TV/Cable News

There'll be no loss of Despierta América, world-class soccer, or any prime-time telenovelas for Frontier Communications subscribers. That's thanks to a new retransmission fee agreement signed Friday by the MVPD and Univision Communications.

In late June, RBR+TVBR reported on the acquisition by Gray Television of a Retro TV affiliate in the state of Florida and its digital LPTV partner serving the capital of Tallahassee. The deal has just passed muster with the FCC. But, the seller has agreed to a Consent Decree with the Commission that resolves several major issues raised in the FCC's review of the station's license renewal. Terms of the decree are being transferred to Gray as part of the transaction.

In November, Randy Freer exited Fox Networks Group (FNG) as President/COO to take the CEO role at Hulu. We now know who is succeeding Freer in the role, giving him operational oversight of FOX Broadcasting Company and 20th Century Fox Television; Fox Sports; Fox Cable Networks' FX Networks and National Geographic Partners; and Fox Networks Group Europe, Asia and Latin America. 

The individual that will be delivering the opening keynote address at Media Financial Management Association’s 2018 CFO Summit, scheduled for March 8-9 at the Fort Lauderdale Beach Hilton on A1A overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, has been booked. 

An independent video advertising infrastructure company founded in 2014 has just been acquired by Nexstar Media Group in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $90 million.

Michael Dell's OTA Broadcasting made a fortune by participating in the FCC's incentive auction. In particular, his Fairfax, Va.-based operation earned exactly $125,932,367 for giving up the spectrum of the full-power UHF station bringing Ion Life programming to southern New England. Now, OTA's Channel-Sharing Agreement struck to ensure the network's continued over-the-air availability is being traded ... to Ion Media Networks.

Don't call it a "Boomerang" effect if Turner sees an immediately positive impact from subscription video on-demand content ratings. The parent of such cable networks as Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, CNN, HLN, TBS, TNT and truTV has signed on as a subscriber to Nielsen's SVOD Content Ratings.

The ABC Owned Television Stations Group has turned to The Walt Disney Co.'s ABC Television Network Online arm in selecting its new President. In doing so, it selects a woman who spent six years as VP/Creative Services and Programming for KABC-7 in Los Angeles.

With several NPR member station in an end-of-year fundraising drive, perhaps it is fitting that Gray Television completed a "fund raising" of its own -- netting hundreds of millions of dollars from its drive. The owner of broadcast TV stations today finished its underwritten public offering of shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $14.50 per share.

In late July, Lenfest Broadcasting and Philadelphia-area licensee WMCN License Holdings LLC agreed to sell its channel-sharing agreement for a station that relinquished its spectrum in the FCC's incentive auction. The buyer then assigned its rights and obligations to acquire the "zombie" station serving the nation's fourth-largest market to the operator of a regional news network serving the New York Tri-State Area. The asset purchase agreement has now been filed with the FCC, making this news and information-focused entity's expansion to the Delaware Valley. Kalil & Co. served as the exclusive broker in this transaction.

After 37 years as Chairman of DISH Network Corp., Charlie Ergen can no longer add the title "CEO" to his role at the Englewood, Colo.-based direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service provider. Effective immediately, Ergen has relinquished his post as Chief Executive Officer "to devote more attention to the company's emerging wireless business." Meanwhile, all eyes are on the new role for Warren Schlichting.

In May 2017, Nexstar Media Group officially christened a newly created position at the broadcast TV company by announcing the hiring of a "proven ad technology and business strategy" executive. Today, Anthony Katsur is riding high as Nexstar's SVP/Platforms. He spoke with RBR+TVBR's Weekly Tech Update on his efforts to bring small and mid-sized media publishers and businesses ways to maximize revenue across every available channel.

NBCUniversal has said goodbye to its largest affiliate partner for its main Spanish-language network, Telemundo. That's because NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group is buying the company's assets and, pending FCC and other government approvals, will be welcoming their 13 TV stations in 10 markets fully into the O&O fold.

A client-only Borrell Associates webinar is set for Tuesday (12/5) that promises to delve into the local ad market experts' report dedicated to its outlook on 2018 local political advertising. The 45-minute presentation includes the report's author, Kip Cassino, and Chris Nolan, founder of political ad-buying network Spot-On. What can those listening in expect to take away?

SiriusXM has expanded its relationship with NBCUniversal by bringing a little more español to its satellite radio channel lineup, starting today. With TODAY Show Radio on channel 108, CNBC on channel 112, and MSNBC on channel 118, selected programming from the Hispanic TV network Telemundo makes it debut on SiriusXM, taking a high-end channel on select radios.