the HOT List

On Wednesday, ViacomCBS confirmed that Peter Dunn, who led the CBS O&Os, and news division leader David Friend will not return to their positions and will be exiting the company. Dunn's attorney on Thursday issued a statement that clarifies Dunn's departure from ViacomCBS.

In late January 2021, the CBS Television Stations President and the stations’ SVP of News were suspended while parent ViacomCBS investigated an increasing number of allegations against them for gender and racial misconduct. It appears the claims, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, are meritorious enough to lead ViacomCBS to severe its ties with the pair.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) confirmed early Wednesday that its President/CEO -- former Oregon Senator Gordon Smith -- will transition to an advisory and advocacy role at the end of 2021. His successor is the NAB's Chief Operating Officer.

Standard General and its leader, Soohyung Kim, may be intent on grabbing greater influence in the broadcast TV company it has invested in. But, its latest attempt to woo over shareholders may fall on deaf ears. Why? TEGNA stock finished upward again on Tuesday, bringing it to its highest point in five years.

Philip Falcone has swiftly moved on from his days running HC2 Holdings. In Q1 2021 became an active buyer of low-power TV stations through a newly created entity. He's at it again, and has just entered the Pacific Northwest's biggest market.

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. Now, Newsy is headed to free-to-air television as a "DigiNet," come this autumn.

A recent RBR+TVBR column on audio streaming and the radio industry's "walled gardens," including iHeartRadio and Audacy (formerly Radio.com) prompted recently arrived TuneIn CEO Rich Stern to reach out. He's our guest on the latest InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM. LISTEN HERE

The pandemic has increased the importance of the personal vehicle and in-dash infotainment today, versus pre-COVID, a new study shows. And, it appears this is especially true for Millennials and Gen Z.

In Q4 2016, Viacom agreed to purchase Telefe, a major Argentine TV operation, for $345 million. Now, the company that is today ViacomCBS is crossing the Andes to purchase a WarnerMedia asset.

When one compares the numbers to the end of the third quarter of 2020, there's one clear takeaway: noncommercial FM radio continues to be a growing opportunity for licensees, as the total number of commercially licensed FMs, and AMs, declined. 

With all eyes last week turned to Washington, and also fixated on a major audio media company's name change, attention is just now being placed on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Here, a judge has cleared the way for Alpha Media to exit from debtor-in-possession status.

In late February, RBR+TVBR first shared the news that TEGNA was adding to its pot of digital multicast networks by stirring up a third creation. As of today, Twist is on the air, putting a focus on women -- and perhaps the LGBTQ+ crowd, too. Helping the distribution: DuJuan McCoy, and HC2, too.

Now what? The Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Third Circuit's remand of the FCC's cross-ownership rule rewrite and its incubator plan for encouraging media ownership for women and minorities. But, with Democratic control firmly in place, will anything happen before 2025?

In the Supreme Court's 9-0 decision to reverse an appeals court's remand of the FCC's 2017 cross-ownership rules rewrite, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued that it is not the Commission's fault it has a "sparse record" on the impact of rule changes on women and minorities.

It's not an April Fools' Day joke. ​Still, it arrived months earlier than many had expected. The U.S. ​Supreme Court, in a 9-0 unanimous decision, has overturned the Third Circuit Court of Appeals' remand of the FCC's cross-ownership rule revisions.