the HOT List

Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS News & Stations, suffered a significant sell-off of its shares on the Nasdaq exchange Thursday morning, following the release of first quarter 2023 earnings that missed the mark on both revenue and earnings per share.

It owns seven television stations located in Houston, Detroit, Orlando, San Antonio, Jacksonville and Roanoke, as well as SocialNewsDesk, a provider of social media management tools designed to connect newsrooms with their users. How did Graham Media Group perform in the first three months of 2023, from a fiscal standpoint?

“Sinclair is seeing a solid start to 2023, meeting or beating guidance on all key financial metrics." Nonetheless, President/CEO Chris Ripley says Sinclair remains "cautious for the full year on expectations for a weaker economy." To help combat an uncertain ad market, the company is looking to data distribution and non-broadcast investments as a profit maker.

Is "macroeconomic weakness" impacting core advertising? For Sinclair, the answer to that question is yes. But, to what degree? EVP/CFO Lucy Rutishauser offered some answers while detailing the company's first quarter results.

The owner of Spanish-language radio stations such as WAQI "Radio Mambí" in Miami, acquired from TelevisaUnivision in 2022, has selected a new CEO. She'll join company founders Stephanie Valencia and Jessica Morales Rocketto "in scaling one of the largest Latina owned multi-platform audio and media companies to serve the Hispanic market in the U.S. today.

While the Q1 '23 results pleased the iHeartMedia C-Suite, a year-over-year revenue and adjusted EBITDA decrease was nevertheless seen. Oh, and there's the much bigger net loss. The good news is that the net loss was lower than what analysts anticipated, and audio/digital ads are on the rebound.

The nation's No. 1 owner of broadcast television stations has reached a "comprehensive multi-year distribution agreement" with the vMVPD and streaming video platform majority owned by The Walt Disney Company.

The 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance report for the broadcast media company that owns stations including flagship FOX affiliate WBFF-45 in Baltimore has been released. And, it details the publicly traded company’s ESG achievements in 2022 and progress toward its longstanding ESG goals and commitments.

First, it was KTLA-5 in L.A. and the Clippers. Then, it was Scripps Sports and the WNBA. Now, Gray Television has scored a game-changing broadcast rights agreement with the NBA and WNBA franchises serving Arizona.

The E.W. Scripps Co. is putting more fuel into Scripps News as it seeks to further attract audiences from not only over-the-air choices but also a reinvigorated NewsNation at a time when CNN and FOX News may each be at their most vulnerable.

An initial status conference in the TEGNA acquisition hearing in front of the FCC's Administrative Law Judge was held yesterday, and on Thursday an Order summarized what transpired. The big takeaway: After discussing timing issues with the parties during the status conference, the Presiding Judge ruled that the optimal course of action is to suspend this hearing proceeding until further notice. 

Unbeknownst to some, he was the Mayor of the City of Cincinnati in 1977 and 1978 and ran, unsuccessfully, as a Democratic candidate for Governor of Ohio in 1982. For most Americans, he's remembered for his genre-redefining television talk show, as a radio host and, a 2006 run on ABC's Dancing with the Stars. 

As the President and CEO of Cumulus Media sees it, the Atlanta-headquartered audio content creation and distribution company through the first three months of 2023 extended its track record "of strong operational and financial execution during challenging times." Challenging times, indeed. Cumulus' first quarter results weren't pretty. But, did they surpass analysts' forecasts?

With CEO Caroline Beasley "thrilled" to share Q1 2023 financial results that highlight "the significant success and growth" Beasley Media Group is seeing based on its strategy to leverage its local talent to build a growing digital platform, CFO Marie Tedesco provided specific details as to how strong the first three months of the year were.

The E.W. Scripps Co. has selected the VP/GM of its CBS affiliate in Missoula, Montana, a role he has held since January 2021, to take on similar duties at KMGH-7, the ABC affiliate in Denver that newly named SVP/Local Media Dean Littleton has been in charge of.