TV/Cable News

Three Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have once again asked FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for answers to a series of questions "he failed to address" in his response to an Aug. 14 letter sent to Pai from the legislators regarding Sinclair Broadcast Group. Among those displeased with Pai is New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone.

This industry advocate will be stepping aside at year's end as the EVP of the NAB Television Department. But, he won't be any less active at the NAB Education Foundation (NABEF).

Pay-TV subscribers across the U.S. are growing increasingly satisfied with over-the-top streaming TV services vs. traditional cable TV. But, a trio of associated J.D. Power studies released Thursday (9/28) indicate they also are spending nearly an hour more a week watching regularly scheduled television programming than they did two years ago.

The NAB on Thursday filed an "ex parte" letter with the FCC that details a meeting held two days ago with select Commission staff. The broadcast media industry's chief advocacy group used the opportunity to discuss the Commission’s plans to reimburse expenses for stations that are involuntarily repacked as part of the broadcast spectrum incentive auction. Specifically, the NAB asked the FCC to make initial allocations as close as possible to 80% to commercial broadcast TV stations for auction repack expenses.

More than 550 television and advertising agency executives gathered today in New York for TVB Forward, and among the key highlights from this TV industry and ad agency conference was a session that saw one influential analyst give a thumbs-up to investing in local broadcast TV companies. RBR+TVBR was in attendance to bring readers in-depth coverage of this important industry event.

In a speech delivered as a welcome to attendees of the daylong TVB Forward conference in New York, Nexstar Media Group head Perry Sook, who also serves as the Television Advertising Bureau's Chairman, highlighted the strength of the local broadcast TV industry. Sook also took note of what steps are needed by local TV broadcast companies in order to remain competitive, while declaring that there's no better venue for all types of advertisers.

NBCUniversal's Telemundo network loves "El Tri" — both the men's and women's teams — so much that it has teamed with América Móvil, the Mexican telecom giant led by CEO Daniel Hajj Aboumrad, in submitting a bid Thursday for U.S. broadcast rights, and another bid for the rest of the world, for no less than two World Cup cycles.

Some 54 television stations owned by Raycom Media will continue to air on AT&T's DirecTV, thanks to a retransmission fee deal reached Wednesday by the two companies. Raycom and AT&T agreed to several extensions of their previous arrangement, thus preventing the legally required yanking of the stations by DirecTV in the absence of a retrans accord.

Can social media bring new revenue streams for broadcast media, in particular TV stations with digitally active news departments? You bet, says broadcast media social media ratings firm Share Rocket. There's billions of dollars to be had, they say.

Three individuals working on a television tower used by Sunbeam Television Corp.'s FOX-affiliated WSVN-7 and BH Media Group Holdings' ABC-affiliated WPLG-10 in Miami died Wednesday afternoon after a piece of equipment they were on collapsed, plunging nearly 1,000 feet to the ground.

Remember all of that chatter — and controversy — one year ago over a proposal introduced by then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler that would have led to a series of reforms tied to the set-top box most cable TV subscribers rent from their MVPD? They're not fading away anytime soon, a new global report from Futuresource Consulting finds.

In an unprecedented show of support to the millions impacted by three hurricanes and two major temblors in Mexico, Univision invited no less than four of its sports competitors to its Miami-area headquarters yesterday and today to take part in a bilingual campaign supporting the American Red Cross. This saw personalities from the networks appear alongside Univision Deportes talent — and Univision allowing the networks to air its coverage of Liga MX first-division Mexican soccer league games as part of the 48-hour appeal effort.

Verizon Wireless and Volkswagen are in as committed sponsors to one of the biggest sporting events in the world, and FOX Networks Group is the beneficiary of the dollars. The deals include both Spanish-language and English-language coverage of this huge tournament, which will take place in Russia in 2018.

After several extensions and continued discussions that have stretched for longer than one month, DISH Network and Citadel Communications have reached a new retransmisson fee agreement that formally brings the ABC affiliate in Providence back to DISH lineups in the Southern New England market.

The very definition of "watching" a TV program, regardless of the delivery device, is taking on new meaning thanks to tech firm TVision, which has mastered the concept of attention metrics. What does this mean for CMOs, and for the TV industry's C-Suites? TVision Insights Chief Revenue Officer Dan Schiffman shares the details in this exclusive RBR+TVBR INFOCUS report.