the HOT List

An agreement was announced on Thursday morning by Educational Media Foundation and Radio Nueva Vida parent Association for Community Education, Inc. Terms of the transaction, which sees EMF become the sole member of ACE and no funds exchanged, awaits a LMS filing with the FCC.

The owner of NewsNation, WGN Radio, and the largest collection of broadcast television stations in the U.S. has confirmed that it is moving ahead with a reduction-in-force initiative. This move comes after a similar employee trimming move at The CW, which Nexstar Media Group controls.

The Board of Directors of the "Local First" media company that derives much of its revenue not from its small and mid-sized radio stations but from digital and programmatic ad solutions has signed off on a $50 million stock repurchase initiative. 

In one of the Rosenworcel Commission's final actions to involve broadcast media, the FCC has approved a Media Bureau item that updates 13 broadcast radio and television rules to better reflect current application processing requirements, codify existing bureau practices, and remove references to outdated licensing procedures. 

The woman who formerly served as Vice President of Global Advertising Sales and Partnerships at Roku, where she oversaw the company’s entire global ad revenue operation, has accepted a similar role at NBCUniversal. She will report to NBCUniversal President of Advertising and Partnerships Alison Levin.

While it was known that the current House Energy & Commerce Chair, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, wouldn't be in the role as she decided not to seek reelection, who would succeed her wasn't entire known. That changed late Monday afternoon, putting a Kentucky GOP House Member in a key position impacting the FCC.

TV viewership in the November interval was impacted primarily by sports, the presidential election and live streaming, all of which drove peak shares of TV for viewing categories each in separate weeks this month.

Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, believes taxpayer funding of "partisan government broadcasting" networks should be put to a stop. That's why he has introduced the "No Propaganda Act." But, is it more symbolic than a true threat to NPR, given the "Lame Duck" Congressional session that will conclude in one month?

It was the talk of the global ad world across Sunday and Monday, thanks to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Ahead of the Opening Bell for U.S. financial markets, official word came from the two companies that are giants in the marketing and creative space. A stock-for-stock transaction will make the deal happen.

How good was this year for U.S. media, inclusive of digital and social outlets? The non-cyclical growth rate was the best seen since 1999 when one excludes the post-pandemic rebound of 2021.

Madison and Wall media advertising expert Brian Wieser has great things to share about the remainder of 2024. "[Y]et again the industry produced a dramatic outperformance versus our (and, frankly, anyone else’s reasonable) expectations," he concludes. But, the end of the rainbow that was the past 12 months will be followed by gloomy skies for ad dollars, Wieser shares.

Forthcoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr appeared Friday morning on "Squawk On The Street," a feature on CNBC that saw the successor-in-waiting to Jessica Rosenworcel discuss "some of his deregulatory plans, bias in tech and the media and how it could be addressed from the FCC."

The company helmed by CEO Bob Pittman and COO/CFO Rich Bressler seeks more time to repay its lenders by proposing to push out its repayment dates by at least three years — and by doing so at a noticeably higher interest rate. Now, iHeartMedia has announced a small extension of its exchange offers and consent solicitations for outstanding debt.

The nation's dominant audience measurement services provider is teaming up with TikTok "to unlock a cross-media view of ad campaign performance" inclusive of the app's stateside activity. The partnership comes amid ongoing national security concerns tied to TikTok, a Chinese operation.

While much optimism exists for 2025 — fueled by increased ad spend and emerging technologies — challenges abound. Kantar Media's just-released Media Trends & Predictions report seeks to illuminate the opportunities and challenges confronting the media and entertainment ecosystem in the coming year, and beyond.