TV/Cable News

Broadcast television station ownership group Gray Media has signed a multi-year agreement with NBCUniversal that extends and renews NBC network affiliation agreements with the company's affiliate stations.

TV streaming platform Roku and dominant audience measurement and consumer analytics firm Nielsen are widening a long-term strategic partnership, and this means Roku data will now be incorporated into Nielsen’s advanced campaign measurement and outcome products.

How did the month of November look when it comes to eyeballs and viewer consumption, according to Nielsen? The measurement period unveiled "a complex television landscape defined by live sports, strategic streaming releases and the Thanksgiving holiday," Nielsen said as it released its latest edition of The Gauge.

The holiday shopping season is reaching is conclusion, and for the week ending December 21 one fine chocolate brand stepped up its efforts to attract customers. So did a venerable soft drink brand, which in 2024 took the heat for AI-generated Christmas-themed creative.

Pro and semi-pro sports leagues have been signing a multitude of live play-by-play rights with the owners of broadcast TV stations, shifting away from regional sports networks. Now the NAB wants to make sure over-the-air TV doesn't lose the momentum in the face of digital "Big Tech" encroachment.

Varsity Brands, known for cheerleading, dance teams, and camps and competition, has signed an exclusive broadcast deal for its Varsity Spirit unit with Scripps Sports. The result is live coverage of the inaugural Pro Cheer League season through The E.W. Scripps Co.'s ION sports and entertainment network.

The National Women's Soccer League's newest franchise has secured an exclusive local broadcast rights agreement with The E.W. Scripps Co., a deal secured by Scripps Sports President Brian Lawlor that will see all non-nationally exclusive matches air on the company's two broadcast TV stations in Denver.

As RBR+TVBR was first to report earlier this week, Gray Media has reached a deal to purchase a full-power television station in the Volunteer State in a transaction that saw brokerage Kalil & Co. represent the seller. It is now known how much Bahakel Media will pocket from the transaction.

With little fanfare and swift approval, the three Commissioners of the FCC gave their thumbs' up to a Report and Order amending its rules to provide regulatory certainty and clarity to low-power TV broadcasters.

A cable TV service provider with a big footprint in Westchester County and on Long Island, in addition to smaller West Coast markets, is crying foul against a broadcast television station operator that is poised to sell all of its assets to Nexstar Media Group.

The owner of the EstrellaTV Spanish-language broadcast television operation has reached a media sales agreement with one of the nation's largest entities, a unit of iHeartMedia. At the same time, EstrellaTV parent MediaCo is wishing its Research Director, a 35-year industry veteran, a very hearty retirement. 

"The only network operator providing a foundational one-to-many data distribution layer in the last mile," EdgeBeam Wireless, is looking back on 2025 with pride, and is excited about the ride the Boston-based "Internet of Things"-focused entity will take in 2026.

In a scathing critique, the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) has lashed out at Nielsen’s "Big Data + Panel" currency, labeling it "unstable, unpredictable" and inconsistent, making it a destabilizing metric that is "decimating demographics." A Nielsen spokesperson called the report "seriously flawed and manipulated."

A five-week measurement of November 2025 by Nielsen shows that live sports drove broadcast channels to their best "share of TV" in a year while also fueling viewer increases at streaming platforms such as NBCUniversal's Peacock and CBS-aligned Paramount+.

RBR+TVBR has confirmed the cafecito chatter around town that a notable advertising industry veteran has succeeded John Kozack at TelevisaUnivision, the world's largest Spanish-language content creation and distribution company.