the HOT List

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.

While the attention of media industry observers and influential Wall Street analysts has arguably been focused on the fiscal situation at Cumulus Media and the soon-to-be-completed Reverse Morris Trust-fueled merger of CBS Radio with Entercom, the nation's No. 1 owner of radio stations has something it'd like to say: It's not only a radio leader, but also a media leader. Those are the words of iHeartMedia COO/CFO Rich Bressler, who used his company's Q3 earnings call to plug his company's reach.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly interpreted Saga Communications' Q3 2017 net income from continuing operations. We apologize for the misunderstanding. The revised article can be accessed here, with full details on how Saga's net income soared while achieving net revenue growth of 1.3%.

On a day that saw Cumulus Media stabilize with a much-needed gain, the radio industry needed a positive story to share with investors. Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) couldn't oblige, as its stock not controlled by Raúl Alarcón Jr. sank 10.1%, to 62 cents, in Tuesday's trading. We've also got a look at Salem Media Group's Q3 earnings just before our deadline. They weren't great.

Tony Rogers is a white guy, raised in Texas in the 1970s and 1980s. He's a son, brother, husband, and uncle. He's also a master of attracting multicultural consumers, as SVP/CMO for Walmart. Rogers could also be you, and all it takes is moving on a path that combines both a rational and emotional perspective on consumer attraction — it's a route that uses the name of a popular band at many a radio station today: The Head and the Heart.

Don't think for a minute that a lack of Olympics-related programming, and the dollars that go with it, are single-handedly responsible for the year-over-year comparison when looking at how TV performed in Q3 2017. There's more to the story, the Standard Media Index Q3 report released Monday afternoon suggests.

Picture this: You are the steward of a 70-year-old brand. This brand's success is bigger than ever, with a more than 40% market share. No, we're not talking about a big News/Talk radio station on the AM dial. But, we should be, based on what was delivered Monday morning in a powerful Keynote Address at the ANA Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference from P&G Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard.