the HOT List

Charter Communications' Spectrum has dropped the affiliate serving Rochester, N.Y., from its systems in two Empire State counties. Interestingly enough, the CBS affiliate here and in the home DMA, Buffalo, are owned by the same company — Nexstar Media Group. And, Nexstar is blaming the MVPD.

Add a Gray Television broadcast television station serving Cleveland to the list of free-to-air offerings that will be bringing regular-season National Basketball Association games to fans across the local viewing area without the need to pay to view it.

The company's CEO, Jennifer Witz, has disclosed in an internal memo that roughly 160 jobs will be eliminated at the home of Howard Stern and curated music channels from artists including John Mayer and Kelly Clarkson.

Beasley Media Group early Monday released its fourth quarter 2023 financial earnings report. While the company's net revenue and adjusted EBITDA were down year-over-year, Beasley achieved net revenue in the final three months of last year.

It was widely expected, with the biggest sporting event in the U.S. just hours away from kickoff. At 4:45pm Eastern on Sunday, DirecTV and Cox Media Group resolved their differences over a fresh retransmission consent agreement and came to terms on a multi-year accord.

The judge overseeing Audacy Inc.'s Chapter 11 restructuring case in a Houston federal bankruptcy court is expected to give his approval to a pair of asset sales that don't involve any of its AM or FM radio stations. Rather, the deals involve real property in Boston, with one of the buyers a major multinational tower owner.

The nation’s biggest owner of broadcast television stations could be on the hook for a fine in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for apparently violating FCC rules when negotiating with Hawaiian Telecom.

Once the dust settled on Wall Street after broadcast TV companies and virtual MVPD FUBO all saw significant share dips following the news of a planned "Hulu for Sports," both FUBO and Gray Television released official statements on the proposal. The two companies couldn't be more divergent in their responses.

Bell Media's parent, which partners with iHeartMedia in Canada, is undertaking the "largest workforce restructuring initiative in 30 years."  Some 4,800 positions will be cut, driving in-year cost savings of $150 million CDN-$200 million CDN. To do this, CTV network newscasts will get cut. Radio stations will be sold.

Investors reacted to an announcement from ESPN, FOX and Warner Bros. Discovery that they plan to launch a sports-focused subscription-based streaming platform by selling off their shares in key broadcast television companies. By mid-afternoon Wednesday, double-digit percentage dips were seen.

On Tuesday, a potential game-changing initiative was announced by three longtime providers of play-by-play sports. It sees the birth of a new joint venture that Madison and Wall's Brian Wieser calls "Hulu for Sports." What does the creation of this service mean for the future of sports rights, and for broadcasters?

As RBR+TVBR first reported on February 1, Gray Television is swapping four television stations in Wyoming and Nebraska to Brian and Patricia Lane's Marquee Broadcasting in exchange for a future Salt Lake City TV property. What's now known is that one of the Nebraska stations won't survive the deal.

For a decade, he was a ratings dominator for WKYS-FM in Washington, D.C. He would later work at WPGC-FM, and after a five-year hiatus came back to D.C. radio to take afternoons at WMMJ-FM. Now, the NAB is paying tribute to Donnie Simpson, who recently departed Urban One.

With the recent departure of Albert Rodriguez as President/Chief Operating Officer from Spanish Broadcasting System, determining who would serve as the day-to-day leader of the company's media properties became a key question. Late Monday, the company's Board of Directors found its answer.

Newly released findings from M/A/R/C Research's Horowitz arm shows that one-third of U.S. TV content viewers either borrow log-in credentials or share the costs of at least one streaming service they can access.