the HOT List

Like many professional organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic adversely impacted its operating budget and its ability to generate significant revenue. Now, the group that ended its relationship with the Fontainebleau Miami Beach and will now hold its annual January conference in The Bahamas will be filing a court petition to restructure its business affairs.

Thanks to strong cash flow for the second consecutive quarter, one of the nation's largest broadcast television station owners has opted to reduce its outstanding debt once again.

As expected, the nation's biggest broadcast television station owner has completed its acquisition of a majority interest in the television network that counts among its over-the-air distribution points KTLA-5 in Los Angeles. With the transaction's closing a new President of The CW Network has been named by Nexstar Media Group. Mark Pedowitz is exiting.

It was a weekend of frustration for sports fans and those who simply wanted to watch an ABC Owned Station, if they were a Dish subscriber. A retransmission consent dispute erupted. By Monday, the dispute was over thanks to a handshake agreement.

In July, Lourdes Ubieta exited "Radio Mambí" amid fears the incoming owner — Latino Media Network — would dismantle the station's longtime conservative Spanish-language talk programming. These worries stem from a LMN funding source, George Soros, who is known for liberal causes. On Monday, Ubieta will be back on Miami radio, thanks to Audacy.

FOX News Media’s free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) weather channel has expanded its distribution by bringing the offering to a MVPD. This comes after it was recently added to the Amazon Freevee no-cost video streaming service.

It started off as a Generation Z and Millennial-focused news and information offering distributed strictly in the “over the top” (OTT) space. Then, it morphed into a MVPD-distributed cable channel. In autumn 2021, it headed to free-to-air television as a “DigiNet.” Yet, come New Year's Day 2023, Newsy will be no more. It's getting a new name.

The Fort Myers-Naples region has been devastated by Hurricane Ian, with reports of limited access to local news coverage and WINK-TV going dark before 5pm Wednesday due to severe flooding that led the news team to evacuate to the second floor of the low-rise building. As of Thursday afternoon, WINK-TV was dark, with the staff evacuated overnight by a fire/rescue team.

In the wake of "a historically strong 2021," U.S. media owner advertising revenues grew by 11% in the first half of 2022. Now, the not so rosy news from MAGNA: The continued economic slowdown and "the lack of major cyclical events" led MAGNA to lower its 2023 growth forecast somewhat significantly.

It bills itself as "The World's Radio Station" and can be heard on a dedicated SiriusXM channel. Its newscasts can be heard on public radio stations across the U.S. And, there are the 24/7 broadcasts heard globally. Soon, this service will get a change, as the BBC World Service is proposing to stop radio services in 10 languages — including Chinese.

MWC Las Vegas began on Wednesday morning in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The affair, which is perhaps the largest in the world focused on the growth of 5G and technology, devoted time to such topics as the metaverse. That said, advanced connectivity is being deployed across entertainment, and it will impact broadcast media in the coming years.

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.