the HOT List

The Commission on Tuesday moved forward with the adoption of a forfeiture order fining Gray Television for violating its rule, saying it owned two of the top four stations in Anchorage. Gray immediately blasted the FCC, and is taking the Commission to court. Commissioner Nate Simington won't mind: he dissented.

The fiscal first quarter for Fox Corporation, reflecting the three-month period ending September 30, was a stellar one for the company. Affiliate revenue grew by 3%; it was led by 6% growth in the Television segment. The bigger story: Advertising revenue increased 8%, primarily due to higher political advertising revenues at the FOX Television Stations.

The radio industry, in particular, has had a hard time at attracting and raising capital. The broadcast TV industry's challenges aren't so hard. Yet, a new S&P Global Market Intelligence report suggests that broadcasting is particularly weak in its dollar magnetism.

If all goes according to plan, sale agreements will be submitted to the FCC early next week signaling the court-administered divestment of 13 AM and FM radio stations licensed to Rocking M Media. Four buyers are involved, and Greg Guy of Patrick Communications served as Rocking M's broker.

Nearly two weeks after Nexstar Media Group's broadcast TV stations and its NewsNation cable channel were blocked to subscribers of Verizon FiOS cable services, a retransmission consent agreement has been signed by the largest owner of broadcast TV stations in the U.S. and the regional MVPD.

As Cumulus Media CEO Mary Berner sees it, the company's third quarter earnings results are "solid." Yet, "market-driven headwinds" led to a 2% revenue decline in the period. Blame that on national advertising channels, she said. The bigger takeaway is that digital revenue has continued to grow, and profitability has increased as well.

The $20 billion CDN proposed merger between Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications, which involves the sale of Freedom Mobile to Quebecor to help gain Canadian regulatory approval, is today in doubt after the three companies failed to mediate their differences with the federal competition bureau.

The FCC has approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would boost the operational readiness and security of the nation’s public alert and warning systems — the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts.

How did NBCUniversal perform, specifically, in the quarter ending September 30? OTT platform Peacock is increasing its paid subscriber count, but still saw losses. Still, that didn't put a damper on an adjusted EBITDA increase of 24.6% for NBCU.

Just weeks after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and noting that it had no intention of cancelling its two 2023 conferences, NATPE has backtracked by announcing that the event designed to replace NATPE Miami will no longer be held.

The licensee funded and backed by company chairman Manoj Bhargava, the creator of 5-hour ENERGY, and led by CEO Vince Bodiford has agreed to purchase additional low-power TV stations in the Sunshine State, as part of its quest to bring its free-to-air NewsNet digital multicast network to more households.

The third-ranking House Republican has teamed up with a Republican serving the Green Bay, Wisc., region in introducing legislation designed to counter the influence of China and other foreign adversaries on the United States' telecommunications infrastructure.  That highly pleased the ranking Republican Commissioner on the FCC.

Just one week ago, Pivotal Research Group Analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak raised Netflix's price target based on "moderately better than expected overall Q3 subscriber growth." At the time, he set a new $200 Year-End 2022 price target. You can erase that. Wlodarczak has significantly raised that estimate.

According to multiple reports, Hubbard Radio is initiating a Voluntary Separation Program for all full-time non-managerial staff who work in the newsroom at WTOP Radio — the nation's top-billing radio station. A staff memo was distributed on Tuesday by SVP/GM Joel Oxley, who did not immediately return RBR+TVBR's call seeking comment.

Corus Entertainment is a major player in Canada. It isn't immune to the recessionary economy and inflation, along with a highly deflated Loonie against the U.S. dollar, that has made its financial health a bit shaky. The company's fiscal Q4 results, released late Friday, were far from stellar.