the HOT List

As RBR+TVBR has shared with readers across 2025, ad dollars to content publishers and broadcasters have only come in spurts. A newly released report from WARC examines the conundrum — along with a potentially alarming shift in ad spend from what WARC calls "professionally produced content" to "user-generated and 'creator-journalists'."

Multiscreen TV encourages ailment sufferers to educate themselves for better health. That is a chief takeaway from the newly released Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) report, "Dedicated to Your Good Health: How TV Drives Discovery & Encourages Education in the Pharma DTC Category."

The NAB's legal team late Friday filed a 145-page manifesto with the FCC that repeats its request for the elimination of the national TV ownership rule. Of note is a new request from the association that says the Commission "should scale back rules that micromanage radio broadcasts."

One month ago, Gray Media cheered the first new combination of top-four rated television stations this decade, with the FCC under Chairman Brendan Carr granting a waiver of its local ownership rules. The Carr Commission has now approved a deal that puts Brian and Patricia Lane on a fast track to closing.

One of the most frustrating results of a retransmission consent dispute that results in a channel "blackout," by law, is the inability to view one of the nation's "Big Four" networks. Dish Network parent EchoStar Corp. is asking the Commission to help viewers in these instances by plugging in a national feed.

The owner of broadcast TV stations including flagship properties WBFF-45 and WNUV-54 in Baltimore and The Tennis Channel, in addition to broadcast tower manufacturer Dielectric, has moved forward with its "strategic entry" into the media-for-equity space. What does this mean for publicly traded Sinclair?

With 10 astronauts in the room and many of her family members present, Olivia Trusty was warmly received by both Republicans and Democrats on Wednesday morning, as President Trump's nominee to serve as the next Federal Communications Commission's GOP-aligned Commissioner was heralded on Capitol Hill.

A "member town hall" held during the 2025 NAB Show on Tuesday served as the venue for the unveiling of "broadcasters' policy priorities" to guide advocacy in the current Congress, delivered directly to the group by the President/CEO of the nation's key advocacy organization for over-the-air radio and TV.

In mid-January, Imagicomm Communications confirmed it was selling all of the stations it acquired from Cox Media Group. The first deal involved Marquee Broadcasting. On April 2, Todd Parkin's Rincon Broadcasting struck a bigger deal. Now, Imagicomm's remaining properties have found a buyer.

How does AI truly impact media companies today? What does the consumer really want in the always-on, multi-platform, world of ever-changing content tastes–and can AI really find those? Those questions and more were the focus of a AWM breakfast panel discussion Monday at the 2025 NAB Show.

Brendan Carr has left an indelible imprint on the FCC in less than three months. And in the latest rule "modernization" effort to emerge since he succeeded Jessica Rosenworcel, Carr is ready to review the Commission's muddy view of foreign ownership.

By the end of the first day of sessions and expo floor activity across the expansive Las Vegas Convention Center, it became known that one of the Commissioners will not be offering a Keynote Address on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the other Commissioner, scheduled to appear Monday, is reportedly attending at her own expense.

The Senate Commerce Committee is poised to bring the FCC one step closer to gaining its all-important third Republican vote-maker on the Commission, as President Trump's nominee to fill the agency's vacant seat is scheduled to appear at a nomination hearing on the calendar for Wednesday.

In a deal that caught some industry observers off-guard, Todd Parkin in mid-March struck a multi-million deal to buy five TV stations from Sinclair Inc. Now, it appears Parkin's Rincon Broadcasting Group is already expanding its under-construction stable.

The NAB, in an ex parte letter sent to the FCC on Wednesday, asked the Commission engaged in a "Delete, Delete, Delete" initiative sparked by Chairman Brendan Carr to eliminate the national cap on broadcast television ownership.