Radio+Television Business Report

In the British live TV show “Dancing on Ice”, a figure skater is skating among the dancers with a Sony HDC-P50 camera and Canon HJ14 lens. This broadcast camera is stabilized and remote-controlled through a NEWTON system and the results are unique in the broadcast world.

DANCING ON ICE

Dancing on Ice is a British television series that features celebrities figure skating with professional skating partners in front of a panel of judges. Each season has 10 shows that airs live on ITV from January to March and each show has around 6 million TV viewers. The series started in 2006 but was cancelled in 2014 and then revived in 2018 with a new TV studio at RAF Bovingdon. With the revival, the production hired Alan Wells Camera Services, which supplies a rail cam along the skating rink and since the 2019 season has helped introduce a new camera angle to the show, the Ice Cam.

THE ICE CAM

The Ice Cam consists of the figure skater Jordan Cowan, wearing a Ready Rig that holds a NEWTON stabilized remote head. The head features a Sony HDC-P50 broadcast camera and a Canon HJ14 lens that is remote controlled by cameraman Dominic Jackson, through the renowned NEWTON control panel at a normal operator’s desk.

JORDAN – THE SKATING CAMERA DOLLY

Jordan Cowan is an American figure skater who used to compete in the national team, and since a few years, he is bringing cameras onto the ice to film figure skaters under the name “On Ice Perspectives”. In mid-2018, Cowan heard through a friend that the producers of the reality show “Dancing on Ice” in London, UK were looking for a cameraman who could skate. Jordan explains: “I contacted the producer and showed them some of my recent video productions. They liked it and hired me for the 2019 season, making me the first ever skating camera operator for a live televised skating show.“

DEVELOPING THE ICE CAM

Cameraman Domenic Jackson had operated a Steadicam on “Dancing on Ice” for several seasons and he used to walk out on the ice, with spike shoes, to shoot links in and out of dance numbers. In October 2018, ITV asked Alan Wells to put together a rig that could move faster on the ice and replace the Steadicam. Alan Wells first thought of a push trolley featuring a remote stabilized camera head but soon abandoned it for a handheld solution. The outside broadcast company Telegenic supplies the cameras and lenses for “Dancing on Ice” and with their input, the team at Alan Wells customized a Ready Rig so it could control a Sony HDC-P1 camera and Canon HJ14 lens. This was achieved by adding carbon fiber brackets on the Ready Rig so it could hold a NEWTON stabilized remote head, which is rarely used handheld, but that Alan Wells use for broadcast on cable cams and rail systems. Unlike typical handheld gimbals, NEWTON has a control panel that features a standard broadcast setup for camera angle and lens, which is much more suitable for professional TV cameramen.

During the development of the camera rig, the team at Alan Wells had conference calls with Jordan and when he arrived from USA, they could do the final customizing to Jordan’s body and arrange the balance of the gear to allow full movement. They also met up with the “Dancing on Ice” production at the Bovingdon studio, to do tests with camera supervisor Lincoln Abraham and director Nikki Parsons. The final wireless camera rig, the Ice Cam, weighed 15 kg and included an RF system for data communication, a Boxx Link for video, batteries and a monitor so Jordan could see the picture.
Jordan comments the weight:

“The rig could be lighter, but NEWTON was the only gimbal that could keep a steady horizon through all the twists and turns at high speeds on the ice, while carrying the standard 4.3-60 mm zoom lens. NEWTON also requires less clearance for the 3-axis motors which, while requiring counterweights, meant I could let the rig hang close to my body and thus keep it close to my center of balance.”

AT THE TV PRODUCTION

Dancing on Ice is rehearsed on Saturdays as they do a full camera run-through of all music numbers and this amounts to three rehearsals per dancing couple. Then on Sundays all the links are rehearsed with the presenters and there is a full dress run before the live show at 6 PM.

Since Dominic had been a camera operator on the show for several seasons, he knew the format well but controlling a skating camera was new. He soon realized that he needed line of sight to Jordan so he arranged his control desk so he always could see where the camera was in relation to the dancers. Apart from hearing production talkback, Dominic and Jordan have a radio system that allows them to talk to each other.

Jordan is an experienced skater, so he knows how skaters behave and to read their movement during the show. However, he had only filmed skaters with a DSLR gimbal before and never on a TV set, so he had a steep learning curve about live TV production; Technical sides and terms, to count bars and beats whilst listening to the director, the PA and Dominic, being aware of other cameras, what shots are before and after to keep out of the other cameras. Jordan elaborates: “Dominic has been an essential part of the show for me and his experience working with Nikki was invaluable. We work closely together on headset the entire weekend through rehearsals and the show. Dominic taught me everything I needed to know to work in a live multi-camera broadcast situation and taught me how to translate Nikki’s shot cards. He’s been a great mentor as well and I’m lucky to have learned so much from someone so experienced in live broadcast television.”

THE POSITIVE RECEPTION

The new perspective of the Ice Cam was well received by the UK TV viewers and after the first season in 2019, Dominic Jackson and Jordan Cowan were nominated for the GTC Awards for Excellence. The Guild of Television Camera Professionals stated the following reason for their nomination:

“A whole series of brilliant teamwork bringing some spectacular shots that fitted in seamlessly with the live performances and the rest of the camera coverage. The addition of the Ice Cam to the show helped audiences get closer to the action and feel as though they were on the ice with the skaters. I don’t believe anything like this has been done on an ice-rink on a live broadcast before and the skill and synchronization required of Dom and Jordan deserves an award.”

Jordan continues: “The Ice Cam revolutionized Dancing on Ice and gave audiences a new way to appreciate the real speed skaters experience on the ice. The 360 degree shots also let us see the back of the studio and audience for the first time, something the show’s set designer really appreciated because he always puts work into making a full 360 degree experience. In December 2020, another British show, The Real Full Monty on Ice, also brought in the Ice Cam with me skating and Alan Wells in person behind the NEWTON controller.“

MORE REMOTE CAMERAS ON THE SHOW

Apart from the Ice Cam, Alan Wells Camera Services also supplies another NEWTON stabilized remote head moving on a Ross Furio dolly on a completely bespoke track designed to follow the oval shape of the ice rink. The NEWTON stabilization helps transition between different radius curved track and the remote head controls another Sony HDC-P50 with Canon HJ14 lens which unlike the Ice Cam is cabled to the production. The company also supplies a hothead above the ice rink which offers shots of the skaters and the light projections on the ice.

WHAT’S NEXT?

After the 2021 season of Dancing on Ice, Jordan Cowan will continue to develop his “On Ice Perspectives”. He explains: “I want to keep pushing myself into the professional TV and movie world, because I believe that seeing skating in television, movies and on live TV shows is going to be so important for the future of this sport.

The agenda for the new virtually delivered ANGA COM is now available.

Dubbed ANGA COM DIGITAL, the online convention will take place June 8-10 on an AI-powered digital event platform that offers online-optimized showrooms and networking options.

More than 60 international companies from the broadband and media industry are involved as digital partners and will present themselves to congress participants in interactive digital showrooms.

Registration is free of charge for congress participants and is now open at www.angacom.de.

Highlights of the strategy program are five summit events with German media industry companies.

“Media Summit – How to win the Streaming Battle?” and the “International Content Summit – Strategies to win the OTT Competition” are among the sessions on the lineup.

The key topics for the technology panels and digital showrooms include Fiber Optics, DOCSIS for 10G, FTTH, WiFi, 5G, Fixed Mobile Convergence, Trenching, Cloud Services, IPTV, OTT, App TV, Video Streaming and Measurement. From the U.S., the industry association SCTE is a partner.

ANGA COM is Europe’s Exhibition and Conference for Broadband, Television & Online. Most recently, ANGA COM counted more than 500 exhibitors from 35 countries and 20,000 participants from 83 countries. Amongst the participants were 540 network and platform operators serving more than 200 million households all over Europe, as well as 370 media companies. Some 44 percent of the participants belonged to the senior level.

— RBR+TVBR European News Desk, Kaiserslautern DE

Quicklink is now a part of the SRT Alliance, the open-source initiative dedicated to overcoming the challenges of low-latency video streaming.

The SRT open-source video transport protocol has initially been adopted in Quicklink’s STS410, a hybrid switcher.

The SRT Alliance, founded by Haivision in April 2017, already has more than 450 members. Its mission is to overcome the challenges of low-latency live streaming by supporting the collaborative development of SRT (Secure Reliable Transport), the open source streaming project.

“Quicklink are extremely excited and proud to join the SRT Alliance and adopt SRT as a protocol within our solutions,” said Richard Rees, CEO of Quicklink. “We are seeing SRT gaining huge momentum as a video transport protocol within the industry. As a result of this growth, we have received a huge number of requests from customers to integrate SRT within the Quicklink solutions.”

Quicklink also plans to roll-out SRT adoption across the entire range of Quicklink’s award-winning video and audio contribution solutions.

“We’re pleased to see the SRT protocol being actively implemented by some of the world’s biggest broadcast and enterprise streaming workflows as its adoption and industry-wide recognition continues to grow, becoming the defacto standard for low latency internet streaming.” said Jesús (Suso) Carrillo, Director of SRT Alliance at Haivision.

It’s an upsized debt offering from a company pivoting from direct broadcast satellite-delivered cable TV services to a major 5G wireless internet connectivity conveyor.

DISH Network on Monday priced an offering of an aggregate principal amount of its Senior Notes due 2029. It is higher than what DISH thought it would be when it announced the offering.

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The Media Rating Council (MRC) has released a statement indicating that, in its opinion, the Total Usage of Television (TUT) by Persons 18-49 was understated by approximately 2 to 6 percent for the February 2021 measurement period by Nielsen.

The finding, MRC says, is based on Nielsen’s analyses of the potential impacts of the changes to its panel procedures.

In addition, MRC believes that Persons Using Television (PUT) estimates among the Persons 18-49 group was understated by a range of 1 to 5 percent in February 2021.

The MRC statement’s late Monday release (5/10) came after its Television Committee met with Nielsen management to review the results of a series of analyses Nielsen conducted in response to requests from MRC and its members.

The analyses were designed to determine the impact (if any) to national television viewing estimates that may have resulted from certain changes made to Nielsen panel-related procedures because of COVID-related matters.

These changes included adjustments to Nielsen’s standard meter maintenance procedures, a curtailment of the recruitment of new panel homes, and extending the time limits at which panelists are forced to turnover from participation in the panels.

Nielsen’s analyses indicated that 93% of simulated Persons 18-49 C3 program ratings
estimates for February were within +/- .02 points of the estimates originally reported.

While certain programs showed no change in their rating, and some even had lower ratings in the simulated results, MRC believes these may have been partly a function of the analytical approach used, where homes were removed for the purpose of the simulation, resulting in greater variability, as well as the fact that the analyses were conducted prior to the completion of maintenance procedures for all suspect panel homes.

In short, MRC believes changes to program estimates are “largely one-directional,” and that there was some degree of understatement overall in the C3 Persons 18-49 estimates that were originally reported by Nielsen in the February 2021 period.

While the MRC MRC also notes, “and users of the data should keep in mind,” that this range of impact, as well as the originally reported ratings themselves, are estimates with standard errors associated with them, “we believe the directional impact noted above is appropriate to consider in assessing the estimates originally reported by Nielsen.”

It is difficult to estimate the impact, if any, to reported estimates that may have been attributable to the changes in panel recruitment and turnover processes, the MRC says.

What are some of the next steps?

The MRC plans to continue to work with Nielsen and its members to further analyze the impact that panel disruptions may have had on the viewing estimates Nielsen reported over the affected period. These efforts will include investigating any impacts to Nielsen’s reporting in local markets, as well as further exploration of the role that certain zero-tuning households may have played in reported viewing estimates. Beyond the general numerical ranges that are noted in this statement, customers are encouraged to seek further detailed information on possible impacts from Nielsen, and how these may relate to their specific audiences.

The MRC also plans to continue to work with Nielsen in its ongoing audit and accreditation process for the National Television service as Nielsen more fully returns to a pre-COVID, business-as- usual state in regard to its field visitation practices and the systems it uses to detect potential metering and other issues that could negatively affect its ability to collect full and accurate viewing data from its panel homes.

To view the MRC’s entire statement in full, please click here:

051021 MRC Industry Communication on Nielsen Natl_Final

Salem Media Group has just named a new General Manager of its Orlando group of radio stations and for its related Salem Surround Orlando operation.

It’s an individual who was most recently the Las Vegas-based West Coast Market Manager for The Media Audit, and spent the majority of his career in Kansas City.

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On Dec. 6, 2020, the sole owner of an AM/FM combo and an FM translator serving a portion of the Norfolk DMA passed away.

Now, paperwork is being filed with the Commission that will formally transfer ownership of the facilities to the executrix of his estate.

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BIA Advisory Services has conducted research focused on the “Economic Impact of Big Tech Platforms on the Viability of Local Broadcast News.”  It found that each year broadcasters lose nearly $2 billion in value that they generate for two of the largest technology platforms through publication of their valuable content — particularly local news.

It’s an issue the NAB is bringing to the forefront.

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There’s a new VP/GM at a onetime NBC affiliates that’s seen a particular resurgence in recent years as an unaffiliated news-focused free-to-air property serving the San Francisco Bay Area.

He takes his new duties at the Nexstar Media Group property on May 17.

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It’s always a vote of confidence to longterm investors when an officer of a company purchases a big chunk of its own publicly traded shares.

That’s just happened at Beasley Media Group. And, while financial blog Simply Wall St. says “it may not be a huge deal,” it is good to see.

But, just who acquired the shares?

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RBR+TVBR Analysis

When the members of Townsquare Media‘s C-Suite look back on some of the company’s key achievements and pivot points, 2020 will certainly be recalled as the year of change.

Yes, radio is very much an integral — and important — revenue source for the company. That said, Townsquare became a digital first company in 2020. The result? It is among the first media companies to dare to compare the first three months of 2021 with that of Q1 2019.

That’s a good thing, as live events are already coming back while Townsquare Interactive is igniting, no pun intended, the entire company.

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For advertisers seeking to reach audiences via “live radio,” streaming music and podcasting, there’s a new solution — courtesy of a company built on siphoning in-car audio consumers away from AM and FM stations.

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As is the case with nearly all of the media companies in the MoffettNathanson coverage universe, AMC Networks is in the midst of what Senior Analyst Michael Nathanson and analyst Robert Fishman call “a pivot from legacy linear networks businesses to direct-to-consumer platforms.”

Yet, as the respected financial research house has emphasized in the past, “the economics of this pivot are vastly different for each company.”

What does this mean for AMC? “All-in-one mass streaming services” aren’t in AMC’s best interests.

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DISH Network Corporation on Monday announced that its DISH DBS Corporation subsidiary plans to offer, subject to market and other conditions, approximately $1.25 billion aggregate principal amount of its senior notes.

The net proceeds of the offering are intended to be used for general corporate purposes, including refinancing of indebtedness.

The notes will only be offered and sold to persons reasonably believed to be qualified institutional buyers in accordance with Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and in offshore transactions in accordance with Regulation S under the Securities Act.

The offering is more good news for a company with its stock price at its highest levels since January 2018. Ahead of the Opening Bell on the Nasdaq GlobalSelect market, DISH was trading at $46.60, up 7 cents in pre-market trading on Monday.

TEGNA earnings, and its growth plan, have come under scrutiny by one renegade shareholder: Soohyung Kim-controlled Standard General.

His efforts to gain influence on corporate decision-making have been thwarted, twice, as shareholders overwhelmingly rejected his TEGNA Board of Directors nominees in 2020 and again in 2021. Now, TEGNA has released another positive quarterly earnings report that further hinders his desire for change at the broadcast TV station owner.

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Thus far, the release of first quarter 2021 earnings reports from audio-focused media companies has yielded one not-so-surprising trend: digital growth is booming, while core advertising dollars are mired in a long, slow recovery from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For Entravision, digital is driving the company’s revenue. Now, Townsquare Media is on the verge of having digital become its biggest revenue generator.

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Univision Communications has priced its offering of $1.05 billion aggregate principal amount of 4.500% senior secured notes due 2029.

The offering is expected to close on or about May 21, subject to customary closing conditions.

The Notes will be general senior secured obligations of the company and will be guaranteed by all of Univision’s wholly-owned domestic subsidiaries that guarantee the obligations under the company’s existing senior secured credit facilities, existing senior secured notes and its expected new term loan facility.

The offering is part of the financing for the proposed business combination of Grupo Televisa with Univision’s businesses, announced on April 13.

Upon consummation of the offering, the net proceeds of the offering will be deposited into a Univision escrow account and Univision will deposit into this escrow account “an amount of cash that, when taken together with the net proceeds of this offering, would be sufficient to fund a special mandatory redemption of the Notes on the applicable escrow outside date.”

Should the Televisa-Univision business combination not be consummated on or before the applicable escrow outside date or prior to such date the Transaction Agreement is terminated, the company will be required to redeem all of the Notes at a redemption price equal to 100% of the issue price of the Notes, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to, but excluding, the date of redemption, and, in such event, the escrowed property will be applied to fund such redemption price.

Three companies with radio stations among their holdings released their third quarter earnings reports following Thursday’s Closing Bell on Wall Street. One enjoyed exceptionally strong digital growth, Entravision. Another saw digital prowess while its recovery across its streaming and broadcast radio assets came in ahead of expectations.

That would be iHeartMedia, and its stock soared on Friday. In contrast, the closest peer it has in the audio media world, Audacy, saw its stock decline on a disappointing Q1 report.

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While the “whip antenna” on two General Motors truck lines gets attention for the one and only reason the automotive company kept it there for its newest models, GM is also attracting eyeballs for something that could eventually impact in-car audio consumption.

Self-driving vehicles are coming.

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A blog devoted to General Motors trucks this week anwered a most intriguing question: Why do the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks still use a “whip antenna”?

The answer was simple: AM and FM radio reception in rural areas demands it.

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