TV/Cable News

A veteran television news agent whose resume includes roles at ESPN and CBS Radio's WFAN-AM 660 in New York has been selected as the new Head of UTA News and Broadcasting at United Talent Agency (UTA). This begins what UTA and its N.S. Bienstock arm are calling "a transition in leadership from legendary news agents Richard Leibner and Carole Cooper, who continue in active leadership roles representing many of UTA’s ... news and broadcasting clients."

When it came time to prepare for one of the biggest and most dangerous hurricanes to ever make landfall in the mainland U.S., there was one "overwhelming" choice when it came to news and information before, during, and after the storm. No, it wasn't radio.

Local TV has gotten its fair share of praise from across the broadcast media industry in the last few weeks thanks to storm coverage in four impacted markets. Unfortunately, advertisers are continuing to place their dollars elsewhere. That's the conclusion from eMarketer, which predicts that TV's percentage of total media ad spending is in for considerable dips over the next five years.

How can a broadcast television C-Suite executive best explain the post-Spectrum Auction TV repack process to Telly Watcher? They can direct them to a brand-new website created by the NAB to best inform Americans on how they can continue to receive their local broadcast TV stations during the incentive auction repack process. We've got some thoughts, too, and it's in an RBR+TVBR Observation just for members.

The FCC's Media Bureau has handed down a memorandum opinion and order regarding a dispute between Ellington Broadcasting and MVPD entity Cable One over the latter's decision not to air two low-power TV stations serving two small cities in Mississippi. The decision is a victory ... for both parties, in a sense. We've broken it down for you.

At month's end, Jay Newman will be retiring as VP/GM of CBS O&O WJZ-13 in Baltimore, ending a tenure that began in November 1998 following a four-year stint in a similar role at WWJ-62 in Detroit. The station has just revealed who is stepping in following Newman's retirement, and it is an individual who has been with Sinclair Broadcast Group since October 2000 and began her 17-year run with Sinclair in Baltimore.

A quartet of station affiliation agreements that were set to expire at the end of 2018 have been extended, keeping programs such as The Big Bang Theory on four Sinclair Broadcast Group stations.

A clutch of providers are set to tap the non-sports viewing public by offering a new streaming service named after TV pioneer Philo Farnsworth. Involved are cable channels owned by Discovery Communications, Viacom, AMC Networks, A+E Networks and Scripps Networks Interactive.

A new Hub Entertainment Research TV Redefined study surveyed 1,608 U.S. TV viewers and found that viewing time for VOD services in the U.S. rose sharply over the past year. Hulu was the biggest mover ahead of rivals like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

An ION Media-commissioned Nielsen study shows younger, more diverse audiences are increasingly turning to broadcast television. Meanwhile, broadcast-only TV homes have grown by 41% in the past five years (15.8 million households). And Millennials have caught the broadcast bug.

In last week’s Media Monitors TV Spot Ten report, McDonald’s rose to first place with 20,154 spots while Tide leapt from No. 30 to No. 2 with 17,089 ads. Claritin moved up to No. 3.

In last week’s Media Monitors Cable Spot Ten report, GEICO was No. 1 again with 37,714 spots and Progressive held on to second place with 35,320 ads. DraftKings climbed to No. 3.

The six noncommercial TV stations licensed to Maryland Public Broadcasting have entered into a Consent Decree with the FCC's Media Bureau to resolve an EEO investigation, which on Sept. 5 was formally terminated.

A noncommercial TV station operated by a community college district in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose DMA could have earned millions of dollars from participating in the FCC's Spectrum Auction. That didn't happen, and now the facility is being sold for a fraction of what it could have fetched — allegedly due to one person's error. Who's the buyer? It's a player north of the Golden Gate Bridge that's now salivating at an opportunity to challenge PBS giant KQED.

Despite what President Trump may desire with respect to future funding — or lack thereof — for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Congress appears to have its back. The U.S. House and Senate Appropriations Committees on Thursday each approved legislation that gives CPB millions of dollars in Federal funding through the end of 2020.