TV/Cable News

The owner of a TV station in Montgomery, Ala., for more than three decades has thrown out a life preserver to another television facility licensed to nearby Troy, Ala., by agreeing to acquire it. However, this owner needs the FCC's OK to make the deal happen, and is using the "failing" station test to state its case. If the Commission gives its blessing, two full-power stations -- and one low-power facility -- will be held by this company in the Alabama city.

You know you're in Washington when a non-elected agency Commissioner thanks its Chairman for a whole lot of assigned reading between now and Dec. 13. Republican Michael O'Rielly took a moment before the Thanksgiving holiday to thank FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for circulating to all Commissioners the items for the Dec. 14 Open Meeting. And, he said, "I look forward to reading each one," before commenting on his views on some of the key agenda items.

Democrats across Washington are crowing about another turkey gobbing around the Portals. Republicans are eyeing the next step that would bring further relief to broadcast media companies that are evermore challenged in their quest to compete against digital and social media. No matter how you view it, the FCC will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at its December 14 Open Meeting that seeks comment on the FCC’s national television multiple ownership rule, also known as the national cap, including the "UHF discount."

The likely removal of the FCC's Title II classification of broadband and a vote on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeking comment on the FCC’s national TV ownership cap, including the UHF discount, are two big highlights of what is in store at the Commission's Dec. 14 Open Meeting. Reaction was swift -- and most of it vicious in its opposition to the proposals drafted by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. One Commissioner even assailed Pai for revealing the details in a pre-holiday "news dump."

The spin cycle is set to high, but no matter how you look at it, DISH subscribers are in the dark if they want to tune to CBS O&Os, several affiliates of The CW, and three specialty networks.

After more than a month of negotiations that left Hispanic Verizon Fios customers in the dark, the MVPD has agreed to a new retransmission fee agreement with Univision Communications. As a result, all Univision-owned stations have been restored to Fios lineups in all impacted markets.

There's yet another fight brewing over rising retransmission fees, and RBR+TVBR has confirmed that a major "blackout" for DISH Network customers could come as soon as Tuesday morning. If that's the case, thousands of CBS viewers both young and old could get a bit restless while The CW would also fade to black. 

A consortium of local television broadcasters led by Nexstar Media Group, TEGNA, Sinclair Broadcast Group and desired merger partner Tribune Media have rolled back the curtain on an industry work group dedicated "to developing standard-based interfaces to accelerate electronic advertising transactions for local TV broadcasters and their media agency partners."

The staff and management of the TEGNA-owned CBS affiliate serving Houston will not be returning to Allen Parkway -- one of several areas severely impacted by floodwaters related to Hurricane Harvey.

With the FCC's approval by a 3-2 GOP-led vote to allow broadcasters to voluntary implement ATSC 3.0 next gen television signals at their UHF and VHF stations, Sinclair subsidiary ONE Media intends to "fully deploy ATSC 3.0" on Sinclair's stations nationwide.

Is the amount of time a viewer actually spends with their eyes affixed on the screen the best ratings metrics for advertisers in the modern era? That's what TVision Insights has been pushing to marketers, and its third-quarter report is now out. What are the shows with the most attention? One is "modern." The other has taken a positive "TURN" in this audience measurement report.

Viacom reported fiscal Q4 2017 earnings today that were "OK versus expectations," says Pivotal Research Group Senior Research Analyst/Advertising Brian Wieser. But, the owner of MTV, Nickelodeon and BET provided an outlook that was worse than expected. That reset Pivotal's price target on Viacom shares, which sank to a new five-year-low.

After nearly four hours in Room TW-C305 of the FCC's headquarters at The Portals, broadcast TV companies received an expected and anticipated thumbs up to take a leap into the future. In a 3-2 party-line vote, TV broadcasters may now move forward with their use of the Next Generation television transmission standard known as ATSC 3.0 "on a voluntary, market-driven basis." Dissenting Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel was particularly vocal in her opposition, saying it will harm consumers' wallets.

The Weed Whacker was put to action by a whipper snapper and two of his GOP colleagues at the Commission on Thursday, as the FCC voted 3-2 to eliminate its cross-ownership rules for newspaper and broadcast media and for radio and TV, respectively. The "Eight-Voices Test" is also gone. Democrats were vociferous in their opposition, but further action to stop the changes is now up to Congress -- or, more likely, the courts.

The largest pay-TV providers in the U.S. -- representing about 95% of the market -- lost about 405,000 net video subscribers in the third quarter of 2017. That's not good news for companies fighting the surge of cord-cutting, as this reflects a huge jump from Q3 2016, new data from Leichtman Research Group finds.