TV/Cable News

Stream this: ViacomCBS, like most media companies, suffered from a sharp decline in advertising revenue during the second quarter of 2020. But, as Zacks Equity Research points out, the combined company that includes CBS owned-and-operated TV stations and Viacom's stable of cable networks saw gains in affiliate revenues — with retrans fees a component of those dollars.

TEGNA’s 24/7 true crime multicast network has launched its free, ad-supported over-the-top (OTT) streaming app on most major platforms. But, one major distribution platform won't be offering it until later this month.

On July 29,  Zacks Equity Research offered its prediction on how Sinclair Broadcast Group's second quarter results would pan out. It anticipated Q2 revenue $1.42 billion, up 83.8% from the year-ago quarter. How accurate was Zacks? Unfortunately, Sinclair came up a bit short. 

"We delivered solid results that were in line or above the outlook we provided in April amid a challenging environment due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, with both Media and Connect executing well," Nielsen CEO David Kenny said Wednesday. On a constant-currency basis, Nielsen Q2 revenue was down 5.9%, or 8.1% on a reported basis.  But, it could have been worse.

Disney has been "rightly rewarded" for what noted financial analyst Michael Nathanson calls its "full commitment and now stellar execution of their pivot to Direct-to-Consumer services." In contrast, despite Fox’s "solid" first year featuring 7% affiliate growth, "the company has no such narrative," Nathanson declared. Investors listened.

Here's the bad news: Entravision Communications saw its net revenue slashed by a third in the second quarter of 2020. Here's the good news: At least the multimedia company superserving Hispanic consumers reported positive EBITDA, and swung to net income from a net loss in Q2 2019.

WYBN-14, a low-power TV station, has distinguished itself from other Albany, N.Y. stations by offering eight digital multicast networks and programming not found on the big affiliates. Now, those in the Mid-Hudson Valley, an area with no over-the-air broadcast signals for many years, can enjoy the same mix of TV offerings. Learn about the opportunities here in this fresh InFOCUS Podcast. LISTEN HERE

You likely know vCreative for its media workflow offerings, with cloud-based technology in place for such companies as Entercom, Cumulus Media, Townsquare Media and Urban One. Now, its seeking to build on its radio industry success by reaching out to broadcast TV. That’s what brings President/COO Susie Hedrick on to the latest RBR+TVBR InFOCUS podcast. LISTEN HERE

Philo, named after television innovator Philo T. Farnsworth and with its origin in the university marketplace, has just widened its availability, making the "skinny bundle" vMVPD even more widely distributed. That's good news for Urban One.

Urban One released its financial results for the three-month period ending June 30 on Thursday. "It was a very tough quarter because of COVID," President/CEO Alfred Liggins III said as he opened the company's Q2 earnings call for investors and analysts. But, it could have been worse if not for two key factors.

The next-generation ATSC 3.0-powered digital TV broadcast signal is now up and powering seven major over-the-air TV stations in the Pacific Northwest’s second-largest market.

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.

In Texas' Permian Basin region, Gray Television owns the CBS affiliate and the low-power TV station housing the Telemundo affiliate for this portion of the Lone Star state. Now, Gray is bulking up in Odessa and Midland, with the addition of two more TV facilities. One is a full-power facility, giving it an official duopoly and four broadcast signals in the market.

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.

With its earnings set for distribution on August 5, Nexstar Media Group stock has settled in to a range in the mid-$80s as a strong and steady recovery from a COVID-19 fueled low of $46.26 was seen March 23. The healthy recovery has resulted in a reward for the broadcast TV company's shareholders.