TV/Cable News

The trade association that represents the interest of local TV station owners and management on a national level, similar to how the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) works with AM and FM radio stations, has renewed its agreement with "a trusted partner for planning, transacting and evaluating media across platforms."

In recent months, its become clear that Dish Network Corp. seeks to be a significant player in the rollout of 5G wireless technology. To further its 5G business aspirations, Dish has just locked in a long-term deal with the tower company founded by the late Steve Dodge.

Former HC2 Holdings head Philip Falcone is now CEO of Sovryn Holdings. According to newly filed FCC documents, Sovryn is on a buying binge. In February, it agreed to purchase two properties in Los Angeles. Now, it is purchasing a Houston station.

In November 1993, Gary Cocola -- the Fresno-based digital multicast pioneer -- acquired a low-power TV station in one of the fastest-growing markets in the U.S. West. Now, Cocola is parting ways with the LPTV station. The buyer? Lawrence Weissman and Ted Achilles are at the helm.

A pair of Spanish-language television stations owned and operated by Hispanavisión Televisión will now have the benefit of local TV measurement services provided by the nation's dominant ratings and audience consumption data provider.

The NAB and every national broadcast TV network detests it. Yet, not-for-profit IP-television service Locast has just entered its thirtieth market of bringing over-the-air channels to consumers via the internet.

A U.S. patent has been issued to an independent media metrics technology company devoted to measuring individual media viewing behavior at "their most granular level." For those dissatisfied with the products offered by Nielsen, ComScore and others in the space, the patent is certainly attention-grabbing.

In the radio industry, investment in eSports is nothing new. Beasley Media Group even owns a franchise in Houston. It now appears broadcast television companies harbor a similar interest in a segment of the sporting world that continues to explode in growth and has withstood the COVID-19 pandemic with flying colors. Pop artist Post Malone is involved.

Here's a transaction that will likely raise eyebrows: TEGNA's CBS affiliate serving Tampa Bay, along with two properties in Maine, are being transferred to a new licensee. No, TEGNA isn't selling the three TV stations. Rather, it's doing some internal housekeeping, and the paperwork shows that a dissident shareholder is still very much a key investor in TEGNA.

A special meeting of Comscore Inc. shareholders is now over. And, the results of the Tuesday event are now known. It's good news for one of America's biggest MVPDs and internet service providers.

DISH has embarked on a big business initiative that's designed to shift it away from strictly offering direct broadcast satellite TV services that, quite often, do not offer consumers every local channel due to its retransmission consent negotiation tactics. It involves 5G, and DISH just took another step toward achieving that goal.

The E.W. Scripps Company has agreed to broadcast a commercial-free special across its local stations next week in a move it hopes will "spark a national dialogue around implicit bias while advancing conversations at the local level in the 41 markets where it operates."

It was developed to help entertainment providers improve content discovery and viewership KPIs on their platforms. Introducing "Personalized Imagery," a Gracenote platform the Nielsen-owned entity says brings linear and streaming TV providers the ability to display program images capturing different aspects of a TV show or movie based on viewer consumption.

On Nov. 5, 2020, Meredith Corp. revealed that it had propelled strongly into Q1 2021. On February 4, the multimedia company with a local TV station group sat it enjoyed a strong fiscal Q2 2021 boost for those properties thanks to a political dollar windfall. Do investors believe the fiscal Q3 for Meredith will be even bigger, given the company's Tuesday stock performance?

The "only programming network dedicated to the active adventure lifestyle in the United States" is saying goodbye to a low-power analog TV station it owns in the Reno, Nevada DMA. The buyer? The entity that now controls the brand associated with this over-the-air station that in 2003 successfully won a carriage complaint against Charter Communications.