TV/Cable News

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.

Just in time for the start of an amended MLB season, Comcast has reached a multi-year renewal on a content carriage agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group -- a comprehensive deal that includes continued retrans consent for its 78 O&Os. But, more notably, the accord also brings the newly launched Marquee Sports Network to Cubs fans across the Chicago DMA.

After five years at the helm of Public Broadcasting Atlanta, a former President/CEO of Urban One's TV One cable channel has accepted similar duties for the division of Hallmark that includes some of the most-watched MVPD-distributed linear offerings in America today.

In addition to codifying meaningful wage increases, improvements to funding for the benefit plans, and "significantly improved" residuals for streaming video, the agreement includes new protections governing nudity, simulated sex scenes and sexual harassment prevention.

RBR+TVBR readers recently learned that LTN Global’s video transport network services were being used for the first commercial deployment of ATSC 3.0 in the U.S., in Las Vegas. What is the significance of this, and what does this represent to the TV broadcaster? LTN Global Chief Technology Officer Alan Young shares all in this RBR+TVBR InFOCUS podcast. LISTEN HERE

It's something rare when a media company claims victory at the precise moment thousands of its viewers are being prevented from consuming its content. Yet, that's exactly what transpired Wednesday as Apollo Management Group-controlled Cox Media Group cheered its win of a "major ruling" that it says ended "the latest misguided efforts" by Dish.

The controversial local broadcast TV streaming service some companies believe is illegally distributing stations without a retransmission agreement has invaded South Florida's two DMAs.

John Terrill is widely known as the President of the National Translator Association. But, the Ogden, Utah-based broadcast media veteran also serves as President of his Airwaves Inc., a licensee of low-power digital TV stations including a pair of properties in his home market. Terrill has just filed a deal with the Commission that sees their sale. The buyer? Look no further than Norman Shapiro.

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.

Even the COVID-19 pandemic and a deflated share price couldn't prevent Nielsen's Board of Directors from declaring a very healthy dividend to its stock holders.