlessly blended into a retail environment,” Vistar says.
Call it addressable advertising, radio style — but, minus the local radio station airing throughout a store.
“With the growth we’ve seen from both DOOH and Audio as separate emerging channels, it was the logical next step to expand our omni-channel offering into audio OOH,” said Maggie Mattingley, Senior Manager of Inventory Partnerships at The Trade Desk. “Through Vistar’s new audio capability, we continue to provide the best possible digital media available for advertisers and agencies to deliver a holistic digital advertising campaign.”
To be fair, the technology is likely in use at large retailers with a regional or national imprint, such as a grocery store chain.
In a recent visit to Tint World in Boynton Beach, Fla., Hubbard Broadcasting’s WRMF-FM was audible in the showroom; a nearby Hyundai dealer had sibling WEAT-FM “Sunny 107.9” on for customers.
Still, it presents a possible opportunity for Radio — unique streams to retail that it could use for its own addressable advertising opportunities.
“Exposing our unique audio inventory to omnichannel DSPs such as The Trade Desk to transact against Audio Out-of-Home is a logical next step in the growth trajectory for our network and the industry at large,” said audio industry veteran Paul Brenner, today an executive at Vibenomics. “The reach of our audio network combined with Vistar’s market-leading SSP capabilities helps the buy-side flex their programmatic spending, target specific market areas, provide brand support and measurement such as incremental lift and return on ad spend.”
For more information about Vistar, please direct inquiries to info@vistarmedia.com.
How has revenue recovered from the onset of a pandemic that saw generally steep declines and where some categories continue to experience slower than hoped for rebounds? As the country continues to emerge from restrictions and quarantines, what’s in store for 2022, the first full year after COVID-19? Where are the strong pockets of opportunity for broadcast advertising, and what are the challenges to growing its share? A panel of experts are preparing for a provocative Forecast 2022 discussion about who is going to “show us the money” in the year to come.Moderator: Mark Gray, CEO, Katz Media Group
Steve Lanzano, President/CEO, TVB
Jen Soch, Executive Director/Specialty Channels, GroupM
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC on Tuesday kicked off a mid-band spectrum auction to support next generation wireless services – including 5G – in the 3.45 GHz band.
Auction 110 will make available 100 megahertz of contiguous mid-band spectrum for commercial use this year.
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On July 30, RBR+TVBR first reported on agreement signed by the children of the late Ray Moran that involves the sale of a full-power TV station in Albuquerque and its associated full-power and low-power repeater stations in a transaction brokered by Kalil & Co.
The buyer has now closed on the transaction.
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When it comes to low-power TV facilities, Ravi Kapur has been a buyer of late.
The Bay Area entrepreneur who once appeared on-camera at KGO-7 in San Francisco and today is behind the Diya TV operation targeting South Asian consumers recently grew in Florida, and in late April agreed to buy a construction permit for a LPTV facility in Chico, Calif.
Now, Kapur is expanding his holdings by traveling north to Redding.
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It sounds hard to fathom just one day after a global outage crippled Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, immediately triggering cybercrime concerns that Cybercrime Magazine Editor-in-Chief Steve Morgan will be addressing at Forecast 2022 on November 16.
Yet, it is indeed true. Some 27.6 million U.S. households lack a home internet connection.
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Add Beasley Media Group to the list of radio station owners who will be sharing their third quarter 2021 fiscal report prior to the opening bell on Election Day 2021.
BE SURE TO FOLLOW RBR+TVBR ON TWITTER FOR THE LATEST NEWS NOW.
The company, which is also invested in the Overwatch League, an eSports operation, will host a conference call to discuss the results on November 2 at 10am Eastern.
As has been the case in recent quarters, CEO Caroline Beasley and CFO Marie Tedesco will not be conducting a live Q&A with investors and analysts. Rather, it will be taking questions from analysts, institutional investors and debt holders via email until 9am on November 2. They may be e-mailed to ir@bbgi.com.
“Management will answer as many questions as possible during the conference call and webcast, provided the questions are not addressed in their prepared remarks,” Beasley said.
Beasley enters Q4 2021 with a stock price that has been relatively steady since early February. In fact, the last eight months has seen BBGI near $3 and dip below $2.50 just once — in late September.
From September 28 through noon Tuesday (10/5), BBGI is up 30 cents a share, with pricing at $2.70 in light trading on the Nasdaq GlobalMarket.
What can investors and analysts expect to see from Beasley in Q3? Event dollars could be present, with NTR and events shifted to the third quarter owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’ll get the revenue upside in third and fourth quarter, assuming no further negative impacts from the Delta variant,” Caroline Beasley said on the company’s Q2 earnings call in August.
Beasley noted at the time that the third quarter was pacing up 30%, with July up 40% and August and September pacing up 29% and 23%, respectively.
How was the third quarter of 2021 pacing against the same period in 2019?
Caroline Beasley noted that the company was “looking at that being about 5% compared to 2019 at this point.”In terms of second quarter pacing from 2019, spot dollars were down about 16%, offset by increases in digital of about 67%.
The “big if,” however, is NTR and event revenue. In the third quarter of 2019 event revenue accounted for almost $3 million. In Q4 2019, it accounted for almost $4 million.
Media Financial Management Association’s “Media Outlook 2022,” designed to prepare financial professionals in the broadcast radio and television industries for the coming year, is gearing up for a two-day virtual event scheduled to begin in two weeks.
Scheduled for October 19 and 20, 2021 under the banner of “Opportunities Await – Ready…Reinvent Revenue,” this year’s event offers participants “a fresh view of how media financial leaders can continue to navigate the current uncertainties brought about by the pandemic and changes in the industry to help their companies thrive.”
The seminar is comprised of two two-hour sessions on the Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, respectively.
Jay Bryson, Managing Director and Chief Economist of Wells Fargo Corporate and Investment Bank, will give the seminar keynote on October 19 at 1pm Eastern. Bryson will discuss the current state of the U.S. economy and its outlook over the next two years, including forecasts of GDP growth, inflation and interest rates.
The second October 19 session, starting at 2:05pm Eastern, will feature Andrew Prior, Managing Director of Tax Policy Services at PwC US, who will review potential new tax legislation and implications for media businesses.
Two sessions will take place on October 20. At 1pm Eastern, the “Reinventing Revenue” panel will discuss ways media businesses can re-imagine and reinvent revenue. Panelists include Sinclair Broadcast Group SVP of Digital Sales Ryan Moore; Chase Rankin, SVP of Sales and Marketing at the Las Vegas Review-Journal; and Beasley Media Group e-Sports COO Lori Burgess.
At 2:05pm Eastern, the “Ad Sales and Data Analytics” panel will examine using data analytics to improve results for ad sales clients. Panelists include Audacy VP of Data and Analytics Dan McKinney.
This year’s Media Outlook 2022 co-chairs are Audacy Chief Accounting Officer and Controller Elizabeth “Beth” Bramowski, who on Friday (10/1) was faced with a company-wide direct deposit problem tied to employee payroll; and Cliff Ejikeme, a SVP, Controller and Treasurer at A&E Television Networks.
Dave Bochenek serves as Chair of MFM/BCCA’s Board of Directors.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS have cemented partnerships with 10 public media stations designed to extend the reach and impact of Ready To Learn-funded PBS KIDS early learning resources to local communities.
Centered in understanding local assets and needs, each station will collaborate with community partners to develop and build a “Learning Neighborhood” that fosters a community-wide culture of learning at home, in the neighborhood, and within local systems and spaces.
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It’s been in the news across the last year for its stated desire to own up to nearly 50% of iHeartMedia.
Now, the British media and entertainment group that owns such U.K. radio brands as Heart has purchased a next-generation digital audio content and technology start-up that will be added to the digital audio advertising and programmatic OOH advertising platform DAX.
With the acquisition, Remixd technology will be added to Global’s Digital Ad Exchange, or DAX.
Remixd automatically converts text articles into audio files with naturalized language,
allowing publishers to provide “premium short form audio content” to their users, DAX notes.
It’s a technology Tribune Publishing and the USA TODAY Sports department is already using. It could present opportunities for broadcast TV and radio station websites and other online platforms.
Les Hollander, who serves as CEO at DAX North America, elaborated, “This technology means digital publishers can meet the growing consumer demand for audio and publisher need for improved ad monetization. It’s the perfect pathway to reaching consumers with
customized marketing messages in the burgeoning smart speaker space. Adding text to audio conversion is a further enhancement of the tech Global has developed for DAX. Publishers, who have rafts of written content, can now use the power of audio to open up audience opportunities and revenue streams.”
According to Global-owned DAX, Remixd offers “plug and play” direct sales and programmatic ad sales. “Pre-roll bumpers, interstitials and sonic branding can
be easily added to text-to-audio,” the company noted.
DAX has a footprint of publishers in the U.S., Canada and across Great Britain.
Two weeks ago, the PR team working with Pearl TV distributed literature indicating that consumers are purchasing approximately 10,000 NEXTGEN TV sets per day.
If that’s not breathtaking enough, Pearl TV reports that more than three million total sets are anticipated to be sold by the end of 2021.
Given the average price of a TV equipped with NEXTGEN TV capabilities, we just had to catch up with Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle. Are chip shortages and supply chain issues a factor? Are consumers really coughing up more than $1,000 for a new set?
Schelle shares all, along with what TV viewers in big Canadian markets with access to U.S. TV stations, can expect, in this fresh InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.
The broadcast media inventory and revenue workflow management company known as WideOrbit has just released a “Total Radio Solution” it believes can bring radio station groups improved efficiencies, cost reductions and, ultimately, higher revenue across the entire ecosystem.
Those are the promises of the new product, launched October 5 by the San Francisco-based tech company.
“As listening patterns continue to shift, today’s radio broadcasters require tools to both streamline traditional AM/FM operations as well as generate additional revenue,” WideOrbit says. “Radio station automation, remote access, and digital delivery and monetization are no longer just nice-to-haves; they’re critical for stations to succeed in an increasingly competitive industry.”
So, what exactly does WideOrbit’s Total Radio Solution offer? The company’s marketing literature highlights “streamlining workflows across the radio ecosystem; increased opportunities for revenue generation through digital audio (streaming and podcasting); improved advertising customer satisfaction and retention through simplified cross-channel transactions, from order to invoice to cash; and simplified access to in-depth performance insights to make smarter, data-driven decisions.”
To be more precise, WideOrbit’s Total Radio Solution incorporates digital management and monetization, business intelligence, and A/R automation and payment tools, in addition to integration with a variety of third-party systems.
“The products that make up our Total Radio Solution were specifically designed to build upon and enhance each other,” said WideOrbit VP of Radio Sales Danny Tankersley. “Radio organizations of all sizes, from independent local stations to mid-sized regional station groups, to national radio brands, will benefit from our end-to-end solution’s ability to help deliver compelling programming to engage listeners, all while improving efficiency, reducing costs, and increasing revenue.”
WideOrbit Founder and CEO Eric R. Mathewson added, “WideOrbit has a longstanding commitment to continuous innovation and investment in improving our core products. We’re proud to continue that tradition with the launch of our Total Radio Solution, bringing radio workflows together in a single, unified platform to help our customers maximize revenue.”
ST Engineering iDirect’s broadcast technology has been selected by USSI Global, the provider of customized network, broadcast and digital signage systems and services worldwide, to enable the modernization and compression of satellite programmers’ distribution uplinks to comply with the FCC’s C-band spectrum transition.
ST Engineering iDirect is a key technology partner in the upgrade and will be providing broadcast equipment including M1600 modulators, USS02012 redundancy switches and FR0730 up and down converters, enabling USSI Global to ensure a smooth transition and high-efficiency, future-proof infrastructure.
The modernized compression systems will serve extensive sports distribution encompassing MLB, NHL and NBA teams, as well as several major programmer distribution systems in the USA.
The upgrade is expected to be completed by August 2023.
The upgrade work is part of the FCC’s initiative to clear 300MHz of the C-band’s 500MHz bandwidth frequency for 5G mobile services and relocate service providers within that spectrum to the remaining 200MHz. As the C-band spectrum is mostly used for TV and radio operations, many providers will vacate the 300MHz targeted for 5G services. These transitions will require affected providers to navigate complex technical changes including installation of new and existing antennas and the repointing and filtering required for the antenna upgrades.
— Brian Galante
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