the HOT List

The television and cross-platform measurement, analytics and attribution firm founded by Kristin Dolan, today the CEO of AMC Networks, has been sold to a growing TV ad measurement company that's gained attention from such partners as NBCUniversal over the last 5 years.

He's been associated with NBC, most recently serving as VP of Content Strategy for experimental Gen Z-focused multiplatform offering NBCLX. Early career stints include roles as a producer at KGO-7 in San Francisco and KPRC-2 in Houston. Now, this veteran news executive has been selected to head up many of the news efforts for CBS News & Stations' twin properties in Southern California.

With the season premiere of ESPN's "Monday Night Football" and the Buffalo Bills taking on the New York Jets in Aaron Rodgers' QB debut for the latter team just hours away from kickoff, Charter Communications and The Walt Disney Co. have agreed to end an 11-day retransmission consent impasse. Some predicted it would be a long-term harbinger of long-term changes that could upend the MVPD business.

The first 5G Broadcasting station in the U.S., which will become the first 24/7 5G Broadcast station in the world, will soon go live. The experimental channel sets the stage for high-definition programming and what LPTV advocate "SuperFrank" Copsidas calls "game-changing advances" in public safety and emergency response.

Yet another dispute over the dollars a broadcast television company believes it deserves to receive from a cable TV services company for the right to distribute its signals for profit has transpired. It sees Hearst Television enter a battle with one of the nation's two direct broadcast satellite companies.

A Superior Court of Pennsylvania ruling released Thursday finds that the embattled former owner of a LPTV station serving Philadelphia it lost control over, putting it in the hands of another party, must rely on the FCC to win back possession — and not the Keystone State's judicial system.

Despite widespread opposition from Senate Republicans, Anna Gomez is on her way to filling the long-vacant fifth seat on the Federal Communications Commission, thanks to a floor vote conducted Thursday in the upper body of Congress.

It took just minutes after it became clear that Anna Gomez had the necessary votes to win confirmation by the U.S. Senate of her appointment by the Biden Administration as a FCC Commissioner for the words of praise to arise from lobbying groups that will actively be working with her and her future staff. Also chiming in with positive comments: the Chairwoman of the FCC herself.

Respected broadcast media financial analyst and advertising forecaster Brian Wieser on Wednesday unveiled a new, original forecast of the U.S. advertising industry. It covers more than 20 different forms of media, and includes data through 2028 from 2016 on an annual basis. What does Wieser have to share about broadcast radio and over-the-air television?

She joined the FOX Television Stations duopoly serving the National Capital Region in 2017 as VP of Finance. Now, she's the new SVP/Manager at WTTG-5 and WDCA-20, taking a role last held by an individual who was just promoted to Executive Vice President of Ad Sales for Fox Television Stations.

On September 1, the nation's No. 1 broadcast television station ownership group completed its $35 million purchase of KUSI-51 in San Diego from McKinnon Broadcasting Company, in a deal brokered by Kalil & Co.  With the transaction's closing, Nexstar Media Group officially has a duopoly in "America's Finest City." And, KUSI has a new VP/General Manager.

A total of 41 television stations with a reach of nearly 22 million television households across the U.S. will not be participating in any "great affiliation swap" anytime soon.  It's thanks to a new agreement reached between Nexstar Media Group and one of the nation's "Big Four" networks.

As RBR+TVBR reported on August 22, the chief programming executive at NPR will conclude her tenure at the end of 2023, ending a nearly 30-year tenure that includes on-demand audio innovations. On Sept. 11, Eva Rodriguez will become Executive Editor. These changes came after the June arrival of Daphne Kwon as Chief Financial Officer. On Tuesday, it became known that the Chief Executive Officer of NPR will be stepping aside.

What are the ramifications when a leader of a broadcast media company deletes text messages over several years, even though there may be a legal obligation to keep them accessible as items that could be needed for an ongoing court case? In the case of Griffin Communications, it is a matter of negligence, and not a bad faith action. 

Millions of Charter Communications Spectrum customers who rely on their cable TV services to consume the local ABC Owned Station are in the dark. And, in every U.S. market where Spectrum operates, access to 25 cable channels including ESPN has been denied. Welcome to the latest retransmission consent impasse, and it impacts The Walt Disney Company and the dominant MVPD in the nation's two largest markets.