the HOT List

Throughout his career, respected media industry financial and advertising trends analyst Brian Wieser has either made or picked up on several observations regarding what drives TV consumption beyond the relative appeal of specific content to groups of consumers. Most specifically, six observations come to mind.

Legislation has been introduced in both the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, if passed, would prohibit advertising networks and facilitators from using personal data to target advertisements. Could the legislation win over Republicans in the House, however?

With the early Sunday confirmation that Nexstar stations airing NFL games on Sunday afternoon would be back first for DirecTV customers, ahead of full restoration, one of the ugliest retransmission consent battles in recent years has come to a conclusion after 2 1/2 months. However, 27 stations Nexstar operates via a shared services agreement remain absent from DirecTV.

Is Disney CEO Bob Iger in active discussions to sell ABC? No. But, Nexstar Media Group and Allen Media Group have each submitted offers, while Disney says it is “open to considering a variety of strategic options" for its linear businesses.

Days before David Kenny relinquished his CEO duties, giving them to company veteran Karthik Rao, privately held global marketing research, data analytics and audience measurement giant Nielsen agreed to resolve allegations of systemic race-based hiring discrimination in both Dallas and San Antonio, as identified by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Of all of the discussions had on Thursday at the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) Executive Summit, held in the famed Studio 8H of 30 Rockefeller Center, there is perhaps one that sticks out in terms of importance — and for being the TV industry's biggest challenge: Measurement.

In 2020, after two decades at Nielsen, he rose to COO. Now, this longtime audience measurement, data and analytics thought leader and C-Suite executive has ascended to the Chief Executive Officer post, succeeding David Kenny.

MAGNA's fall 2023 U.S. ad forecast update was released Thursday morning just as the TVB Forward Executive Summit was starting in New York's famed "30 Rock." While the news is good for Digital, the outlook for traditional media is hardly as upbeat as the tunes Carrie Underwood song performed for "TODAY" just as ad industry leaders were ready to chat for TVB attendees inside Studio 8H.

To get the inside scoop what’s being discussed at the TVB Forward Executive Summit and to get a sneak peek at the Virtual Forward Sales Conference designed for account executives and sales managers being held on September 21, RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson took a moment to speak with longtime President/CEO Steve Lanzano in this InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM. LISTEN HERE

It's been established that Sen. Maria Cantwell, the Democrat from the state of Washington, wants retransmission consent rules extended to virtual cable TV service providers. Broadcast TV companies want this, too. For pro-MVPD lobbyist the American Television Alliance, that's the last thing the U.S. needs, it has told Members of Congress.

The television and cross-platform measurement, analytics and attribution firm founded by Kristin Dolan, today the CEO of AMC Networks, has been sold to a growing TV ad measurement company that's gained attention from such partners as NBCUniversal over the last 5 years.

He's been associated with NBC, most recently serving as VP of Content Strategy for experimental Gen Z-focused multiplatform offering NBCLX. Early career stints include roles as a producer at KGO-7 in San Francisco and KPRC-2 in Houston. Now, this veteran news executive has been selected to head up many of the news efforts for CBS News & Stations' twin properties in Southern California.

With the season premiere of ESPN's "Monday Night Football" and the Buffalo Bills taking on the New York Jets in Aaron Rodgers' QB debut for the latter team just hours away from kickoff, Charter Communications and The Walt Disney Co. have agreed to end an 11-day retransmission consent impasse. Some predicted it would be a long-term harbinger of long-term changes that could upend the MVPD business.

The first 5G Broadcasting station in the U.S., which will become the first 24/7 5G Broadcast station in the world, will soon go live. The experimental channel sets the stage for high-definition programming and what LPTV advocate "SuperFrank" Copsidas calls "game-changing advances" in public safety and emergency response.

Yet another dispute over the dollars a broadcast television company believes it deserves to receive from a cable TV services company for the right to distribute its signals for profit has transpired. It sees Hearst Television enter a battle with one of the nation's two direct broadcast satellite companies.