TV/Cable News

Come Wednesday at 7pm Eastern, DISH Network subscribers in Rhode Island, parts of Massachusetts, and one county in northeast Connecticut could have some difficulty tuning to their local ABC affiliate. That's when a carriage agreement between the DBS player and a privately held company with a name wholly familiar to radio industry veterans: Citadel Communications.

The company that intends to merge with Tribune Media on Thursday announced an agreement for all of its ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC affiliates, and the Tennis Channel, to be carried in their respective markets once YouTube TV debuts in those respective locales.

The E.W. Scripps Co.'s all-news "over-the-top" digitally distributed news channel is now available to half of all U.S. households through YouTube TV. The addition of Newsy was announced Thursday afternoon by Scripps. 

The VP and Division GM for The E.W. Scripps Company is retiring after nine years with the owner of radio and TV stations, and 45 years in the industry. He will officially begin his leisure-time activity on Jan. 1, 2018.

That's the attention-grabbing headline plastered on the promotional announcement for the release of the latest Quarterly TV Attention Report from TVision Insights. The TVision report seeks to tell advertisers which demographics truly engage with television, which TV shows hold viewer interest, and which brands combine engaging content with effective media planning in order to garner the most attention. The Q2 2017 report yielded three key conclusions.

The owner of a FOX affiliate in the Deep South petitioned the FCC to modify the TV station's market to include communities some 60 miles to the northeast — including one that's the home to a major university. The FCC's Media Bureau just released its ruling on this request, from Woods Communications Corp.

The Disney|ABC Television Group has given another vote of confidence to Nielsen's national out-of-home reporting service. In an announcement made Wednesday, the flagship ABC broadcast TV network will now join ESPN and ESPN2 as networks participating in the opt-in syndicated service.

After 17 years as a morning co-anchor at WABC-7 in New York, Lori Stokes is leaving the Walt Disney Co. O&O. She made the announcement just before 7am. Stokes, along with 10+-year co-anchor Ken Rosato, enjoyed the highest ratings of any local news program broadcast in the U.S. A search for her successor is on.

Are advertising agencies and the digital darlings of Madison Avenue smack dab in the middle of "a new era" for digital? "We don’t think so," declares Pivotal Research Group Senior Research Analyst for Advertising Brian Wieser. Wieser has data that debunks this theory.

Enabled publisher clients will now be able to receive credit for video distributed on Facebook and YouTube in Nielsen's Digital Content Ratings. Additionally, one growing OTT service will be providing select media partners with credit for current series content distributed on the platform, with data evaluation set to begin this month.

Spanish Broadcasting System released its Q2 2017 results following Monday's Closing Bell on Wall Street, and in doing so revealed a fact that could be vexing to Chairman/CEO Raúl Alarcón Jr.: SBS's TV division saw local sales decreases that led to a 24% drop in segment net revenue. If not for its Mega TV operation, SBS would have seen a flat Q2, driven by special events tied to its radio stations.

In last week’s Media Monitors TV Spot Ten report, Progressive and McDonald’s were the big players. What's truly noteworthy, however, is the big surge in activity seen by one major automotive dealer association.

It's another big week for auto insurance companies, the latest Media Monitors Cable Spot Ten shows. However, there's some interesting activity at the bottom of the chart, and it suggests that wireless services companies are set to bring more dollars to MVPDs.

In late July, a multimedia campaign launched by Procter & Gamble Co. attracted the attention of many. The effort, "The Talk," is tied to a campaign designed to start a dialogue about how Black parents should talk with their children about dealing with racial prejudice. It is airing on a significant number of NABOB member stations.