Industry News

The fourth-quarter earnings calendar for broadcast media companies is coalescing, and the latest company to confirm when it is sharing its results is The E.W. Scripps Co.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Some 20 miles to the northwest of downtown Atlanta is town of Powder Springs, Ga. It is home to an AM radio station that spent much of January off the air, and has been owned by a Vietnamese-American media and entertainment figure for nearly 8 years.

He’s now opting to sell the facility, and at a fraction of the price he paid for it.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

The FCC Media Bureau has finalized a filing penalty against the winning bidder of an FM construction permit for Hugo, Colo., reducing the fine to $1,000 and calling the error a “minor delinquency.”

ScarboroughRadio LLC, a winning bidder in Auction 109, failed to file a post-auction Form 2100, Schedule 301 long-form application until a couple of weeks after the deadline last September.

Applications can be dismissed outright in such circumstances, the commission pointed out; but an applicant can establish good cause if “minor, inadvertent” post-auction delinquencies don’t disrupt its auction process or undermine its goal of facilitating rapid implementation of service.

[See Our Business and Law Page]

In issuing a notice of apparent liability in December, the FCC waived the deadline, saying that Scarborough had complied with its other obligations, there was no indication of bad faith and the late filing was a minor violation. That meant Scarborough could go ahead with its plan to add FM service to Hugo.

But the FCC did propose a $3,000 fine in the NAL. Company principal Scott Scarborough then filed a response, noting that he is a first-time auction participant, and that after working with the Media Bureau staff on preparation of the long-form application, “it was his understanding that there was no more to be done, that the filing was complete and that there were no issues regarding late filing.”

The commission now has issued a forfeiture order. It said auction bidders were informed through various means of the rules for the post-auction long-form application; but, it continued, Scarborough replied to its NAL promptly, made its final payment and met the other relevant obligations.

“These facts, combined with the fact that Mr. Scarborough proactively reached out to bureau staff to complete the late-filed application, support Scarborough’s assertion that its late application filing was wholly inadvertent.” For this “minor post-auction delinquency,” the FCC settled on a reduced forfeiture of $1,000.

The post FCC Reduces Fine on Successful Bidder appeared first on Radio World.

Connected TV advertising and measurement platform Innovid has struck a deal to acquire television measurement company TVSquared.

The acquisition creates what Innovid calls “an end-to-end, independent TV measurement alternative that brings together streaming and linear television.”

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Until its merger with Meredith Corporation, Atlanta-headquartered Gray Television didn’t own a broadcast TV station in its home market.

With the FCC‘s blessing, it will be adding a third over-the-air station to its collection in The A.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

It is designed “to elevate the visibility of diverse-owned media companies with advertisers and agencies.”

Introducing the Diverse Media Equity program, courtesy of the nation’s dominant audience measurement and consumer psychographics data provider.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

MIAMI — Just days after the closing of a transaction that effectively melds Televisa’s media content and production assets with those of Univision, the combined company now known as TelevisaUnivision Inc. has appointed a pair of sales leaders who are each taking Senior Vice President roles under EVP/Multimedia Sales John Kozack.

Joining the company are Rob McGovern, as SVP of Multimedia Sales, and Richard Bertodatti, as SVP of Multimedia and Audience Sales.

McGovern will be based in Los Angeles and will lead the West Coast National Sales efforts. McGovern was previously SVP/National Sales & Client Partnerships at Outfront Media, where he led West Coast national ad sales and the development of revenue growth strategies to drive new OOH business. McGovern has also served as SVP of Sales & Client Partnerships at WarnerMedia and spent nine years at Discovery Networks as VP/National Sales Manager.

Bertodatti will lead the company’s business with Publicis, IPG, Havas, the Boston territory, and at other agencies and work with Univision’s multimedia sales teams “to help optimize and accelerate the advanced advertising sales capabilities.”

Bertodatti joins TelevisaUnivision from Facebook, where he was Director of Global Investment Programs, focused on video and sponsorship opportunities. He previously spent six years at ViacomCBS, where he was active in the data advertising sales and strategy team.

Bertodatti started his career at Telemundo parent NBCU, where he held various sales roles during his 12-year tenure, across various network, digital and cable properties.

In the Public Relations trade, it has become standard practice to release headline-making breaking business news late in the day on a Friday. By doing so, the impact will be lessened, while consumers affected by the now-resolved dispute are happy and going on with their lives.

This is what occurred just before 6pm Eastern on February 4 between DISH and TEGNA. A new carriage agreement was reached — with its timing expressly tied to the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

But, is the second reason for an end to a particularly bitter battle tied to the institutional investment firm led by Soohyung Kim, which is reportedly close to a per-share buyout of the company he unsuccessfully sought to lead via two failed shareholder proposals?

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

The year 2021 was a quiet one for U.S. broadcast transactions, according to a new report, and radio station deal values were at their lowest point in at least 40 years.

According to a market deal recap, S&P Global Market Intelligence found that while broadcast station advertising revenue rebounded from the hit it took in 2020 due to the COVID outbreak, the station transaction market is sitting at near-historical lows.

Total TV and radio deal volume for 2021 was $4.72 billion. Radio represented only 4% of that; $190.2 million is the lowest value for radio transactions in the company’s records, spanning four decades.

The four largest radio station deals were driven by three of the country’s top-10 TV station owners.

[See Our Business and Law Page]

In June, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced the sale of its only radio stations to Lotus Communications for $18.06 million.

And late in the year, The Walt Disney Co. received $24.25 million for its remaining radio stations: VCY America will pay $9.25 million for KESN(FM) in the Dallas–Ft. Worth market, while Good Karma Broadcasting will pay $15 million for Disney’s AM stations in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, along with an LMA for Emmis Communications station WEPN(FM).

Of the TV/radio broadcast total, about $4.2 billion or almost 93% came from the top two deals and their spinoffs.

In February 2021, Gray paid $925 million to Quincy Media for two TV stations and two radio stations. In April, Gray then sold 10 full-power and three low-power stations from the Quincy acquisition to Allen Media Group for $380 million. In May, Gray then announced the acquisition of Meredith Corp. and its 16 full-power and 30 low-power TV stations for $2.82 billion.

For the third year in a row, the average cash flow multiple for radio transactions remained stable at 6.6-times forward buyers broadcast cash flow. “In our estimates, only 25 full-power radio stations were sold based on their cash flow. That is, however, five stations more than in 2020.”

The post Radio Transactions Are at Near-Historical Lows appeared first on Radio World.

It was expected, yet some remained concerned that the necessary percentage of Radio Music License Committee (RMLC) members needed to approve an agreement was still out of reach.

Those worries can now be swept away. A settlement between the RMLC, a group representing several smaller and independently-owned radio stations, and the Irving Azoff-controlled Global Music Rights (GMR) has been reached.

News of the agreement, which RBR+TVBR learned on Friday was imminent, was first shared by Streamline Publishing’s co-owned Radio Ink early Monday.

The deal puts a settlement of long-running litigation between GMR and the RMLC over the royalties that the radio stations which are members of the Committee, led by Executive Director Bill Velez, will pay for the public performance of music written by composers aligned with GMR.

One condition of the settlement, an important one, called for a sufficient percentage of radio stations to opt into the deal by signing the form license agreement that
RMLC and GMR negotiated. The negotiated form license agreement, with member
stations’ annual license fees, was sent directly by GMR via e-mail. That sufficient percentage of signatures was met.

The new GMR licenses that radio stations represented by the RMLC signed will begin on April 1. An interim license previously agreed upon by the parties expires on March 31.

In a statement, Azoff said, “Global Music Rights stands for songwriters and the value of their music. I am proud of the GMR team for the hard work on behalf of songwriters in achieving this settlement. It is wonderful that GMR and thousands of radio stations coast to coast are partnered to bring great music to fans for many years.”

Speaking for the RMLC is its Chairman, Ed Atsinger III, the Executive Chairman and former CEO of Salem Media Group. Atsinger commented, “This settlement puts an end to more than five years of litigation and represents a shared desire by both sides to find a way for radio stations and GMR to work together on a long-term basis without repeatedly resorting to litigation.”

Litigation was perhaps an unfortunate hallmark of GMR’s battles with RMLC, as the settlement resolves antitrust litigation that dates to late 2016.  The battle was bruising, with RMLC striking first in November 2016. A month later, GMR countersued, assailing the RMLC as “an illegal cartel.”

With the deal, radio stations now have rights and royalty accords with GMR, SESAC, BMI and ASCAP. Despite these payments paid by radio, groups including musicFIRST, led by former New York Congressman Joe Crowley, are aggressively seeking Congressional approval of the American Music Fairness Act. While the AMFA was in the spotlight last week on Capitol Hill, it has far less support than the Local Radio Freedom Act, a resolution that serves as a pledge to vote against any legislation placing new fees on broadcast radio with respect to airplay of recorded music.