Legacy

Hearst Television stations serving communities tied to a "neighboring DMA" are being removed from Comcast's Xfinity lineups in a move directly tied to retransmission consent fee reduction. That's not sitting well with the two U.S. Senators representing Massachusetts, or two Bay State Congressmen. They want the Boston ABC affiliate kept on Xfinity in one key county.

The company that is presently in a carriage dispute with Nexstar Media Group over retransmission consent fees has just agreed to settle a telemarketing lawsuit brought against the direct broadcast satellite services provider by a host of states. The cost to Dish? It's in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Be part of the 18th annual Forecast conference, presented virtually this year as Forecast LIVE. The event will play out over two sessions: Tuesday, December 8, and Wednesday, December 9. Still on the fence? Streamline Publishing Chairman Eric Rhoads shares some of the key reasons why this is THE year you'll not want to miss out on this conference.

Retransmission consent is an increasingly troubling problem for broadcast TV. To learn more about the history of retransmission consent and why, perhaps, it is such a contentious matter, former NAB General Counsel Jack Goodman spoke with RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson in this fresh InFOCUS Podcast, presented by DOT.FM. LISTEN HERE

BIA Advisory Services has released its U.S. Local Advertising Forecast for 2021. What is it predicting? Growth is the magic word, with a 2.5% year-over-year increase from a year battered by COVID-19.

Noted media analyst Gordon Borrell looked into a recently completed survey of 994 radio buyers and saw some major trends — some good, some scary. At an exclusive Forecast 2021 LIVE session, Borrell will share what advertisers and agencies said they're planning to do with radio budgets in 2021.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has approved three presidential nominations, which are now subject to approval by the full Senate. The trio of Trump selectees includes Section 230-repeal friendly choice Nathan Simington. Will the Senate approve Simington as Mike O'Rielly's FCC successor?

With five weeks remaining in what is indisputably a most difficult year, broadcast radio could be ending 2020 on an advertising high. The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report shows that the No. 1 brand by play count is dominating, and that just two of the slots are tied to iHeartMedia in-house promotions. Then, there's a new effort from Ulta worth noting.

In August 2010, the Korean Gospel Broadcasting Network took on ownership of an AM at 1190 kHz, serving the entire Los Angeles market. In April 2018, it filed an application for an FM translator with the FCC. The Media Bureau eventually said no, leading KGBN-AM 1190's licensee to file an Application for Review. The full Commission has now released its decision.

How did radio leaders manage to navigate the COVID-19 fueled storm that decimated ad revenues, strained resources, shut down studios, and had staffs scrambling to set up remote office locations? Four of radio’s top executives will share their answers in a wide-ranging conversation with Publisher Deborah Parenti at the Forecast Live 2021 conference virtual event.

With its publicly traded shares heading toward a delisting from the OTC Pink sheet and the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting its full abilities to generate strong free cash flow across its radio stations, Miami-based Spanish Broadcasting System will release its third quarter 2020 results on Monday.

If you haven't yet discovered the RBR+TVBR INFocus Podcast, presented by Dot.FM, now's your chance to get caught up on what your competition has already heard.

A Class B 50kw AM with a tower array adjacent to Dodgers Stadium is being sold by Arthur Liu's Multicultural Radio Broadcasting. The buyer is a talk host who in August was ordered to pay PBS $2.6 million for violating a morals clause in multiple sexual harassment cases. Earlier in his career, he was fired by BET, where he became a household name.

As NEXTGEN TV deployments unfold, the NAB believes broadcasters have discovered an area "where straightforward clarification of the Commission’s current rules would help broadcasters preserve existing service to viewers and a gap in the Commission’s 2017 rules that must be addressed."

RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson caught up with St. Simons Island, Ga.-based media broker Eddie Esserman in this fresh InFocus Podcast, presented by DOT.FM.  What is the deal-making market like eight months into the COVID-19 pandemic? Are there TV industry deals, or is Radio the more active of the two broadcast media? Listen to find out! LISTEN HERE