the HOT List

RBR+TVBR President/Publisher Deborah Parenti saw first-hand how AI "was front and center at virtually — and we use that word in both meanings — every display and booth at the show." Meanwhile, iHeartMedia was in Las Vegas but not as a CES exhibitor. Rather, top brass joined Meta and MediaLink for a VIP dinner.

The Radio + Television Business Report's information-filled all-new Winter 2024 Special Report is now available, and this full-color 32-page digital magazine — distributed to RBR+TVBR premium subscribers — is a must-read. What awaits you in RBR+TVBR's Winter 2024 Special Report?

As 2023 came to a close, Gray Television announced it had reached a sports rights deal that brings 10 New Orleans Pelicans NBA games to broadcast television, with Gray's WVUE-8 in New Orleans the originating over-the-air station for these telecasts. Now, a home in Lafayette, La., has been secured.

Sinclair Inc. has reached a comprehensive multi-year distribution agreement with Verizon for carriage on FiOS TV. The agreement covers local television stations in 10 markets, Tennis Channel and YES Network.

A free music video streaming app for TVs will be made available to a vast majority of smart TV owners. What wasn't previously known is how one of broadcast television's biggest companies — and one of the key pushers of NEXTGEN TV — is backing ROXi as a partner.

The NAB appears to have picked up on the industry-wise buzz by sending out a marketing e-mail on Day One of CES gushing about what's to come once the NAB Show begins in April.  "Try to contain yourself…ok, scratch that. It’s time to full-on freak out!," the NAB exclaims in promoting "Brand-New Cool" for its own show.

Scripps has signed a local advertising deal that will feature the use of a Detroit-headquartered company’s AI technology across all 61 of its owned and operated broadcast stations.

RBR+TVBR has confirmed that a breach of contract suit filed August 16 in a California federal district court by a creator of "viral hit shows" and podcasts against Audacy Inc. has been resolved.

The evolution of The E.W. Scripps Co.'s local leadership for its broadcast television stations continues, as the Cincinnati-headquartered company has named Station Managers for its properties in Southwest Florida, the capital of the Sunshine State, and in Oklahoma's second-largest market.

TV audience measurement company iSpot.tv has launched a dedicated streaming measurement offering, along with a new set of metrics that it claims "empower hundreds of advertisers and publishers with a fast, reliable independent system for tracking audience consumption of Connected TV advertising, at scale."

Audacy's voluntary Chapter 11 filing is designed to resolve its $1.9 billion in debt. To do it, Audacy shareholders that don't cash out now stand to lose out on their entire investment. This sent shares tumbling further on Monday. Meanwhile, it became known that Audacy has offered employees a retention bonus.

After 22 years of service against competitors that today include Scripps, TEGNA, Gray, and owned-and-operated properties from TelevisaUnivision and NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, Lynn Londen is handing the keys to KAZT "AZ7" to the No. 1 licensee of broadcast TV stations in the U.S.

Ahead of CES 2024's start this week in Las Vegas, NBCUniversal has unveiled how it is changing the media industry's interpretation of cross-platform, audience-based advertising by bringing a full-scale launch of its much-hyped One Platform Total Audience platform.

Lombardo, a well-known broadcast media industry figure, served as NAB Joint Board Chairman and Chair of the Broadcasters Foundation of America. Under his leadership, the BFoA's annual financial assistance grew to nearly $850,000, from $60,000.

While the 2018 Quadrennial Order approved by the FCC in a party-line vote under federal court order was disappointing to broadcasters and the 2022 Quadrennial Order is still far from completion, the NAB has made it clear that the FCC has missed an opportunity to update "outdated, decades-old rules."