TV/Cable News

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.

If 21st Century Fox was looking to make a statement regarding its abilities to be a forward-thinking media company built for early 21st century media consumption shifts, its mission was accomplished on Tuesday. A unique "over the top" (OTT) offering tied to Fox News is readying its Q4 debut. It won't drain Fox News Channel, the company asserts.

Don't think Super Bowl LII is a big trigger for automotive dealers' Q1 sales efforts? Think again. The latest Spot Ten TV report from Media Monitors shows that Chevrolet — and three other auto dealer associations — greatly accelerated their TV spots following the "big game" won by the Philadelphia Eagles. Interestingly, one auto dealer association decreased its spots for the week ending Feb. 18.

All eyes will be on San Francisco on Tuesday, Feb. 27, as some of the nation's top media C-Suiters and Wall Street watchdogs gather at the Palace Hotel for the second day of the four-day Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. Scheduled for a Noon Pacific question-and-answer session is CBS Corp. Chairman/CEO Les Moonves.

There's a new entrant in this week's Media Monitors Spot Ten Cable report, and it is the only wireless services provider found on the latest look at spot cable activity on a national level. Meanwhile, a big brick-and-mortar retailer finds itself at No. 2.

Toward the end of 2017, 21st Century Fox and The Walt Disney Co. entered into a "transformative transaction" in which Fox will merge the majority of its assets in exchange for Disney stock in a deal Yachtman Funds fully expects to receive approval from regulatory agencies. In addition to Disney shares, Fox shareholders will receive shares in "New Fox," which will retain Fox News, Fox Sports, Fox Network, television stations, real estate and investments. What Yachtman has to say about this was revealed Monday.

There will be no "great affiliation switch" in four locales where Sinclair Broadcast Group operates television stations. The company seeking to merge with Tribune Media has just agreed to a multi-year deal that keeps NBC affiliations in place at three O&Os, along with a Silver State property owned by partner Cunningham Broadcasting Group.

Broadcast media's chief lobbying group wants the default selection for broadcast TV stations in carriage elections to be retransmission consent, rather than must-carry status. That's likely to set off an even fiercer war between MVPDs and broadcast TV companies — many of whom have seen their retrans fees soar as advertising revenue has slumped in order to keep profits in line with investor expectations.

The board of directors of The E.W. Scripps Company, which has put all of its radio stations up for sale, has declared a cash dividend for Q1 2018. This will mark the first time the company has paid a quarterly dividend in a decade.

In August 2012, Tara Broadcasting — under the direction of "The Jewish Cowboy" known officially as Managing Member Clark Garen — acquired a low-power television station serving the Coachella Valley of Southern California for $85,000. Today, this station is locally focused "Coachella Valley Classic Television." On its DT-2 signal is "Westerns 4U." It is KAKZ's DT-3 signal that has become a source of controversy — and a legal battle that has now led Garen to sue four executives at the area's primary cable TV company over non-carriage of that signal. In his view, the denial of a coveted channel slot amounts to a civil rights violation under California law.

Digital managers-turned-senior corporate leaders from top broadcast companies will discuss the shift in corporate executive progression from digital professional to CEO in a April 9 panel at the 2018 NAB Show in Las Vegas.