Industry News

The long-awaited spin of Nielsen Holdings plc‘s sale of what was recently rebranded as NielsenIQ is complete.

The multinational company that is the dominant ratings data and consumer research provider to U.S. TV and radio broadcasting and cable companies has completed its sale of Nielsen IQ — formerly branded as Nielsen’s Global Connect business — to affiliates of Advent International, in partnership with James “Jim” Peck.

In making the announcement, Nielsen CEO David Kenny thanked the NielsenIQ team “for their invaluable commitment and contributions over the years,” while acknowledging that, even after the spin-off, a “strong working relationship” is anticipated.

Speaking of the post-spin Nielsen, Kenny continued, “This is a transformative time for Nielsen. We have redesigned our products, our business platform, and our operating model, positioning Nielsen to better deliver the solutions our clients need in the rapidly changing global media ecosystem. We are now fully aligned around three essential solutions —Audience Measurement, Audience Outcomes and Gracenote Content Services — that are designed to drive growth by leveraging a single media platform across a global digital-first footprint.”

Nielsen Holdings on November 1 announced that it had signed a definitive agreement under which affiliates of Advent International, one of the largest global private equity investors, in partnership with former TransUnion CEO Peck, will acquire the Nielsen Global Connect business for $2.7 billion.

The agreed-to price is subject to working capital, cash, debt-like items and other customary adjustments.

Nielsen also received warrants in the new company exercisable in certain circumstances.

David Rawlinson will remain CEO of NielsenIQ.

The deal’s closing comes just days after Nielsen and Roku announced a new strategic alliance that the companies believe will help shape the future of media and TV measurement.

Advisors
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Guggenheim Securities, LLC are acting as financial advisors to Nielsen, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Clifford Chance LLP, DLA Piper, and Baker McKenzie are serving as legal advisors to Nielsen. Ropes & Gray LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP are serving as legal counsel to Advent and BofA Securities is serving as lead financial advisor, with Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., RBC Capital Markets and UBS Investment Bank also advising. Financing for the transaction is being arranged and provided by Bank of America, UBS Investment Bank, Barclays, Deutsche Bank AG New York, HSBC, RBC Capital Markets, MUFG and Wells Fargo.

More listening is being done on mobile devices than ever before.

According to new research by Edison Research as part of its Share of Ear report, 30% of all audio listening in the U.S. is now being done on a mobile device by those aged 13 and older. This is an increase of 67% since 2014 when Edison began tracking audio consumption among Americans.

While listening to traditional AM/FM radio still accounts for the largest share of audio consumed, the gap between traditional radio and mobile devices is closing. In 2014, 31 percentage points separated the two; in 2021 the two are only separated by two percentage points.

[Read: Share of Listening to Podcasting Hits All-Time High]

Among younger age groups, audio consumption through mobile devices has already surpassed traditional radio receivers. Among those aged 13 to 34, 46% of total daily audio consumption is done on a mobile device while 20% is done on a traditional AM/FM radio receiver.

One potential reason: the coronavirus pandemic caused many Americans to spend more time consuming audio at home in 2020 and less time consuming in-car audio, which has been the prime location for listening to a traditional AM/FM receiver.

“Mobile devices, particularly of course the phone, have been gaining on the traditional radio receiver as the primary listening device for as long as we have been measuring Share of Ear, but with the disruptions of the last year the gap has narrowed dramatically,” said Edison Research President Larry Rosin. “As fewer people have a standard radio receiver in their homes these days, naturally more listening comes through digital devices.”

Edison noted that these statistics speak to the device only, not the audio product being delivered by the device. This is important to clarify because mobile devices can deliver a wide range of audio products, including radio station programming, the report said.

Edison plans to conduct additional data analysis later this year to see if these audio habits remain in a post-quarantine world.

The Share of Ear study is released quarterly and is designed to be a nationally representative study of Americans aged 13 and older to measure their time spent listening to audio sources. The research study asks respondents to complete a 24-hour diary of their audio listening on an assigned day with diaries completed both online and by mail.

The post Growing Percentage of Audio Listening Now Happens on Mobile appeared first on Radio World.

The author is co-host of the syndicated “Under the Hood” radio show.

The car-centric talk show I am a co-host for, “Under The Hood,” had been using the studios of Midwest Communications for over 20 years.

The studios were good but we wanted to have our own home with custom features. A place to hang the collected memories of 30 years on the wall and grow with a full video system installed for broadcast to social media and a possible local TV network.

The scope of the project was a complete ground-up build of a new studio beginning with an empty room.

The show operates on a limited budget like many radio pioneers have had to deal with and so you have to improvise. This meant doing the work in-house. Our team consists of the three hosts and a producer, without an on-staff engineer. I happened have a background in pro sound electronics as well as automotive so I became the point man and had to familiarize myself with what it takes to build a modern radio/podcast/video studio.

The new studios are located in rural Garretson, S.D., amongst the cows and corn some 15 miles from Sioux Falls, S.D. in the nationally-known Nordstrom’s Auto Recycling complex. The massive facility was built in 2019 with a dedicated 800 square-foot upper room sound-insulated for the purpose of a radio studio.

The studio is based around an Audioarts Lightning 16-channel console fed by Electro-Voice RE20 microphones running through a Symetrix Jupiter 8 processor.

Calls are handled using a Backbone Networks IP phone software system. It’s the same company that provided the LUCI software we use. It has worked very well for us.

The microphone booms are all Compass from Blue. They have integrated tally lights for the talent.

We use Denon DN-300RMKII rack-mounted solid-state media recorders to capture the audio for later use on podcast and the live signal is sent through a Barix Exstreamer 500 to the live stations.

Fully automated video switching is provided by way of a Insoft HDVMixer. This system is a hands-off voice activated switching system which allows us to stream to most any social media channel. Cameras are AViPAS 1080P installed in six positions.

LED accent lighting is installed behind the wall sound panels and Neewer 660 fixtures provide the video lighting.

Since we are a call-in car talk show we wanted the caller’s sound to be as clean as possible and ran the caller’s audio through the Jupiter processor. This allows us to get an automatic clean-up and level on the incoming calls.

We broadcast to over 240 stations and do a podcast but the streaming is important to. We had a challenge getting the audio on the stream to the level we wanted and, in the end, we found our solution by running the audio from the board out through the processor before it feeds the stream and that did the trick.

“Under The Hood” has been on the air for over 30 years, 19 with the current hosts. We look to have a good run of at least 20 more years before we hang it up, if ever. We are always actively looking for new markets to air the show to continue to provide free automotive advice to listeners as well as provide a solid platform for stations to place automotive advertisers on.

The post Going Under the Hood at the “Under the Hood” Show appeared first on Radio World.

Tech stocks paced a wave of declines on Wall Street Wednesday, as the Chair of the Federal Reserve declined to say whether or not the Central Bank will work to put a kibosh on inflationary pressure.

Media stocks were caught up in the dips.

Among the bigger decliners is Salem Media Group, down 34 cents to $2.47 after the company posted lower Q4 2020 adjusted EBITDA.

Also off sharply: Beasley Broadcast Group and iHeartMedia.

Cavell, Mertz & Associates President Garrison Cavell and Garvey Schubert Barer attorney Erwin Krasnow have made suggestions on assessing station potential from the technical side and deciphering station coverage maps, and have then explored treasures that might be found in cyberspace and by poking through the stacks of station paperwork in various Media Information Bureau columns appearing at RBR+TVBR. Today, they take a look at tire kicking.Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC’s Media Bureau is reminding all low power television and TV translator stations that the digital transition date — when stations must terminate all analog television operations — is fast approaching.

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Updated at 3:10pm Eastern

For 15 years, she was the go-to person for all of the corporate-level communication from Univision Communications, the multimedia giant focused on Spanish-speaking U.S. Hispanics that is now under majority ownership of ForgeLight LLC and Searchlight Capital Partners.

With that shift in control, several changes transpired. Wade Davis replaced Vince Sadusky as CEO. Steve Mandala was fired, with Donna Speciale brought in to the C-Suite.

Now, big changes have come to the corporate communications team.

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The E.W. Scripps Company has agreed to broadcast a commercial-free special across its local stations next week in a move it hopes will “spark a national dialogue around implicit bias while advancing conversations at the local level in the 41 markets where it operates.”

“Each of us have experiences and backgrounds that shape how we think and how we interact with the world around us,” explains Scripps Local Media President Brian Lawlor. “As a steward of the public airwaves with a station footprint that reaches into nearly a quarter of U.S. TV households, Scripps has a powerful platform from which we can help facilitate critical conversations about the implicit biases we all carry and what they mean for how we connect with one another.

With that, every market where Scripps has a station will air the 60-minute special, “Hidden Bias of Good People,” hosted by Dr. Bryant T. Marks, Ph.D.

“We’re proud to bring this special with Dr. Marks to our viewers in every market in order to provide a safe space for these discussions – neighbor to neighbor – about identity and bias,” Lawlor said.

Dr. Marks is the founder and chief equity officer of the National Training Institute on Race and Equity.

Scripps notes that the TV special is “interactive and conversational, with a goal of helping viewers understand the unconscious biases we all carry based on our upbringings and environments. Implicit, or unconscious, bias refers to attitudes and beliefs that occur outside of our conscious awareness and control.”

Marks has provided training to police departments and to executives and professionals in educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and local and federal government agencies, among others.

In addition to airing the special, Scripps’ local TV stations are producing multiplatform content to aid viewers in engaging with the topic of implicit bias. Planned content includes an in-depth series on race relations and stories examining the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion to employers and job seekers.

Scripps TV stations also will host Facebook Live discussions and Zoom Q&As with local experts.

The RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast on Tuesday celebrated its 100th episode, as Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson conducted an exclusive interview with Colorado Broadcasters Association President/CEO Justin Sasso to learn more about the key topics the CBA is addressing in Washington, D.C. for radio and TV station owners in the Mile High State.

Among them: ATSC 3.0 transition in a state with weather and terrain challenges, and the ongoing fight for radio with respect to royalty fees. The discussion came just 24 hours after GMR sent a take it-or-leave it letter to radio stations regarding a new nine-month interim license, effective April 1, that includes a 20% rate hike.

Didn’t hear the podcast? Easily do so from our new embedded player at RBR.com!

Coming March 9: Jay Prasad, Chief Strategy Officer at LiveRamp TV, discusses his expectations for TV advertising ahead of the 2021-2022 Upfronts.

And, to access the other 99 episodes of the InFOCUS Podcast, presented by DOT.FM, just click here!

LOS ANGELES — Salem Media Group, the Camarillo, Calif.-based company known for conservative Talk radio stations branded as “The Answer” and a host of sibling radio properties devoted to Christian music and teaching, has successfully turned its financial fortunes from severely shaking to solid and growth-filled.

How did Salem accomplish this in the fourth quarter? Its just-released earnings report shows it comes down to two non-broadcast segments.

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