the HOT List

The COVID-19 pandemic hit Legal Services’ local advertising spend hard in 2020. According to BIA Advisory Services, a healthy rebound is underway in 2022, with local ad spend for the category projected to surpass its pre-pandemic 2019 level.

Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib has introduced a House resolution that states it is the "duty of the Federal Government to establish a new royalty program." This program doesn't target Radio, but its streaming competitors.

The fiscal third quarter 2022 financial results for The Walt Disney Co. were released late Wednesday, and for the period ending July 2, 2022, the performance was everything magical for investors in the owner of ESPN, ABC and fast-growing OTT platform Disney+. Revenue grew at both Disney's Cable and Broadcasting units. What fueled the improvements?

There is some particular shakiness for the company's heritage radio stations, as net income shrunk in the three-month period ending June 30. No matter. The company led by Alfred Liggins III expressed pleasure with its Q2 '22 results even with the slowdown in the radio business. Investors were happy, sending UONE up sharply in trading on Wednesday.

A “Court Meeting” and a “Special Meeting” were scheduled for Tuesday to vote on proposals for Nielsen to be acquired for $28 per share in cash by a consortium led by an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management. Less than two hours before the day's events were to commence, they were postponed. Why?

Despite what the Tysons Corner, Va.-headquartered company calls "a volatile macroeconomic environment," broadcast television station owner TEGNA enjoyed a 7% year-over-year revenue gain in the second quarter. It will likely be the final Q2 report for TEGNA as a publicly traded company, as a privatization plan has received shareholder approval and awaits regulatory approval.

Upbeat second quarter earnings reports from a variety of publicly traded broadcast media companies are in sharp contrast to the Q2 2022 earnings report delivered Friday by Audacy Corp. The company formerly known as Entercom and led by President/CEO David Field cited "increasing uncertainty" as one reason for the disappointing earnings. The comments came as the U.S. gained 528,000 jobs in July.

How did The E.W. Scripps Co., heavily invested in digital multicast networks thanks to its company-transforming ION Media merger, perform in Q2 2022? Like its free-to-air TV brethren, political advertising surged. As such, core advertising was impacted, as Scripps swung to net income from a Q2 2021 net loss.

With pressure mounting on the corporate leadership at Audacy Corp. to reverse its declining stock value, or risk NYSE delisting, the company formerly known as Entercom on Friday released second quarter earnings that fell short of consensus estimates on both earnings per share and revenue.

Gray Television now anticipates that its political advertising revenue for 2022 will match the $652 million of political advertising revenue that its current portfolio of stations recorded in 2020, a presidential election year. That said, Gray is a much bigger company, asset-wise, than it was in 2020, resulting in combined historical financial information requiring a closer look. Once the magnifying glass is applied, there's no getting around it — Gray's Q2 was great. 

The nation's leading audio content creation and distribution company enjoyed a healthy net revenue gain as it swung from a $32.29 million net loss in Q2 2021 to net income of $14.4 million. Operating income soared, aiding company growth in Adjusted EBITDA during the second quarter of 2022.

If you thought the political dollars achieved in the second quarter by Sinclair Broadcast Group were huge, just wait 'til you see how Nexstar Media Group — the biggest licensee of broadcast TV stations — performed in the three-month period ending June 30. The owner of broadcast TV stations in three Michigan markets, a key primary election state, enjoyed an eye-popping 920% increase in its political ad dollars from the second quarter of 2021. This helped Nexstar soar past Street estimates on both revenue and EPS.

Many across Washington, Indiana and the U.S. are mourning the loss of Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), who died on Wednesday with two other individuals following a car accident in Elkhart County, Ind. She began her career in the 1980s as a television reporter for the CBS affiliate serving South Bend, Ind.

Newly released data from London-based WARC finds that media inflation is driving up the cost of advertising across channels — with Television most affected by the rise.

The Baltimore-based owner of broadcast TV stations, MVPD-distributed Tennis Channel and the Bally Sports regional sports networks enjoyed an incredibly strong Q2 for political ad dollars. The trends for Q3 are bright, too, leading to "crowdout" for core advertising that one analyst wanted more details of.