the HOT List

An unofficial glimpse into the financial performance of the nation's No. 1 owner of AM and FM radio stations was presented to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday (4/20), and no matter how you look at it — GAAP or non-GAAP — it's a downbeat start to 2017 for iHeartMedia. There's more: The company says "there will be substantial doubt" as to its ability to continue as a going concern for a period of 12 months following the end of Q1 2017.

Much fun -- including FCC Chairman Ajit Pai singing the chorus to a Rick Astley classic -- was seen at the start of a meeting that involved the Commission's relaxation of third-party fundraising restrictions for noncommercial radio and TV stations. The Commission also made a party-line 2-1 ruling that made optional a previously mandatory requirement that compelled the officers and board members of noncommercial educational stations to report personal information. We've got the details.

Mignon Clyburn's impassioned argument against the reversal of a Wheeler Commission decision to dump the discount fell on the deaf ears of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, with its reinstatement approved just after Noon in a party-line 2-1 vote.

Thanks to retransmission consent agreements between local TV stations and cable/satellite companies, total local television station revenue totaled $28.4 billion in 2016, data released today (4/20) from BIA/Kelsey finds.

Townsquare Media will hold its annual shareholders meeting on May 31. What isn't up for a vote is executive compensation, although Townsquare did provide details on how much its three top leaders earned in 2014, 2015 and 2016. We have the scoop on the total pay seen by execs, including Chairman/CEO Steven Price.

The former FCC Media Bureau Chief and veteran communications lawyer has joined one of the nation's most prominent communications law firms. He will provide counsel to clients on a variety of telecommunications and media issues.

At the 2017 NAB Show, NextRadio will make some big announcements. This is likely to include news that the App that brings live and local radio is getting a new streaming audio version for iOS-powered devices. This couldn't be more important, based on the latest smartphone OS data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Why? The Android OS is very uncool with U.S. mobile phone users — especially teens.

Much has been said about the big payday seen at companies including Entravision Communications and Comcast. However, the biggest bonanza to come in the Reverse Auction involves such individuals as Bob Behar and Alex Meruelo. A RBR + TVBR analysis of the now-concluded FCC Spectrum Auction indicates that these individuals, and others with Spanish-language TV stations, are some of the auction's biggest winners.

On March 2, during his company's fiscal Q4 and full-year 2016 earnings call with the Wall Street investment community, Entravision Communications Chairman/CEO Walter Ulloa made a somewhat startling revelation: The owner of radio and TV stations super-serving the U.S. Hispanic consumer scored $264 million in gross proceeds from the FCC’s reverse auction. We now know how the dollars fell, and much of those millions of greenbacks are thanks to the company's relinquishment of spectrum in the Constitution State, where it is entering into a channel-sharing agreement for the local Univision affiliate.

The FCC's Incentive Auction is now history, and the Commission late Thursday (4/13) made available a mountain of data reflecting the UHF and VHF stations that will go off the air as a result of a shift in spectrum use from television to wireless services companies. RBR + TVBR reviewed the winning bids in the Reverse Auction, and both Nexstar and Gray Television scored some cash with some big goodbyes.

A New York City resident may have to fork over upward of $400,000 for his unauthorized operation of a radio transmitter on frequencies that the FCC has licensed to the New York Police Department, causing interference with the NYPD radio system while threatening officers. That's the maximum penalty the FCC can hand out, and this individual is currently in police custody for related charges.

With all of the noise and chatter over the power of subscription on-demand video (SVOD) services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu, there's a growing belief that broadcast and pay-TV networks are in big trouble. But, are they? Pivotal Research Group Senior Analyst Brian Wieser took another stab at answering that question. Here are his conclusions.

With U.S. financial markets closed in observance of Good Friday, RBR + TVBR reviewed the trading landscape for radio and television broadcast companies and took the pulse of two industries that are equally challenged by digital media but could have very different futures. What are the publicly traded media companies investors should keep an eye on in Q2, for better or for worse? Here's what we determined.

Understanding how Gen Z is disrupting television viewing habits is crucial to the success of networks, cable, streaming services and online video hubs. New York-based market researcher Robin Hafitz dissects this increasingly important consumer segment's consumption habits in this exclusive Media Information Bureau column for RBR + TVBR.