the HOT List

In early November 2020, the Pai Commission gave its blessing to iHeartMedia's request to increase its foreign ownership concentration to 100%, should it ever choose to go that route. While that's not likely, the nation's No. 1 audio media company has now gone "Global," in a way.

Here's something you may find weird: The time spent watching television increased across 2020. Yet, eMarketer analysis finds, viewership "plummeted" last year. The data suggest television was punished by COVID-19 in very much the same way broadcast Radio was.

A division of FOX Entertainment paving an advertiser-based video-on-demand (AVOD) platform for the company is expanding its news content. To accomplish this, it is partnering with four broadcast TV station ownership groups, which have agreed to provide live local news feeds.

A comment period has begun for a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would modify the FCC's rules governing the operation of FM booster stations by radio broadcasters. While the company behind ZoneCasting says it "marks the beginning of an active debate on innovation in the radio industry," the NAB couldn't be more opposed to the plan.

The first of the fourth quarter and full-year 2020 earnings reports from the radio broadcasting industry quietly arrived on Wednesday morning, as Beasley shared its fiscal report card for the final three months of last year. How did the company perform? Its earnings per share shattered the analysts' consensus estimate by eighteen cents.

The Mentoring and Inspiring Women in Radio (MIW) Group has just released its 2020 Annual Gender Analysis study. It tracks the career progress of women in radio broadcasting rising to the ranks of management. "Even with the unpredictability of 2020, you will still see glimmers of hope within the findings," they say.

Two months ago, it appeared that a fresh retransmission consent arrangement keeping Hearst stations from "neighboring designated market areas" where citizens desired the station more than a closer, albeit out of state, choice was reached with Comcast. Now, the Xfinity parent says "some TV stations" from neighboring markets will "soon no longer be available."

For the first six months of 2019, the CBS affiliate serving Fort Myers-Naples, Fla., was blocked from Dish subscribers due to the lack of a retransmission consent accord. Guess what? DISH and the owner of WINK TV are battling again. The timing couldn't have been worse for local Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans.

Pro-MVPD groups including the ATVA were livid. A Member of Congress' blood boiled. Behind the scenes, however, negotiations continued through the weekend and into Super Bowl Sunday between Cox Media Group and AT&T on a new retransmission consent accord. A deal was reached roughly one hour before game day festivities began on CBS.

Its share price hasn't been this strong since April 2019. Now, armed with new vigor and ION Media properties in its stable, The E.W. Scripps Co. is busily preparing for a "special investor presentation" with its President/CEO and its Local Media President, among other C-Suite members.

In early 2019, Community Broadcasters agreed to sell their radio stations serving the Twin Tiers of New York and Pennsylvania to Seven Mountains Media. Nearly one year later, more stations were purchased. Guess what? Seven Mountains Media is at it again, and this time two other players are involved.

Locast, the donation-based broadcast TV-via-IP service that the Big Four television networks and the NAB despise for its unique weave-round regarding retransmission consent, has now entered its 29th market. The service is now available in a city some refer to as "The Big Tomato." 

In the Spanish language, "humo" means smoke. But, there's definitely no smoke and mirrors behind a new effort from NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises that gives a breath of fresh air -- and life -- to parent Comcast's free ad-supported streaming TV service.

Bonus political dollars thanks to the twin Georgia Senate runoff races, along with non-election spot television advertising improvements from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, led Meredith's broadcast TV arm to achieve a 141% year-over-year adjusted EBITDA increase in its fiscal Q2 of 2021.

Saranac Lake, N.Y., in recent years has gained attention for the acquisition of a failed radio station, silenced by its licensee, by two foreign citizens. It has also received attention for a UHF channel that's been the subject of a coverage battle with Comcast. That channel is today owned by Gray Television. And, it is poised to bring big riches to Gray in Burlington, Vt.