TV/Cable News

For The E.W. Scripps Co., there will be no future in radio. In a nod to its late January announcement that it has retained Tucson, Ariz.-based Kalil & Co. to market all of its AM and FM stations, Scripps' Q4 radio operations results were included in the company's "discontinued operations" as part of its fourth quarter earnings released early Wednesday. From today, Scripps will focus on two segments, Local Media and National Media. One of those segments suffered in Q4.

In a sign that reaching consumers via digital content platforms is evermore important for broadcast TV companies, the entity formerly known as Gannett has forged a strategic content partnership with the digital media firm behind The Outline. It's known for some decisively liberal-leaning editorial, and we've got an RBR+TVBR Observation on what TEGNA can bring to The Outline — not the other way around.

Discovery Communications has cleared a major hurdle on its path to completing its proposed acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive. The Department of Justice on Tuesday closed its investigation into Discovery’s deal, announced in July 2017.

Nexstar Media Group stock climbed into positive territory during the midday hours on Tuesday, after dipping into negative territory in an early investor response to the company's just-released Q4 2017 earnings results. However, that gain couldn't hold, as NXST shares dipped 20 cents, to $73.55, at the Closing Bell. The loss came despite beating Wall Street estimates on its revenue and income.

After nearly a year of arguments, a decision has arrived from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in a matter involving Fox News Network that first emerged in August 2013. The verdict:  a $500-per-month TV and radio broadcast search service violated U.S. copyright law by providing users with a search engine of videos from sources including Fox News without their permission. The decision reverses a lower court ruling saying TVEyes was OK, based on the "Fair Use" doctrine.

Gray Television released its Q4 2017 earnings results on Monday, and net revenue dipped 2% while net income soared. But, it is the Q1 2018 results that investors may already be focused on, given reports of lackluster ratings for NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympic Games. Coverage from PyeongChang, South Korea was forecast to deliver beaucoup dollars to broadcast TV—and Gray is predicting double-digit growth compared to Q1 2017.

In the radio world, Educational Media Foundation and CEO Mike Novak have become big acquisitors over the last several quarters, snapping up FMs big and small as it seeks to grow its noncomm empire. In the TV world, there's also a big buyer that's emerged in recent months. That would be Philip Falcone (pictured) and his HC2 Holdings. On Feb. 22, he snatched the Azteca América station serving Texas' capital city. Now, his company has snagged a signal in "America's Finest City."

Wednesday was a big deposit day for Boca Raton, Fla.-based broadcast tower owner Vertical Bridge. The privately held company successfully issued $236 million of secured tower revenue notes in an offering led by Barclays and Deutsche Bank. It marks the third successful securitization in two years.

The total U.S. advertising market grew by 10.8% in January 2018, compared to January 2017. This was driven by significant gains in National Television and Digital platforms, data released Friday by Standard Media Index show.

TEGNA shareholders will be getting a small bonus soon, as the company's Board of Directors on Thursday declared a dividend of 7 cents per share.

Is the ban on combinations among the top-four rated TV stations in a market something that should be included in FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's sweeping media modernization push? One group of TV station owners says yes, and they've brought on former NAB general counsel Jack Goodman to help them in their legal efforts.

The President of Digital and IT at Dell Services has just been elected as non-executive chairman of the board for the company formerly known as Gannett. This individual succeeds the co-founder of private equity firm Brysam Global Partners. Concurrently, TEGNA's Board of Directors is adding a former NBCUniversal CFO and co-managing partner at Evolution Media.

Confusion over the fate of Tribune Media's WGN-9 in Chicago was further resolved Wednesday evening, after it was confirmed that the station will not be placed in a newly created divestiture trust administered by RAFAMEDIA LLC. Rather, it will be sold outright by Tribune — but Sinclair will still run it. The same can be said for WPIX-11 in New York.

A longtime corporate sales executive at Sinclair Broadcast Group has just received a promotion. An individual who took a top-level role as Corporate Director of Sales for the broadcast media company in April 2007 and rose to VP of Sales in June 2010 is now in a newly created role at Sinclair. The appointment comes as the company edges closer to regulatory approval of its merger with Tribune Media.

Wall Street's Wise Wordsmith, Pivotal Research Group Senior Research Analyst for Advertising Brian Wieser, and his team have just completed an analysis of trends associated with the use of TV alongside commercial share trends for national media owners in the U.S. for the calendar month of January 2018. "Notable observations" were made. For broadcast media's C-Suite, they are hardly a surprise. TV use continued to decline, while use of internet-connected devices soared.