the HOT List

Just like industry peer Beasley experienced, Discord chat rooms about investment opportunities — as seen on social media platform X — are actively talking up iHeartMedia stock. With 30 minutes to go in trading on Thursday, their posts appeared to be working, with "IHRT" shares up by more than 8% from Wednesday.

On October 9, Nexstar Media Group shares dipped below the $200 mark, and headed downward through November 14. One month later, growth in the company's stock price has resulted in another stab at an all-time high for "NXST" on Nasdaq.

The President of the Center for American Rights — a right-wing lobbying group intent on getting the FCC to probe NBC, ABC and CBS for "news distortion" — is suggesting the Commission should reclaim valued spectrum from any public radio or TV station should they fail to meet their respective operational budgets. 

Perry Sook told an investor conference on Monday that the proposed merger of TEGNA and his Nexstar Media Group, which pushes the No. 1 single owner of broadcast TV stations well above current regulatory caps, is the direct result of President Trump winning the 2024 U.S. presidential election. 

David Ellison is fighting back against Netflix and its proposed $72 billion takeover of Warner Bros. — including HBO Max and the HBO cable TV channels — by commencing an all-cash tender offer that would see Paramount acquire all of Warner Bros. Discovery's outstanding shares at a valuation of $30.

The big takeaway for the three-month period ending September 30? Ad revenues soared and enjoyed the fastest pace since the final stage of the post-COVID rebound in the first quarter of 2022. That said, broadcast media's performance was a bit different.

In one week, customers to Verizon Fios cable TV services in two cities where Cox Media Group owns stations could be left in the dark. That's because the TV stations' owner and the MVPD can't seem to be in agreement on terms for a new retransmission consent accord.

With The E.W. Scripps Co. under a hostile takeover attempt by Sinclair and Nexstar Media Group awaiting a regulatory nod for its industry-changing proposed merger with TEGNA, Gray Media is moving forward with an initiative that adjusts that media company's indebtedness, with repayment due in seven years.

Netflix, born out of a DVD-by-mail service, is acquiring Warner Bros. — including its film and television studios, the HBO Max platform in competition with Netflix, and the HBO cable TV network, from the David Zaslav-led Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount had questioned the sale process' "fairness and accuracy."

It’s the creation of Jonathan Katz, who founded the former Katz Broadcasting some 15 years ago and sold it to Scripps Networks in December 2020. Free TV Networks, with over-the-air digital broadcast networks and "FAST" channels at its heard, will soon be a sibling to the newly renamed MS NOW.

All signs point to a thaw in the FCC’s local ownership rules, and to an acceleration of ATSC 3.0 adoption by TV station owners. Has all this generated excitement with brokers? “The most important headline from a broker's perspective really is the potential relaxation of the radio ownership rules,” says Greg Guy.

In one fell swoop, the FCC under Chairman Brendan Carr has done a little more than a "delete, delete, delete" as part of the agency's sweeping clean-up of inactive, "unnecessary" and "outdated" items that have been collecting dust over the past several years.

Urban One has announced robust early results from its debt restructuring plan. Some 92% of bondholders, representing $450 million in debt, submitted their notes before the December 1 early tender deadline as the company superserving African Americans advances a three-part refinancing strategy.

The Chief Legal Officer and head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at the NAB has made it clear that any suggestions that retransmission consent is a relevant consideration when contemplating changes in the FCC's national television ownership rule are "unsound" and "wholly unmeritorious."

The man who has served as Senior VP of Media Operations at the broadcasting company that's parent to such stations as WUSA9 in Washington, D.C., and is poised to merge with Nexstar Media Group in 2026 — pending regulatory approval and a likely federal court challenge — has retired.