TV/Cable News

The SVP and Deputy Controller for Turner and the SVP/Corporate Controller for tronc, the newspaper company spun off from Tribune Media prior to its planned merger with Sinclair Broadcast Group, have been selected as Co-Chairs of the Media Financial Management Association's Media Finance Focus 2018.

The American Cable Association has taken an aggressive stance against the rapid acceleration of retransmission fee revenue seen by the nation's biggest broadcast TV owners. Now, it's taken out its pocket calculator and done some math. One company that just completed a merger in 2016 is guilty of a 162% year-over-year increase in its retrans revenue, ACA says.

Spectrum and Spongebob are getting a little closer: Viacom and Charter Communications have inked a multi-year renewal and expansion of their distribution relationship. The new deal also calls for the co-production of original content, and collaboration around advanced advertising.

Moody's Investors Service has assigned its rating to Entravision's amended and extended $300 million first lien term loan, while it has concurrently upgraded its Probability of Default (PDR) rating. Moody's also provided a general outlook on the broadcast media company that's swiftly growing its digital revenue while seeing the bulk of its dollars from TV.

Seven broadcast TV companies have joined with Next-Gen TV proponent Pearl TV in what's being called "a comprehensive effort" to show how the forthcoming ATSC 3.0 digital broadcast standard can be deployed while maintaining existing digital TV service (ATSC 1.0) for viewers. The "model market" that's been selected is Phoenix.

What's being billed as the "first-ever streaming television service featuring live TV, DVR, and on-demand services, focused on entertainment, lifestyle and knowledge programming" has just been launched. Discovery Communications and Viacom are among the partners participating in Philo.

The leaders of 11 organizations representing small-sized MVPDs and communications providers across the U.S. have expressed support for swift passage of a bipartisan House bill that would create procedures to provide opportunities for regulatory relief for small providers in what they say is "a more predictable and streamlined manner."

With CBS Radio expected to shift from CBS Corp. to Entercom on Friday, the top brass at Black Rock have unveiled plans to offer senior notes in a private debt offering. Meanwhile, Moody's Investors Service has assigned a rating to CBS Radio's proposed $250 million revolving credit facility, while CBS Radio has also entered the "Strata"-sphere.

OTA Broadcasting was a big winner in Auction 1000, the FCC's incentive auction that relinquished broadcast TV spectrum to wireless companies. It pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars, including $72,817,599 for saying farewell to a Class A TV station serving the New York Tri-State Area. Now, the channel-sharing agreement for the disappearing over-the-air station is bringing this "zombie" to one of the nation's best-known PBS member stations.

Five of the leading television service providers in the U.S. lost more than 640,000 television subscribers between them in the third quarter of 2017. With more results to be reported, net losses are looking larger than in Q2, during which they lost just over half a million television customers. For the top 10 services in the U.S. listed in the informitv Multiscreen Index, the losses were more severe. Yet, revenue isn't being heavily impacted.

Now that the ANA Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference has concluded, the Event Services team at the Fontainebleau -- along with the management at the neighboring Eden Rock Miami Beach resort -- are now heading into high gear for not only the busy holiday travel season, but NATPE Miami. The 2018 event is already well into the planning stages, and the Chairman/CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment and veteran journalist Soledad O'Brien have already been confirmed for a keynote presentation.

The Media Financial Management Association’s 2018 CFO Summit will be held March 8-9, 2018 at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort on A1A overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Overseeing the event as co-chairs are the top financial executives for a major broadcast TV company, and the radio broadcasting company driving the push for FM tuners in all smartphones.

Nielsen has secured its fourth major MVPD for the integration of non-personally identifiable TV viewing data with its panel data tied to its local TV measurement service. It will go into effect in 2018.

Sure, Q3 may be looking a little rough around the edges for many radio broadcasting companies. But, consider where the entire industry could be in five short years, thanks to the surge in smart speakers that's just unfolding. According to a just-released study from U.K.-based Juniper Research, smart speakers such as Amazon Echo, Google Home, and the Sonos One will be in a majority of U.S. homes by 2022.

Up against difficult Q3 2016 comps due to a sharp decrease in political dollars and the absence of Olympics advertising, TEGNA -- the media company formerly known as Gannett prior to the spin-off of its newspaper segment -- knew it was going to have a down Q3 in 2017. But, there's a silver lining to its expected dip in earnings: It's not as bad as what Wall Street anticipated, and TEGNA shares finished up 4.1% on Wednesday, to $12.31.