The public television program which has been reporting the business news for over three decades is now in the business news. “Nightly Business Report” has been sold by the non-profit owner of WPBT-TV (PBS) Miami to a new company headed by Mykalai Kontilai, Nightly Business Report World Wide Inc.
Anchored by Susie Gharib and Tom Hudson, Nightly Business Report is watched by an estimated 500,000 viewers every evening. The program will continue to be produced from Miami and New York. NBR World Wide Inc. will work in concert with WPBT, which will continue as the presenting station of Nightly Business Report, which is distributed by PBS.
“We are extremely excited about expanding the opportunities available with the program while at the same time fully preserving and maintaining the mission and tradition of education and quality news reporting that have made both Nightly Business Report and PBS such a great success,” said Kontilai, a former mixed martial arts athletes manager who also has a background in distributing instructional TV programming. “We will continue to produce the crisp, balanced, business reporting and analysis that viewers have come to expect while taking advantage of opportunities to expand the NBR brand and build upon the public education foundation that has driven and informed the broadcast for the last 30 years,” he said.
Rick Schneider, President & CEO of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, which owns WPBT, told RBR-TVBR he was not shopping the program when he was approached with an offer to buy Nightly Business Report, but that it turned out to be a win-win situation. He said the new owners have aspirations to grow the program internationally and online which WPBT would not have had the funding to do. But the program will still be produced at the Miami studios and WPBT will be the “presenting station” within the PBS system. “We will be committed to helping the owners make the program successful,” he noted.
Will there be any change for affiliate stations and viewers?
“Absolutely not. I think this will be transparent to viewers. The buyers, NBR World Wide, the production company, are big fans of the program. They like it the way it is. What they want to do is grow it and make it better,” Schneider said.
The new ownership said it will continue the foundation and values of Nightly Business Report while bringing the broadcast to a variety of new platforms. NBR World Wide Inc. plans to expand the Nightly Business Report brand through targeted programs and social media, exploring new distribution arrangements, creating licensing opportunities, and launching an exciting new companion website to the current pbs.org site. The new site, www.nbr.com, is already operating and will be available in multiple languages, bringing Nightly Business Report content to more people worldwide.
Distributed by PBS, Nightly Business Report is carried by more than 250 public stations across the nation. Program segments are available online and through various multi-media and educational platforms.
