McDowell to government: Hands off retrans
According to former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, when retransmission consent was codified, the authors weren’t quite sure how it would play out, and that was a good thing – the market figured it out over time, and McDowell argued in a special article in The Hill, the market should be allowed to prevail going forward.
ABC names 2013-14 midseason premiere dates
The dates are for new series “The Assets,” “Killer Women,” “Mind Games,” and “Mixology.” In addition, the network has scheduled premiere dates for the...
NFL comes through for NBC once again
NBC dominated the Sunday prime time Nielsen contest once again with hot NFL action. Meanwhile, Fox was able to convert an NFL overrun into...
Unusual SSA for Raycom in the Big Easy
Louisiana Media Company, owner of Fox WVUE-TV New Orleans, is turning over certain managerial responsibilities to television group owner Raycom via an SSA. As such things go, this deal is on the odd side.
Analysts agree: Gray hits it out of the park with Hoak
Both Moody’s Investors Service and Wells Fargo have taken a look at the $342.5M deal sending stations
Four syndies surge into 10M territory
The week of 11/4/13 was a big one for the top syndicated programs - Wheel of Fortune pulled 11.5M viewers while Judge Judy, Big...
KRCB partners with NHK for Bay Area multicast
Rural California Broadcasting Corporation’s non-comm KRCB-TV (PBS) Santa Rosa/San Francisco, announced a new partnership with NHK World TV to bring Japanese and Asian news...
Rumors flying about cable consolidation
Is Time Warner Cable for sale? The grapevine sure seems to think so, and the latest talk seems to be pumping up the stock...
Television M&A activity far from over
Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker has been tuned in to broadcast groups as the Q3 revenue results
Kagan sees retrans more than doubling by 2019
Projections for broadcast retransmission consent fees are on the rise, according to research firm
NBC takes full control of Sprout
Comcast's NBCUniversal says it has taken full control of Sprout, the 24-hour pay TV network for preschoolers that it had launched with PBS, Sesame...
Endemol expanding “Endemol Beyond”
Endemol is investing over $40 million to expand its digital video offering with the new international division. Endemol Beyond will create a premium network...
CBS bookends Wednesday night for the win
The Eye Network had the highest 18-49 ratings during the 1st and 3rd prime Wednesday hours for the overall win, while #2 ABC took...
PTC rates TV advertisers
The Parents Television Council looks beyond the creators of television programming. It is also acutely aware of which companies are supporting which programs, and it applauds those that support family-friendly material and boos those that support objectionable programming. Here are PTC’s cheers and jeers for 2013.
Blurry lines defined the Liberman/FCC indecency action
There is no doubt Liberman Broadcasting’s “José Luis Sin Censura” program drew complaints, but was it indecent? The FCC said yes, Liberman no, and in the end, they agreed to disagree. The agreement was pricy for Liberman, but it emerged from the proceeding without penalty.