TV/Cable News

As competition heats up, virtual service providers such as Hulu with Live TV, AT&T Inc.'s DirecTV NOW and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation Vue "are racing to add live local stations to bolster channel lineups and lock in subscribers." That's the conclusion of a just-released report on the rapid growth of "skinny bundles" -- and what is bringing in consumers -- from Kagan, a group within S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The NAB has been granted an FCC experimental license to operate a full-power next-gen TV facility in Ohio’s biggest market. The effort seeks to help broadcasters and manufacturers prepare to deliver Next Gen TV services powered by the new ATSC 3.0 standard.

Multicultural marketing succeeds when marketers fully understand what is relevant to a cultural group at any given moment in time. Mining insights from the subcultures that drive mainstream audiences can be difficult when marketing processes don't always move at the same speed as culture. HBO addressed this issue in reaching out to TV audiences, and here's how VP/Multicultural Marketing Jackie Gagne did it.

Don't think for a minute that a lack of Olympics-related programming, and the dollars that go with it, are single-handedly responsible for the year-over-year comparison when looking at how TV performed in Q3 2017. There's more to the story, the Standard Media Index Q3 report released Monday afternoon suggests.

Nexstar Media Group certainly enjoyed a strong Q3 thanks to its newly forged synergies from the closing of its Media General acquisition and integration of those stations into its operations. But, like Gray Television, strong growth came against talk of advertising woes and tough political comps.

If one were to ask how a company could withstand an 82% drop in political dollars yet still show a profit in Q3, all they would need to do is review the financial results released Monday morning by Gray Television. The owner-operator of 100+ TV stations across the U.S. met its profit forecasts in strong fashion.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai just got a first-hand look at the slow recovery facing Puerto Rico up-close and in person. Pai met with government and industry officials to assess the status of recovery efforts and consult on next steps that the FCC should take to assist in the restoration of communications networks. He's now on his way back to Washington.

The E.W. Scripps Co. expected to incur a steep Q3 loss, due to asset impairment and restructuring costs. The good news for investors is that the net loss is better than what a consensus of Wall Street analysts expected. Even so, Scripps shareholders went into "sell" mode in Friday's trading.

Entravision Communications enjoyed a stunning Q3, based on a top-line look of its earnings results. This is primarily thanks to millions of dollars in revenue tied to the media company's participation in Auction 1000 — the FCC's spectrum auction. If not for that, Entravision's growth story lies in digital, which eclipsed the company's radio division for the first time on the revenue front.

Univision publicly distributes its quarterly earnings results, and on Thursday the company saw its total core revenue grow by 3.9%. But, Univision achieved this through that all-important "non-advertising revenue" -- a.k.a. retransmission consent fees. Advertising revenue slipped by 1%, and by double-digits when looking exclusively at Univision Radio.

Discovery Communications on Thursday reported "decent" Q3 earnings, says Pivotal Research Group Senior Research Analyst for Advertising Brian Wieser. But, he's focused on commentary from the media company that reflects weak subscriber trends and a worse-than-expected outlook for international advertising. Are those concerns big enough to ding this pay-TV network stalwart?

In 2016, Nexstar Media Group teamed up with Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting in what was heralded as the "largest multicast distribution launch in the history of broadcast TV." Now, new partners Shield Media, Tamer Media and Vaughn Media have come on board and have agreed to add multicast networks Bounce, Escape, Grit and Laff on 43 additional channels. At the same time, affiliation agreements have been renewed for 21 current stations — with all affiliations extending well into the next decade.

Discovery Communications has put its stamp of approval on a multi-year product agreement with TiVo Corporation for TiVo’s Audience Works for Marketing. The tool is described as "an end-to-end inventory management and execution product suite that enables the company to drive ratings and viewership through audience-driven on-air promotions and cross-channel media plans."

On the afternoon of Oct. 19, the MyNetworkTV affiliate serving the state of Hawaii suddenly faded to black for DirecTV subscribers across the state. The station still hasn't returned to the lineup, and the station's GM is furious. He's also painting a "David and Goliath" picture ... even though Raycom is involved in the operation. What's the true story behind KFVE-9 in Honolulu? Is AT&T-owned DirecTV playing fair, or is this another mud-slinging battle over "must carry" status? RBR+TVBR spoke with KFVE GM John L. Fink to get his take on the thorny situation.

"Despite challenges in the quarter, including Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the loss of certain technical school advertisers versus last year and mainly transaction-related one-time charges, Sinclair stations continued to deliver," says Sinclair Broadcast Group President/CEO Chris Ripley. But, total revenue was down in Q3, as was Sinclair's operating income. As a result, its net income shrank by 24 cents per share — missing the consensus street estimate by a dime. Investors reacted by selling SBGI stock in the first two hours of Wednesday's trading.