the HOT List

Here's something new for the broadcast media C-Suites to chew on: Mobile measurement of advertisements has arrived ... for YouTube. Thank Nielsen for the rollout of the new ad measurement tool.

The 39-month broadcast TV repack process will be really hard. That's a message that the NAB wants the FCC to digest and agree with. To make its point known, the industry's chief lobbying force in Washington, D.C., took to YouTube to upload a 2 1/2 minute video that explains why the FCC's efforts to relocate local TV broadcasters into a smaller television band following the recently completed incentive auction will involve a host of challenges.

With the company's shares at $1.80 and breathless headlines noting its heavy debt burden, iHeartMedia brought out the stars — and likely spent a hefty sum — on staying top of mind with the world's most influential marketing, advertising and branding execs gathered in the south of France for the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

A former Key West, Fla., bureau chief for the Miami Herald who served as the FCC's Media Bureau Deputy Chief from 2005-2008 and then as a legal advisor to then-Commissioner Robert McDowell is set to return to the FCC. That's because Chairman Pai intends to appoint this individual to head the all-important Enforcement Bureau. We have an RBR+TVBR Observation on this appointment.

If local advertisers were barbers, they'd skip the shears and go for the electric razor without hesitation. That's because the latest data from Borrell Associates indicates that cable TV, broadcast TV, and radio — in ascending order — are set to take an immediate haircut on their ad revenue.

Global ad spend will grow 4.2% to $559 billion in 2017, according to Zenith’s just released Advertising Expenditure Forecasts. That’s down from 4.8% growth in 2016. However, 2016 benefited from extra ad spend stimulated by four key catalysts, making the annual comparisons tougher for 2017.

ION Media has moved to take advantage of the FCC's anticipated return of its UHF Discount by pulling a duo of full-power UHF stations out of a trust created in late 2013 as a result of the bankruptcy of Roberts Broadcasting. At the same time, ION is acquiring its affiliate in Boise, Idaho, for an undisclosed price.

As the Senior Analyst of Advertising, Media and Internet at Wall Street equity research house Pivotal Research Group, Brian Wieser has gained a strongly positive reputation as a straight-shooter who provides some of the cleanest visibility on the state of broadcast media in the U.S. That's why the broadcast TV industry's C-Suite should be a tad anxious about Wieser's analysis of trends tied to the use of TV alongside commercial share for the calendar month of May 2017.

On June 12, the Media Bureau mailed the second of its Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) audit letters for 2017 to randomly selected radio stations. Among the recipients are stations owned by such companies as Alpha Media, Salem Media Group, Univision, and CBS Radio.

Ten months ago, Adam R Jacobson joined the Radio + Television Business Report as Editor-in-Chief. It marked his return to day-to-day coverage of the radio industry after a 10-year hiatus, giving him a unique perspective on the positives and negatives of the business. Ten months in, he's still fired up about what radio can do ... and has positively failed at. In his view, it's time for the radio industry to hire an ad agency to do what should have been done a decade ago.

Forget the naysayers down on Wall Street. Up in Times Square, the message was clear from some of the nation's leading radio and TV executives: Key ad categories are showing signs of life, bringing welcome news following a tense cycle of quarterly earnings reports highly dependent on political ad dollars that may or may not have lived up to expectations.

There's a disconnect between the C-Suites of the nation's biggest television industry media companies and the numbers-crunchers ensconced in the most influential financial investment advisement houses on Wall Street. This is one of the biggest takeaways from this week's "Media IR Day" in New York hosted by RBC Capital Markets.

A proposed transaction only made possible by the now-concluded FCC Spectrum Auction that would have allowed The Meruelo Group to pay $10 million for a channel-sharing agreement from Hero Licenseco was scuttled before the deadline for comments on the arrangement were due to the FCC. Now, Univision is seeking to do what Meruelo and Hero attempted to accomplish.

In a ruling made Thursday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the FCC may move forward with its return of the so-called "UHF discount" — setting the stage for what could be a flurry of deals akin to Sinclair Broadcast Group's announced acquisition of Tribune Media. Both the NAB and Free Press offered comments on the denial of an emergency stay of the rules.

In a turn of events that might have seemed stunning at any other time in presidential history, President Donald Trump — in a statement that was distributed just before midnight Wednesday (6/14) — indicated that he intends to nominate the Democrat to a whole new five-year term on the Commission.