the HOT List

Spectrum and Spongebob are getting a little closer: Viacom and Charter Communications have inked a multi-year renewal and expansion of their distribution relationship. The new deal also calls for the co-production of original content, and collaboration around advanced advertising.

Cumulus Media made an SEC filing Monday that outlined its long-term financial forecast and business plan -- a filing precipitated by separate discussions Cumulus says it has had with "certain noteholders under the indenture governing the 7.75% Senior Notes due 2019." The key words here are "restructuring" — and that has Cumulus stock holders very nervous.

OTA Broadcasting was one of the big winners in the FCC's Incentive Auction, pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars for giving up the spectrum for eight Class A TV stations and two full-power facilities. But, OTA didn't get bids on all of its properties in Auction 1000, and it has now agreed to three separate deals involving a total of 7 Class A TV stations—and one hedge fund that's swooped in to claim them all.

With CBS Radio expected to shift from CBS Corp. to Entercom on Friday, the top brass at Black Rock have unveiled plans to offer senior notes in a private debt offering. Meanwhile, Moody's Investors Service has assigned a rating to CBS Radio's proposed $250 million revolving credit facility, while CBS Radio has also entered the "Strata"-sphere.

Has FCC Chairman Ajit Pai taken improper actions to benefit Sinclair Broadcast Group in its bid to merge with Tribune Media -- namely, bringing back the Commission's "UHF Discount" so such a Goliath transaction can take place? Two leading Democrats in the House of Representatives say so, and they want the FCC's Inspector General to investigate the matter.

Cox Media Group (CMG) has appointed four leaders who will work together to fully integrate the privately held company’s portfolio of traditional and digital media platforms in the Atlanta area, beginning in 2018.

Five of the leading television service providers in the U.S. lost more than 640,000 television subscribers between them in the third quarter of 2017. With more results to be reported, net losses are looking larger than in Q2, during which they lost just over half a million television customers. For the top 10 services in the U.S. listed in the informitv Multiscreen Index, the losses were more severe. Yet, revenue isn't being heavily impacted.

What's fact and what's fiction with respect to broadcast regulation and its impact on multicultural broadcasters and consumers? That's exactly what was discussed in a Thursday phone call that saw the president of the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) and the President Emeritus and Senior Advisor for the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) discuss what they consider the facts with the Chief of Staff for Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn.

Doug Ferber of DEFcom Advisors LLC and Erwin Krasnow of Garvey Schubert Barer have created a special podcast series exclusively for RBR+TVBR members based on a series of articles centered on the topic “Broadcast Deal Myths Debunked.” In this 10th and final podcast in this series, Ferber and Krasnow discuss "Murphy's Law" and "The Greater Fool Theory." In short, they do not apply to broadcast deals.

The FCC today granted the Merger and Divestiture Applications submitted by Entercom and CBS Corp. — the final hurdle that will see the Reverse Morris Trust-fueled merger of CBS Radio with Entercom's radio holdings. The deal's approval, the Commission says, is "subject to certain conditions." With that, the FCC also granted associated waivers on a temporary basis of six months. 

Chapter 11 — It's now a possibility at the second-biggest radio broadcasting company by number of stations, based on comments made by CFO John Abbot during Cumulus Media's Q3 2017 earnings call held prior to Thursday's Opening Bell on Wall Street. While net revenue was flat in the quarter, net income sank by a whopping 97.2% -- fueled by a big slow down at its radio station group.

A member of powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, chaired by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), has written directly to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai demanding "a complete understanding of the overall impacts of this new standard." 

Nielsen has secured its fourth major MVPD for the integration of non-personally identifiable TV viewing data with its panel data tied to its local TV measurement service. It will go into effect in 2018.

A NuVoodoo Media Services study released this week debunks any thought that AM and FM radio stations are receptacles of "fake news." That's the stuff of TV and websites. But, there is some "fake news" out there that concerns radio, and RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson has something to say about it.

Up against difficult Q3 2016 comps due to a sharp decrease in political dollars and the absence of Olympics advertising, TEGNA -- the media company formerly known as Gannett prior to the spin-off of its newspaper segment -- knew it was going to have a down Q3 in 2017. But, there's a silver lining to its expected dip in earnings: It's not as bad as what Wall Street anticipated, and TEGNA shares finished up 4.1% on Wednesday, to $12.31.