the HOT List

The nation's biggest advocate for broadcast media companies on Capitol Hill has responded to the decision by Standard General, TEGNA and Cox Media Group to sue the FCC. It's filed an amicus brief supporting the challenge.

Two days ago, Standard General, the hedge fund led by Soohyung Kim, filed suit against the FCC in a Washington, D.C., Federal Appeals Court as part of its efforts to keep its TEGNA privatization effort on track. That hasn't stopped the Commission in any way from moving forward with its Hearing Designation Order.

The LPTV Broadcasters Association may not be pleased with the move, despite the legislation's name, but the FCC has just initiated a proceeding to implement the "Low Power Protection Act," enacted on January 5.

One of the two new Assistant VPs named by Gray Media Group has been Station Manager for two stations formerly owned by Meredith Corporation. The other also comes from Meredith, and spent many years as the Marketing Manager for two other properties now in the Gray family.

The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWMF) has unveiled its list of winners of the 48th annual Gracie Awards, which recognize outstanding programming and individual achievement "created by women, for women, and about women in all facets of media in news and entertainment."

NEXTGEN TV has officially arrived in the sixth-largest television market in the U.S. And, it is thanks in part to a conversion of facilities at KRON-4, the MyNetwork TV station owned by Nexstar Media Group, that has made the technological advancement happen in an area home to none other than Silicon Valley.

Brian Wieser, formerly of groupM and, before that, Pivotal Research Group, today helms his own strategic advisory firm. And, he's just penned a brief history "and future expectations" on "The Death of TV Advertising" —  a topic "that arises with some regularity for many decades." What's the key takeaway from this wordsmith of Wall Street?

While macro forecasts are downbeat and warning signals abound, they conclude that most media executives and ad forecasters, including two MoffettNathanson analysts, are still expecting this year’s ad market to be stronger in the last six months of 2023 than in the first half of year. Yet, there's one unanswered question: Where is this confidence coming from? 

The National Football League and RedBird Capital Partners have agreed to create a new media platform that will hold the exclusive rights to distribute NFL Sunday Ticket to bars, restaurants, hotels and other commercial venues in the United States starting with the 2023 NFL season.

In perhaps an unprecedented move, Standard General, the New York-based hedge fund led by Soohyung Kim, filed suit on Tuesday against the FCC in a Washington, D.C., Federal Appeals Court as part of its desperate efforts to keep its TEGNA privatization effort on track.

Three of the "Big Four" TV affiliates, plus the PBS Member station, serving Iowa's capital city are now offering ATSC 3.0-powered NEXTGEN TV broadcasts to locals with television sets capable of receiving the signals, or those with "dongles" enabling their TVs to acquire the improved digital TV channels.

According to MAGNA, ad spend slowed down "significantly" through the second half of last year, as fourth quarter ad sales were flat year-over-year. What's the forecast for 2023? It's lower than MAGNA's previous outlook, and "the decline of linear TV" is a takeaway that can't be ignored even as Automotive "has finally turned a corner."

The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) has called for a “gradual migration” away from “TV households” to “TV-accessible (TVA) households” as the basis of TV measurement, to account for shifts in viewing dynamics driven by broadband access and mobile devices.

The Vince Bodiford-led Bridge News has demonstrated just how serious it is with its plan to make NewsNet a bigger viewer choice, competing directly against Scripps News. It is acquiring two properties within the Los Angeles DMA.

With the launch of the DTS AutoStage Broadcaster Portal, Xperi Corp. says every radio broadcaster can, for the first time, gain insights into how their in-car listeners are engaging with their content from the car via a user-friendly dashboard.