the HOT List

In just the last few days, an entity linked to a Detroit-area bringing together "powerful PR talent and tools in communications and media to deliver relevant, meaningful messages across all media platforms worldwide" has gained attention for a deal in hand that will give it a low-power TV station in Las Vegas. Now, Bridge News LLC is buying again — and we know why.

There were no Olympic games in 2022. There was no NBA Finals in the seventh month of this year. Those absences only compounded pre-existing weaknesses in national TV ad spend for the month of July, new data from Standard Media Index show. August was a lackluster month for national TV ad spend, too.

Broadcast television stations owned by Gray Television, Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Graham Media Group are now offering local consumers NEXTGEN TV — assuming they have a television capable of receiving the new digital TV broadcast standard.

Lynette Romero's departure from KTLA-5 in Los Angeles made headlines for how management opted to share the news, and for a former co-anchor's unscripted "apology" to viewers that ultimately cost him his job. Why did Romero leave? Rumors were swirling. Now, that chatter turns out to be wholly correct.

A newly released S&P Global ratings report uses a schoolyard playground as a setting for its Q4 2022 economic outlook for the U.S. In short, it's a "teeter totter" fiscal forecast for the 50 states and its territories.

Diamond Sports Group, the Sinclair Broadcast Group-associated business that is the parent of Bally Sports, has just ensured access to a legion of over-the-top (OTT) TV content consumers thanks to a big agreement that took effect on Monday.

For more than 2 1/2 years, a man named Justin Howze has been seeking the FCC to reconsider its approval of an application from a licensee directly tied to iHeartMedia that gives it the opportunity to build a brand-new radio station for a San Joaquin Valley city that has quickly become a bedroom community to both Sacramento and San Francisco. Howze's latest effort has just been tossed by the full Commission.

Across 2022, Gray Television has snapped up LPTVs and FM translators as it seeks to ensure full-market availability of its broadcast TV stations in an era full of cord-cutting while gearing up for the riches associated with ATSC 3.0 on the broadcast internet and data services side of the coin. Now, it is adding a TV translator in the Lone Star State.

Veteran KTLA-5 in Los Angeles reporter Lynette Romero's departure from the station, announced by Sam Rubin on the air during a Sept. 14 newscast, was the talk of the town. It came as a surprise to many, and led one KTLA anchor to elicit an emotional response on-the-air last Saturday. It is now known that the nearly five-minute "apology" to viewers has cost him his job.

The combination of an intimate in-person affair and a more in-depth online program proved to be a big success for the TVB's annual Forward Conference, allowing attendees to gain insight and knowledge on a host of vitally important topics to TV industry leaders — most notably, measurement.

Two weeks ago, Sen. Ted Cruz pierced a dagger through the heart of the "Journalism Competition and Preservation Act." After bill co-sponsors John Kennedy and Amy Klobuchar discussed Cruz's desires on how the legislation should read, a compromise was reached, leading to a Senate Judiciary Committee vote today. It passed.

Sinclair Broadcast Group and a host of its shared services partners, including Michael Anderson-helmed Cunningham Broadcasting, could be on the hook for a significant portion of the millions of dollars in fines totaled up for apparent FCC violations of its Children's TV programming rules.

BIA Advisory Services has revealed its Top 10 by revenue for both the nation's radio broadcasting companies and for individual AM and FM radio stations in the U.S. What station is No. 1? It is hardly a surprise, as it has been in the No. 1 spot for seven consecutive years and continues to be a spoken word Goliath.

A California U.S. District Court Judge has denied a second Motion to Dismiss filed by one of the world's biggest quick-service restaurants, a move designed to kill a racial discrimination case against the chain submitted by Byron Allen-led Allen Media Group in May 2021. As such, the case, which appeared to be on shaky ground at the end of 2021, will now proceed to a jury trail. But, that won't be happening for several months.

First, it was the nation's No. 1 audio content creation and distribution company. Now, the parent company of all-things NBC and the Spanish-language Telemundo network is entering the metaverse. And, it is thanks to a newly forged partnership with one of the biggest global technology companies helping broadcast TV enter the NEXTGEN era.