TV/Cable News

On the final Thursday in August, thousands of households sharpened their pencils and got out their diaries. Just as they have since 1954, a representative sample of American viewers began meticulously documenting their television habits. It signals just one thing: sweeps. But, do sweeps still matter? This guest columnist seeks to answer the question.

With eight weeks to go before the mid-term Congressional elections and big gubernatorial votes in both Arizona and Florida, Entravision Communications has expanded its political platform by fully integrating its television, digital and social assets.

According to "people close to the negotiations" who spoke with CNBC, the CBS Corporation Board of Directors is dangling a $100 million exit package comprised mainly of stock to its embattled CEO Les Moonves. The report comes amid widespread talk that National Amusements Inc., the Redstone Family-controlled entity that is the controlling shareholder of both Viacom and CBS, is near an out-of-court settlement on CBS's power dilution attempt.

Battles over new retransmission fee agreements are getting uglier. TV station owners have their accusations, and so do the MVPDs and DBS companies. Now, the American Television Alliance has fueled the flames by launching a consumer-focused website as part of an "education" campaign designed to encourage "TV fans and blackout victims to urge Congress and the FCC to overhaul video regulations."

Want to know the results from Nielsen's recent research into consumers' media content consumption trends? If the answer is yes, you may wish to secure your place Wednesday at an annual seminar offered by the Media Financial Management Association (MFM).

Sinclair Broadcast Group may not be getting Tribune Media, but that's not stopping the owner of such stations as KTLA-5 in Los Angeles and WGN-9 in Chicago from looking for another potential suitor.

How successful is TEGNA's syndicated Daily Blast LIVE entertainment program? No less than 14 non-TEGNA stations are adding the show to their respective lineups, as is TEGNA's newly acquired CBS affiliate in San Diego. As a result, come Sept. 10 DBL will be available in 50 markets across the U.S.

Is a "next-generation social broadcasting platform for gaming, entertainment, and other creative content" poised to become the next big thing on the TV industry's list of future concerns? Or, is it an opportunity for growth through partnerships? The latter may be true, given what FOX just did.

Entertainment bundling with mobile services will soon become a "must" for consumers. As such, the move to active mobile video offerings will only grow -- and broadcast media should act accordingly. That's a key takeaway from the just-released 2018 Economics of Mobile Programming Report by Kagan, the media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence.

On Wednesday, the FCC adopted a Report and Order that adopts a schedule of regulatory fees to assess and collect $322.04 million for the 2018 fiscal year and the Commission's portion of funds in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018. In doing so, the FCC moved regulatory fees for cable and IPTV providers and DBS providers closer to parity. The American Cable Association is happy about that.

PBS viewers in the Texas cities of Waco, Temple and Killeen will be losing their local member station at the stroke of midnight. It has nothing to do with a retransmission fee dispute with a MVPD. Instead, it is all about a transaction set to be filed with the FCC that will transfer the noncom TV station to Gray Television.

With much fanfare, Samsung and LG on Thursday each unveiled the first new televisions to feature the new 8K format. But, are consumers hungry enough to make a purchase now? While limited content is one issue, the other may come down to price.

Saying it’s vitally important information for marketers to gauge total audience, Nielsen has announced the out-of-home (OOH) program types with the greatest pull. News and sports are strong for those watching TV at work, in a waiting room, at a friend’s home, and so on. But an in-depth, year-to-date analysis of OOH TV viewing data from the Nielsen Total Audience framework shows that other genres benefit as well.

In a filing submitted Monday, the American Cable Association (ACA) has told the FCC that the Gray-Raycom merger will drive cable and satellite TV rates up. The Association says that if the $3.65 billion merger with Raycom Media Inc. goes through, Gray Television Inc.’s ownership of 124 stations in 92 markets will give Gray more bargaining leverage over MVPDs in retransmission talks.

According to attribution analytics company C3 Metrics, Wednesday night is the surprise time for TV advertisers to get the most bang for their buck, with Thursdays a close second. Sunday nights still get the biggest audiences, but don’t provide the best advertising value for a variety of reasons.