Media Info Bureau

Two esteemed Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth attorneys on July 30 chatted with three FCC political programming experts on the specific requirements and latest developments in the FCC’s political broadcasting rules. This includes such subjects as equal time, lowest unit rates, PAC ads, BCRA, and record keeping. Here's a review of what they discussed.

"The success of any endeavor is directly proportional to the dedication of those involved," says alternative broadcast inspection specialist Ken Benner. In this Media Information Bureau column, Benner offers what he considers to be "one classic example" of these premise. It involves a Class C1 FM serving the second-largest metropolitan area in the 49th state of the union.

Don't think "Gen Z" listens to the radio? They do, new findings from Edison Research's Share of Ear study show. In fact, a majority of persons between the ages of 13 and 24 listen to AM and FM radio daily. And, they are doing so on a variety of devices -- including a radio in their vehicle of choice.

Local TV news is poised to become a real-time emergency information portal thanks to ATSC 3.0, allowing TV stations to target the impact zone of an incident with pre-formatted alerts. This means less revenue lost to service disruptions, a group of NEXTGEN TV experts recently shared in a webinar hosted by Sinclair and its ONE Media 3.0 arm.

From Flo and friends to the Gecko and an emu, auto insurance specialists love TV. And, the last week saw plenty of spot TV activity from the top brands all competing for consumer attention.

As Americans hunkered down under stay-at-home orders for much of March and April, they consumed more mobile media. The added mobile time, however, wasn’t distributed equally, eMarketer finds. Some long-term trends accelerated as people sought diversion. Other longer-term trends stagnated as commuting time fell precipitously.

Got stuff to do that you hate doing? You’re not alone, notes expert sales training consultant Barrett Riddleberger. Procrastination kills productivity for millions of people. His suggestion? "Follow these surprisingly enjoyable steps and you’ll actually look forward to getting tasks done that were painfully avoided just last week."

"The events of the past few months have caused my family to make some significant adjustments, most of which included bringing my 82-year old parents to live with me," notes Kelly Orchard. It's been very challenging for her to navigate the emotions, and the stress. But, as always, she's on a mission to look for the positive. It's a good lesson for media leadership.

The food and dining industry was adversely impacted by the effects of COVID-19. Yet, many brands in the QSR, casual dining, delivery and pizza industries are finding ways to advertise through it. This has seen some brands evolve their business models accordingly. A new iSpot report of the first half 2020 finds which brands are finding more impressions on TV than last year.

A highly regarded Wall Street financial analyst has initiated coverage on Roku, following a deep dive into a hot arena: the connected TV/advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) opportunity. While he's "very optimistic about future industry growth," this analyst warns of "too many long-term risks" to enthusiastically recommend a buy at this time.

There's always a way to make something that doesn't look so great look downright peachy when one focuses on the positives. And, that seems to be what some in radio industry have done with new research from The Infinite Dial study from Edison Research and Triton Digital. In this RBR+TVBR Observation, we ask why radio lost the discovery battle to ... YouTube?!

You never know where your next source of business intelligence and insight can come from. Today, it's thanks in part to a longtime friend and the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association. The SFIMA on Thursday hosted a webinar featuring Peter Shankman, "Futurist in Residence" at Epic Marketing Consultants. He offered marketing tips in COVID-19 times worth noting.

Overall household CPG spending experienced 17% year-over-year growth in June 2020. It follows a healthy jump in year-over-year spending seen in May, and with increased COVID-19 concerns in hot spots such as California, Arizona and Florida, July could be shaping up to be another big month for a category ripe for radio and TV advertising.

With the recent format change to a '90s-focused pop hits format at iHeartMedia-owned WMIA-FM in Miami, the radio industry is now abuzz with talk of more "Totally"-branded format shifts at other iHeartMedia stations. But, how can Radio benefit from more ad dollars with such a change? This encore Media Information Bureau column from editor-in-chief Adam R Jacobson could prove inspiring.

New data from the Edison Research Share of Earstudy, conducted during the period of COVID-19 disruptions, shows that people in the U.S. age 13 and older began listening to audio a full 75 minutes later on average, as compared to before the disruptions.