the HOT List

Upon completion of the transaction, Comcast shareholders will own shares in both Comcast and NBCUniversal, creating “two focused industry leaders, each with significant scale, strong financial profiles and distinct strategic opportunities.”

A public interest organization has been joined by a "group of concerned citizens" in filing a Petition to Deny the early license renewals of ABC Owned Stations' properties. To be clear, Media Action Center and Frequency Forward are not trying to block the stations' license renewals. Rather, they see the action as the lone way to gain standing.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has taken aim at a campaign from ABC designed to gain viewer support in its quest to maintain the "bona fide news program" equal time exemption for daytime chat program "The View."  As Carr sees it, "We're going to follow the facts and the law wherever they take us."

The annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has been a regular epicenter of ad partnership pitches for iHeartMedia for the last several years, and this year is no exception. From C-Suite leaders to Questlove, Ryan Seacrest, Eva Longoria and Diplo, three days of activity have already been seen.

Four Democrats took the FCC's Media Bureau to federal court this week, arguing a March guidance document unlawfully extended discounted political advertising rates beyond what Congress authorized, potentially affecting how broadcast stations price political inventory.

As attorneys from Brooks Pierce and Cooley LLP representing all four network TV affiliate groups state, "Even if that subscriber leaves cable or satellite for a virtual MVPD provider, the broadcaster’s revenue suffers because of the below-market economics of the vMVPD opt-in paradigm." 

For decades, advertisers had to choose between TV's scale and digital's precision. Not anymore, say Viamedia and Hearst Television, as they have teamed to bring to market "true household-level addressability for broadcast television for the first time."

The Acting Chief of the FCC's Media Bureau has dismissed a Petition for Special Relief filed by "a number of former FCC officials" and a notable hopeful who requested the Commission “repeal its news distortion policy in full.” The reason is a simple one for Alex Sanjenis.

It's a direct result of ongoing litigation between DirecTV and state attorneys general and TEGNA and its owner, Nexstar Media Group, designed to prevent Nexstar from fully merging TEGNA's assets with its own: CEO Patrick Paolini has promoted four individuals to TEGNA's newly refreshed executive leadership team.

In a move designed to "modernize and future-proof" content distribution and contribution across more than 330 member stations, PBS has signed an agreement with LTN making the IP-based video transport and network firm its in-the-cloud video provider.

Danlel Suhr and the Center for American Rights are single-handedly responsible for investigations into "news distortion" and a review of whether or not long-running ABC roundtable talk show "The View" is a bona fide news program. CAR has told the Carr Commission it is clearly not news.

"Our goal is to move the market beyond isolated agent announcements and toward a common foundation for trusted agent-to-agent media buying.," WPP Media shared in a lengthy announcement distributed on Thursday.

Steve Wexler and Dave Magnum were joined by Woodward Community Media's Director of Broadcast and a now-retired iHeartMedia Wisconsin Metro President as this year's inductees into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame. The four were feted at a Thursday night affair in Lake Geneva, Wisc.

The Commission has once again denied a petition filed by direct broadcast satellite (DBS) provider DirecTV that would have put a stop to the transfer of control of a Michigan TV station, creating a duopoly in the Traverse City, Mich., DMA. DirecTV has been seeking to put a stop to these deals as part of an anti-carriage fee fight.

Two years ago, Norsan Media expanded beyond its historical footprint of the Southeastern U.S. in a significant way in Austin. Now, Norsan is getting a big, heritage full-market FM signal to add to its holdings serving Texas' state capital.