Radio+Television Business Report

How much value does a 1,000-watt Class C AM serving half of a major metropolitan area have in 2021?

For one Hispanic broadcaster in an area with a fast-growing populace of Spanish speakers, there’s a lot of value — as reflected in the price of a transaction seven years in the making that has just been filed with the Commission.

It’s the best Hispanic Radio Conference ever, and you won’t want to miss a minute of it. Join us later this month in Miami!

 

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The entity that calls itself the “only” sports betting network dedicated to providing real-time news and analysis across every major sport 24/7 has signed a content distribution deal with YouTube TV.

The arrangement means that subscribers have access to the DraftKings Inc. subsidiary’s sports betting and entertainment programming.

To view VSiN’s content, a YouTube TV Sports Plus add-on package for $10.99 per month is required.

“VSiN is incredibly excited to bring its new 24/7 fall lineup of premier sports betting analysis to YouTube TV,” said Brian Musburger, founder and Chief Executive Officer of VSiN.  “As the first sports betting content provider of the streaming service, we look forward to delivering original programming from some of the biggest names in the industry to the millions of YouTube TV subscribers and the growing number of fans who wager on sports across the country.”

The VSiN channel on YouTube TV gives subscribers access to such talk personalities Mitch Moss and Pauly Howard, sports betting analytics expert Gill Alexander, former football executive Michael Lombardi, and veteran sportscaster Brent Musburger.

— RBR+TVBR West Coast Bureau

Borrell Associates has just completed the analysis of its survey of local ad agencies, and it is now releasing the findings.

What’s the biggest takeaway for the radio industry, or for TV industry executives?

Radio is the largest non-digital media among agencies buying and/or managing media for clients, the survey finds.

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It’s the best Hispanic Radio Conference ever, and you won’t want to miss a minute of it.

 

 

Don’t miss the EDUCATION.

• Learn how the pandemic has reshaped programming and redefined executive vision.
• What’s new at the FCC, and how will future regulations and initiatives impact Hispanic radio growth?
• Where are revenue opportunities most likely to flourish, and what categories will be up/down over the next year for Hispanic radio?
• Get the straight scoop from ad agencies on how marketing and advertising strategies have changed since COVID. Share the IDEAS. • Join forces with other Hispanic radio broadcasters to brainstorm strategies focused on garnering a larger share of the ad pie.
• Gain at least 5 new insights about multicultural marketing to millennials.
• Find out how podcasting can help build your brand — and make money (hint: it’s not all ad revenue, either). Be INSPIRED

• Don’t miss this year’s Medallas de Cortez awards presentation, celebrating the best of the best in Hispanic radio.

 

 

The Hispanic Radio Conference is an annual opportunity to share ideas, discuss, and debate challenges in a multi-platform world, and network in a unified setting. Check out the complete agenda here! Register today, and if you are staying in Miami, don’t forget to take advantage of our limited room block at the Intercontinental at Doral.

 

We care about your safety and comfort. The conference will be presented in a larger than customary conference room to provide maximum space and more distancing. And read here for how the Intercontinental has strengthened procedures designed to give you greater confidence and protection throughout all of the hotel’s facilities.

 

NEW YORK — The VAB, which advocates for television industry sales growth initiatives, has moved forward with the launch of a Measurement Innovation Task Force.

This group, the VAB says, “formally mobilize a highly effective group of the top strategic minds in research, analytics and insights from TV publisher companies to accelerate the pace of overdue innovation in media measurement and currency.”

Already committing to the MITF: NBCUniversal and former Nielsen executive Kelly Abcarian. 

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In December 2020, TEGNA‘s Board of Directors authorized the renewal of its share repurchase program — a decision that allows the company to repurchase up to $300 million of its issued and outstanding common stock over the next three years.

On Thursday morning, the owner of broadcast TV stations, two digital multicast networks, a podcast network and Connected TV/OTT advertising platform Premion “updated” its repurchasing plans.

How so? It is accelerating the repurchase of shares, and it is “driven by accelerated achievement” of TEGNA’s leverage target.

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TEGNA-owned Quest, the 24/7 adventure and exploration digital multicast network, has launched an ad-supported free streaming service — a move that could widen its reach.

The streaming app offers on demand programming from a catalog of factual entertainment, science, history and engineering programs, and daring adventure-reality series.

The Quest app is available on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Android and iOS.

Brian Weiss, VP of Entertainment Programming and Multicast Networks at TEGNA, says,  “Coupled with our prior launch of the True Crime Network streaming app, this launch furthers TEGNA’s commitment to providing outstanding ad-supported entertainment products to our viewers.”

Seriesavailable to stream include entertaining and informative fare, such as The Aviators, Scrap Kings, Mayday, Huge Moves, Monster Moves, Giant Lobster Hunters, Chasing Monsters and Aussie Gold Hunters. More series will be added in the coming months.

The app will also feature Farpoint Film’s Ice Vikings. For the second season premiering on Quest and streaming in October 2021, TEGNA will serve as a co-production partner. The Quest streaming app will also feature documentary originals such as WFAA’s award-winning VERIFY “Road Trip: Climate Truth” and more from TEGNA stations later this year.

Philip Falcone‘s re-emergence as the CEO of Sovryn Holdings, following his not-so-savory split with HC2 Holdings in June 2020, has captured headlines across 2021.

Under his leadership, HC2 was a buyer. Now, Sovryn is shaping up to be an acquisition player, too.

Falcone has just signed off on paperwork that will bring him a Big Apple low-power TV property.

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A veteran global news executive whose rise in television came in Australia has been appointed to the role of EVP/News Operations and Transformation, CBS News and Stations.

He’ll report to CBS News and Stations Presidents and Co-Heads Wendy McMahon and Neeraj Khemlani in a newly created senior leadership role, in which he will be responsible for “reimagining and aligning” the News Operations and Engineering functions across CBS News and Stations.

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That’s a question financial blog Simply Wall St. is asking about the audio media company that’s home to Cadence13, Pineapple Street and what had been the Radio.com app until its rebranding to Audacy.

With the company’s shares on the NYSE sputtering of late, it’s an interesting look at “who really controls” the company formerly known as Entercom.

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Ivis Alexis Padilla believes in the power of Hispanic radio. As such, the media company she manages has just struck a deal to purchase an AM radio station in Durham, N.C.

It happens to be a station the Winston Salem-based broadcasting company led by Stuart Epperson Jr. acquired in December 2020 from Mark Janbakhsh‘s TBLC Media.

It’s the best Hispanic Radio Conference ever, and you won’t want to miss a minute of it.

To learn more, simply click here.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau have a reminder for all full power and Class A TV stations assigned transition completion dates in phases 1-5 of the Transition Scheduling Plan, and for repacked stations that were granted permission to transition prior to the phase 1 testing period.

If you want a reimbursement check, don’t hesitate.

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Why are you not you using a green screen when you Zoom? Public relations veteran Rosemary Ravinal recently conducted an informal poll on LinkedIn and was surprised at the findings. What did she learn? More than 80% of respondents do not use a green screen with a virtual background. “That was disappointing, but not surprising,” she says in this column.

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Quietly, and with hardly any media attention whatsoever, the FCC late Friday (9/3) released its Fifth Report on the ownership of broadcast media stations in the U.S.

It tabulates 2019 biennial ownership data from FCC Form 323 and form 323-E, and the latest findings led Democratic FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks to react. In his view, the data only strengthen the need for action on the “lack of progress” toward increasing the number of owners who are women and/or people of color.

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The E.W. Scripps Company has named two industry leaders to oversee programming and news standards for the Scripps Networks news division.

Both individuals report to Kate O’Brian, head of the news group for Scripps Networks.

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In May 2020, he was named VP of Broadcast Operations at RNN, the over-the-air news and information network based in the New York Tri-State area, born out of the former WTZA-62 in Kingston, N.Y.

Now, this individual with experience at a L.A. UHF station and, before that, at a Tribune property in Portland, Ore., is joining Sinclair Broadcast Group.

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Licensed to the municipality of Egypt Lake, Fla., is a Class B AM with 2,800 watts from 2 towers when the sun is up and 800 watts from 3 towers after dark. It serves the entire Tampa-St. Petersburg region, minus Polk County.

Giving it a boost in central Hillsborough County is an FM translator at 101.9 MHz.

Both have been sold by Neal Ardman‘s NIA Broadcasting. 

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With a Class A signal blanketing a one-time Spring Break destination that remains a popular winter burg, one blasted by Hurricane Michael in 2018, Horizon Broadcasting  serves Panama City Beach, Fla., with sports talk programming supplied by ESPN Radio.

The affiliation has been in place since late June 2017. Now, it is being solidified as a LMA-to-buy opportunity is being executed more than four years later.

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While Philip Falcone‘s Sovryn Holdings snaps up a New York City LPTV property from Charles Wong, he’s also signing off on a deal involving one of several “special” low-power facilities being sold by Mako Communications — a low-power CP that doesn’t need to be built until 2023.

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What are some of the biggest brands using spot television and spot cable to best connect with consumers, and grow their sales? The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Reports are out for the week ending September 5.

What categories and products are leading the way with viewers?

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