the HOT List

Attention, radio and TV sales executives: If your station is not presently enjoying an advertising relationship with the top 25 retailers and restaurants on The NPD Group's just-released 2016 Checkout Penetration Index, you better start scheduling some appointments with key media planners and brand managers right now.

The "live-and-local-FM" NextRadio app hasn't yet landed on Apple iPhones. That may change later this summer with the rollout of a new streaming app -- a big pivot for NextRadio. At the same time, a secure presence in the "connected car" has been finalized, with full details to be offered at the NAB Show.

On Oct. 21, 2016, Reuters reported that -- according to "people familiar with the matter" -- Altice USA is "drawing up plans for a potential initial public offering" of stock. Those rumors are now reality, and an SEC filing outlines some of the concerns Altice has -- including a still-unresolved IBEW deal in New Jersey.

The commercial availability of Nielsen's National Out-of-Home Reporting Service has arrived, and ESPN is the first client to sign on as a subscriber. The eagerly awaited opt-in service is designed to provide TV networks that elect to subscribe with program and commercial ratings for Live through Live + 7 days of time-shifted viewing.

The Media Rating Council (MRC) has given its blessing to a pair of digital TV ratings offerings from Nielsen, in addition to Mobile Web and Mobile In-Application Display and Video Viewable Ad Impressions and related viewability metrics from comScore.

The Manship family's Louisiana Television Broadcasting has become the latest broadcast TV station owner to run into a brick wall with DirecTV. Their two ABC affiliates went dark on the provider on Friday night, with the stations' owner going on the offensive by noting DirecTV "has failed to realize the importance of local news and entertainment and pulled WBRZ programming from its lineup."

For the last decade, musicFIRST has made it its mission to establish itself as the No. 1 advocate for artists’ rights. These efforts have been stepped up in a big way since the arrival in January of Chris Israel. Who is he, and why is he leading a push on Capitol Hill that has captured the attention -- and support -- of such House members as Darrell Issa, Marsha Blackburn and Ted Deutch? This RBR + TVBR INFOCUS pieces reviews Israel's rise, and that of musicFIRST.

“TV’s Advanced Audience Platform” has advanced in its efforts to bring the precise targeting of digital ads to television advertising by choosing Accenture as the runner for OpenAP — the television industry’s first open platform for cross-publisher audience targeting and independent measurement.

A K Street nonpartisan organization that considers itself "the lawyers for our democracy" has asked the FCC to review broadcast filings from the Judicial Crisis Network, which has spent millions of dollars on advertisements urging U.S. senators to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, but allegedly did not provide the disclosure required under federal law.

The FCC's lone Democratic Commissioner, Mignon Clyburn, has found a friend in Congress in support of her quest to have the minority tax certificate returned for radio and TV broadcasters.

At the shareholders meeting, NLSN stock owners will be asked to vote for nine Board of Director nominees, each of whom will serve a 12-month term. They'll also get to voice their views on CEO Mitch Barns' multi-million dollar salary as NLSN shares are at their lowest point since Nov. 2013.

The number of pay-TV subscriptions in the U.S. and Canada will dip from a peak of 112 million in 2012 to 102 million in 2022. While this marks a 9% decline, Dublin, Ireland-based Research and Markets believes its findings do not point to "a massive cord-cutting problem." Should multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) be pleased with this finding?

In a midday Wednesday address at D.C.-based conservative think tank The Hudson Institute, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai presented what he sees are four key problems regarding data collection and economic analysis at the Commission. His solution? The creation of the "OED" -- the Office of Economics and Data.

The future of an AM in the Valley of the Sun will not include a successful banker who made headlines in 2001 for his participation as an aviator in the London to Sydney Air Race. That's because this individual, and his wife, have lost ownership of this facility some 5 1/2 years after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

The budding feud between two fast food companies could be a good thing for broadcast TV, based on the latest data from Standard Media Index.