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Radio+Television Business Report

The InFOCUS Podcast: Steve Jones

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

The new year seems to have started off with a bang for Skyview Networks, with the addition of The Weather Channel, The Associated Press, Hubbard Broadcasting and Carmen’s Calls.

What was the result of these new portfolio additions? That’s just one of the questions Steve Jones, President and COO of Skyview Networks, answers in this latest InFOCUS Podcast, presented by DOT.FM.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Steve Jones” on Spreaker.

Adam Jacobson

These Low-Power FM Antenna Systems Light Up the Dial

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

By Brian Galante
Special to Weekly Tech Roundup

Dielectric’s low-power TV and FM business continues to grow as the company develops and expands its antenna and RF product portfolio of lower-power broadcast systems.

Radio stations in Florida and Puerto Rico represent two recent examples of how Dielectric has improved signal coverage for FM translators in challenging coverage areas.

Hal Kneller, a broadcast industry veteran now working as an independent consultant, specified Dielectric DCR-T antennas for FM translators associated with WSRQ-AM, in the Sarasota market, and WMDD-AM, on the far eastern coast of Puerto Rico.

The DCR-T incorporates the benefits of Dielectric’s FM ring-style antennas, giving low-power FM broadcasters an alternative for single-station systems. This makes the branch-fed, circularly-polarized DCR-T a compelling option for broadcasters needing to improve signal coverage.

WSRQ’s translator for 106.9 FM (W295BH, in Sarasota) is part of a blended SFN and simulcasting network that synchronizes programming across four stations in the Sarasota-Bradenton radio market.

In an effort to improve coverage the 250-watt translator, previously located in Bradenton, W295BH was moved to Sarasota. While the move would establish a stronger signal with better building penetration in the hub of Florida’s Suncoast region, the existing “budget antenna” had suffered recent water damage.

Thus, it would not suit the signal’s new directional pattern.

Kneller kept the station on the air with a backup system while the one-bay DCR-T antenna was installed on its new tower, which he described as “very busy and loaded”. The compact DCR-T design was top-mounted on the 475-foot tower, using a tower pipe initially intended for cellular antennas. The top-mounted position, combined with the directional pattern designed for the translator, has substantially improved the translator’s effectiveness in the all-important Sarasota area.

Kneller also purchased two Dielectric FM filters for the Sarasota site’s transmitter building, with one feeding 106.9 and the other feeding a system on 99.1 FM. The two antennas are installed on the same tower at the same elevation. That generated significant interference concerns for both Kneller and the FCC, resulting in extensive intermodulation studies.

“The intermodulation concerns were legitimate and challenged us to choose carefully when it came to a filtering solution,” Kneller said. “While it made sense to go with Dielectric given our antenna choice, we still planned for extensive tests using parking lot simulations and by connecting the filters inside the building. We were relieved to learn that no interference or interaction between the two signals existed. Like the DCR-T, the Dielectric FM filters are compact and were easy to wall-mount inside an RF building with limited space.”

BORICUA BOOST

The WMDD system in Puerto Rico is also a “cross-service translator” that simulcasts the main AM signal on 106.5 MHz. Licensed to the city of Fajardo, the translator is located 30 miles outside of San Juan on the eastern edge of the island. The translator is located on the AM station’s 400-foot tower, and provides better sounding FM service to the local population.

“Puerto Rico is very mountainous and has a challenging terrain for FM coverage in the area surrounding Fajardo,” Kneller said. “We specified an omnidirectional two-bay DCR-T antenna with half-wavelength spacing, which directed the signal up and away from the ground. This is a common practice for translators and avoids interference with another radio station’s contour on the ground. Dielectric’s design solved these concerns up front, and they packaged and shipped the antenna in a way that helped us quickly bring all of the elements together. It took less than two days to install the antenna and new isocoupler, hang the two bays, and run the new 7/8-inch transmission line down the tower.”

And, while Kneller sees many broadcasters stick with “budget antennas” for translators, he singles out Dielectric for products boasting a professional stainless-steel design. In his view, it offers longevity for lower-power systems, along with the benefits of low VSWR, null fill and all of the other high-performance attributes that you expect for full-power FM stations.

Editing by Adam Jacobson, from Sarasota County, Fla.

Adam Jacobson

A Marquee Broadcast Deal for Nielsen

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

A privately held owner of television stations on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Georgia and Kentucky has signed a multi-year local television measurement services agreement with Nielsen.

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The accord brings local TV measurement for all of Marquee Broadcasting Group‘s stations.

Marquee is headquartered in Salisbury-Ocean City, Md.; and its stations can be found in Dover, Del.; Bowling Green, Ky.; Glenwood Springs, Colo.; and two Georgia markets.

“We believe that Nielsen data are vital and critical components in our comprehensive suite of tools we utilize to serve our communities across all of our markets,” said Marquee CEO Patricia Lane. “With Nielsen, we are confident Marquee will continue to provide the highest level of service and expertise to our viewers, our advertising partners and the communities we serve, because local truly does matter.”

Catherine Herkovic, EVP/Managing Director of Nielsen Local TV, added, “The backbone of the Local TV business are Local broadcast TV stations. Nielsen is proud to help Marquee serve its local communities and to provide a service that supports accurate, comprehensive delivery of the news.”

RBR-TVBR

Nominations Open for 2021 NAB Technology Awards

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has opened the nomination period for the 2021 Technology Awards. The three awards highlight significant achievements in the fields of broadcast engineering and digital leadership and will be presented on June 17 at a special NAB Amplify event.

Awardees will also be recognized at the 2021 NAB Show, held October 9-13 in Las Vegas.

The Radio and Television Engineering Achievement Awards are presented to individuals for their outstanding accomplishments in the radio and television broadcast industry, respectively.

The Digital Leadership Award honors an individual at a broadcast station, group or network who has transformed a traditional broadcast business to succeed on digital media platforms in a measurable way.

“NAB enjoys celebrating our industry’s technical and engineering achievements each year by presenting these awards to individuals and organizations that have distinguished themselves with noteworthy performances,” said NAB EVP/Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny. “These awards recognize unique leaders who are working to transform our industry, and I’m delighted to feature them on Amplify and at NAB Show.”

The deadline for nominations is March 22. Nomination forms and detailed award rules are available at nab.org/events/awards, along with a list of past recipients.

RBR-TVBR

Clear Media Joins ARC to Automate Network Affiliation Process

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

BOCA RATON, FLA. — Clear Media Network has selected ARC, the research software developed by former Sun Broadcast Group CEO Jason Bailey (pictured), as its Affiliate CRM and Network Automation Tool.

ARC provides networks and producers a cloud-based platform to research, affiliate, create digital contracts, and analyze Nielsen data.

Clear Media Network’s 24/7 formats are repped by Key Networks.

With the two companies on ARC, data flow including add/drops, barter loads, start and end dates as well as affidavit compliance can now be fully automated.

“Providing the best programmed formats is our top priority, and partnering with the Reatro Team will help free-up even more of our time to focus on our products,” said Mark McCray, President of Programming and Operations of Clear Media Network.

Reatro Ventures founder and CEO Bailey added, “With the addition of Clear Media Network to the ARC family we can now automate much of the affiliation process between them and their sales network, saving countless man-hours on both sides. I’m thrilled to have Gary, Mark and the entire Clear Media team on board and look forward to being a, even a small part, part of their exciting journey.”

RBR-TVBR

A Global First: A SaaS OTT Ops. Mgmt. Tool

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

Workflow automation, media processing, quality monitoring and test & measurement tool maker Telestream has entered into a strategic collaboration with Skyline Communications.

This will see the two companies develop a partnership focused on the integration of Telestream’s cloud-based video monitoring solutions and Skyline Communication’s DataMiner network management, orchestration and operations support product.

Skyline’s multi-vendor DataMiner connects with any third-party product, appliance and cloud service to provide end-to-end infrastructure management and deployment, service orchestration and process automation.

For the first time, DataMiner orchestration can be leveraged to automate OTT service deployment – on premises and in the cloud – and Telestream content monitoring at the same time, with the monitoring system deployable on demand, wherever needed, across over 70 global cloud locations.

DataMiner uses the Telestream cloud API to control the dynamic deployment and takedown of monitoring resources to match its ability to control end-to-end video deployments. The new Telestream cloud capabilities empower users to spin up stream monitoring in the cloud, on demand, under manual or automatic control from DataMiner.

This facility is valuable for live events, where premium monitoring is critical, but may only be needed for the duration of the event (schedule-aware monitoring). An additional upside is that the orchestration of the Telestream cloud stream monitor service is always aligned with the actual OTT service configurations (context-aware monitoring). It also provides for supplemental geographical troubleshooting on demand, scheduled periods of monitoring for premium content as part of live channel schedules, or for synthetic testing of video-on-demand HLS or DASH assets anywhere in the world.

“This is an exciting time for streaming services leveraging the cloud for contribution and distribution,” said Steven Soenens, Skyline’s VP Product Marketing. “The new Telestream service combined with the automation provided by DataMiner provides a truly on-demand deployment, orchestration, monitoring and troubleshooting operational environment to match the transient nature of the video services we are seeing today. We are very much looking forward to seeing customers leverage the combined solution, including the more than 1500 existing DataMiner customers.”

The new service integration extends the Skyline and Telestream monitoring partnership, which already includes the Telestream IQ solutions and Prism solutions for waveform and SMPTE ST-2110 analysis.

The new Telestream Cloud Stream Monitoring service can also deploy transport stream monitoring, leveraging Telestream IQ QoS and QoE solutions. This allows video providers to dynamically deploy monitoring for SRT or Zixi feeds, either as contribution streams to the cloud, or across the global cloud backbones for global transit of transport streams as a satellite replacement or augmentation strategy. The transport stream monitoring has the same global reach as the OTT monitoring service across multiple public cloud providers.

RBR-TVBR

FCC OK’s A Bay Area ZoneCasting Field Test

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

A request has been approved by the FCC that paves the way for the experimental construction and operation of a pair of new co-located, on-channel boosters — placed at two discrete locations for one expressed purpose.

That would be to garner additional data using GeoBroadcast Solutions’ ZoneCasting FM booster system — the technology being pitched to bring geo-targeted ad solutions, and programming, to the world’s oldest form of mass media.

The OK of an experimental FCC permit puts the wheels in motion on a real-life test at a forlorn Class B that was once one of the top Rock stations on the West Coast: KSJO-FM 92.3 in San Jose.

Today, it is owned by Universal Media Access.

And, it airs a multicultural format targeting South Asian and Indian listeners.

According to GeoBroadcast Solutions, the trial is designed demonstrate KSJO’s ability to add localized weather and traffic, news, advertising and EAS tests during short parts of a broadcast hour, and “how seamlessly unrecognizable” it will be to the average listener.

In a letter dated February 8, FCC Audio Division Senior Deputy Chief Jim Bradshaw ruled the proposed experimental operation meets the requirements of Section 5.203 of the Commission’s Rules. “We find that the public interest would be served by the knowledge gained through testing of the ZoneCasting technology,” Bradshaw said.

The test is particularly intriguing as it involves a station with a primary signal contour stretching as far south as Gilroy and Hollister, and as far north as San Francisco International Airport and the Oakland hills. In the car, KSJO’s signal can be heard as far as both the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge, but not in San Francisco’s cavernous areas.

“Our signal reaches a broad section of the Bay Area,” says Universal Media Access President/CEO Bill Saurer.  “We’re always looking for ways to improve the listener experience and are intrigued to see the opportunities ZoneCasting can provide KSJO in the future.

With a booster already in place in Pleasanton, East Bay communities including Hayward, Fremont, San Ramon and Livermore are already ripe for geo-targeted programming.

Now, what could come in the fourth Experimental Permit requested to test this technology and the second Experimental Permit request using the same booster configuration could bring possibilities to reality.

As GeoBroadcast sees it, the requested testing will use a back-to-back booster configuration set up at different locations “near the busy I-680 corridor.”

That points to the Pleasanton facility.

The request is for a period of 90 days.

The cost of the field test will be shouldered by GeoBroadcast.

However, the filing was made through Bert Goldman, President of Goldman Engineering Management, who will install the booster setup.

Oversight and auditing of the trial will be made by Dennis Roberson, President/CEO of Roberson and Associates, a technology and management consulting company to the radio industry.

Goldman has high hopes the Pleasanton booster can prove geo-targeting can be successfully implemented on facilities originally licensed for broadcasting, and not microcasting.

“The KSJO Zonecasting demonstration will prove that ZoneCasting can be very simply implemented, in this case, adding only one booster location and can significantly improve coverage in low signal areas while providing geotargeted programming which can benefit hundreds of thousands of listeners without interference,” Goldman said.

While GeoBroadcast is pitching ZoneCasting technology as a way stations can provide content to better serve their communities by offering hyper-localized news, weather, and emergency alerts, marketers have been clamoring for an addressable advertising solution for radio. This brings the industry closer to that desired goal.

Within 60 days of completion of the experimental operation, KSJO’s owner must file a full report detailing the research, experimentation and results of the testing with the Commission.

Extensions of this authority are not contemplated.

As GeoBroadcast seeks to move forward with the KSJO live test, the FCC’s deadline to file comments on amending Section 74.1231(i) of the Commission’s Rules on FM Broadcast Booster Stations is tomorrow (2/10).

Details are available at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/11/2020-28784/fm-broadcast-booster-stations-modernization-of-media-initiative#addresses

Adam Jacobson

Benztown to Rep Two Programming Software Tools

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

Radio imaging, voiceover, programming, podcasting and jingle producer Benztown has entered into an agreement with Cipolla Analytics to market and provide sales representation for the company’s two advanced programming intelligence software programs.

The platforms are AirplayGPS and SpotGPS.

The programs, Benztown says, “transform airplay data into powerful and actionable station music and content (commercials, songs, and talk) analyses, in a highly compelling, visual, and intuitive form. This enables radio programming professionals to truly ‘see’ and adjust their music, optimize their PPM content-placement strategy, and always know what the competition is doing, enabling a fully informed, strategic approach to ratings success.”

AirplayGPS and SpotGPS provide big picture, song-by-song, and minute-by-minute insights at a glance. Users can see what they and their competitors are actually doing on-air, enabling them to quickly adjust and counter-program.

Ralph Cipolla, Founder and President of Cipolla Analytics, commented, “AirplayGPS and
SpotGPS were created to empower today’s radio programmer and provide what they
truly need to win. You have been asked to do more with less and perform at an even
higher level. Now you can establish a real advantage while your competitors cut back
on intel and analytics essentials. Once you see this, you can’t un-see how much you
need it.”

Adam Jacobson

‘Will Going OTT Burst The Sports Bubble?’

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

“One of the most invigorating parts of this job is when you start seeing data points that were unexpected and force you to re-think a core tenet.”

That’s the opening line from a newly released investor report on U.S. media from MoffettNathanson Senior Analyst Michael Nathanson.

He notes that from his Wall Street perch, MoffettNathanson has long preached the dogma that live sports “are the glue to Pay TV and, as such, will be the least likely content to go over-the-top.”

Umm … that’s proving to be untrue, to some extent. Now what?

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RBR-TVBR

Home and Body: Seeking Consumers Via Spot TV

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten TV report is out, and for the week ending February 7 — inclusive of Super Bowl LV, the biggest advertiser using broadcast TV remains GEICO.

Not far behind it is category competitor Progressive. But, there are two new entrants — and that’s a good sign for a big spring for spot television.

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Adam Jacobson

A Big Week At Radio For A Big Retailer

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report has been released, and it shows a huge jump in commercial airings by one of the nation’s largest department store brands.

For the week ending February 7, Macy’s finished at No. 7, powered by more than 36,000 radio spots.

That’s the big news of the week, as language learning app Babbel dips behind Progressive.

Here’s the full report:

RBR-TVBR

AWARN Alliance Elects 2021 Steering Committee

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

The AWARN Alliance has elected its 2021 Steering Committee, the organization’s governing body that provides guidance to the AWARN Alliance and its executive director.

The Alliance also clarified its core education, promotion and collaboration mission, while embracing its vision to “save lives and protect communities by leveraging advanced emergency alerting, news and information powered by ATSC 3.0 NEXTGEN TV.”

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RBR-TVBR

Meet Deloitte’s New TMT Sector Leader

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

With Deloitte LLP Vice Chairman Kevin Westcott’s ascension to industry leader of its U.S. technology, media and telecommunications practice, a position opened up at Deloitte.

It needed a leader to specifically focus on telecom, media and entertainment.

Deloitte has found that person.

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RBR-TVBR

Randy Michaels Officially Says ‘So Long, Frank.’

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

It’s known around Plattsburgh, N.Y. for offering “everything that rocks.” With a Class A signal, this FM also scrapes the Burlington, Vt., area across Lake Champlain.

Now, this property — with a broadcast tower just down the road from the infamous Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y. — is being spun.

The seller? It’s none other than Randy Michaels.

The deal is hardly a surprise: The buyer has been operating the station for months.

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Adam Jacobson

Cast Your Vote Today For ‘Broadcast Television’s Best Leaders’!

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago
Who’s on top of RBR+TVBR’s second annual reader Honor Roll? The answer is completely up to you.

Streamline Publishing’s Radio + Television Business Report is pleased to once again acknowledge the individuals in command of local television with the opening of our 2021 nomination window for Broadcast Television’s Best Leaders.

As was seen in 2019 and in 2020, these television industry executives have demonstrated in various ways how to motivate their local and regional teams to success. They are all winners, and will appear in a ranked list based on RBR+TVBR reader voting and the RBR+TVBR editorial board.

These power players represent an industry that’s sprung to action in a time of crisis,
and they deserve full commendation for their leadership today.

VOTE NOW FOR BROADCAST TELEVISION’S BEST LEADERS!

You may cast your vote through Friday, February 26, 2021, at 5pm Eastern Time.

Simply CLICK HERE TO MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

Adam Jacobson

Gray TV’s Q4 Results Reveal Date Is Locked In

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

With the biggest media merger in recent months poised to potentially propel its stock price in the coming months, Gray Television has selected the day it will release its fourth quarter and full-year 2020 financial results.

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Adam Jacobson

Don’t Blink: Another Dish Drain For WINK TV

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

BONITA SPRINGS, FLA. — In June 2019, the CBS affiliate serving Southwest Florida was the subject of a RBR+TVBR feature story for one unfortunate achievement: it had been prevented from being received by Dish Network subscribers in a DMA that includes such fast-growing cities as Fort Myers, Naples, Estero, and Marco Island.

And, this retrans impasse had stretched into its sixth month.

Eventually, the locally based TV station owner and Dish struck a new agreement. Alas, that agreement expired — right before Super Bowl LV.

This, once again, put CBS viewers who are Dish subscribers in Lee, Charlotte and Collier Counties in the dark once again.

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Adam Jacobson

SummitMedia Inks A New Nielsen Deal

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

With much of the company’s executive leadership team still mourning the January 27 death of legendary radio programming pro Bill Tanner, SummitMedia has entered into a fresh — and bigger — agreement for ratings and audience measurement services from the nation’s dominant provider of consumption data.

The Birmingham, Ala.-based radio broadcasting company led by Carl Parmer has inked a new long-term agreement for Nielsen Audio services across SummitMedia’s nine markets.

The new accord incorporates “an expansion and enhancement” of the service level to include Continuous Diary Measurement (CDM).

As such, SummitMedia now has what Nielsen Audio describes as “full, unqualified subscriber access to the monthly CDM currency ratings, TAPSCAN software and Nielsen Scarborough in all markets where available.”

In addition to its home market of Birmingham, SummitMedia’s stations are located in Greenville-Spartanburg; Honolulu; Knoxville; Louisville; Richmond; Wichita; Omaha; and in Iowa. The company was formed in 2013, when Cox Media Group sold to Parmer 24 stations comprised of the Alabama; South Carolina; Hawaii; Kentucky; and Virginia properties.

“We are looking forward to utilizing Nielsen’s measurement and data analytic capabilities to showcase SummitMedia’s value to the advertiser and agency communities,” said Parmer, who serves as Chairman/CEO of SummitMedia. “Consumers’ media habits are evolving at an incredibly rapid pace and having a faster read on audience trends is imperative. Continuous Diary Measurement will enable our teams to react more strategically and quickly.”

Nielsen Managing Director Brad Kelly added, “SummitMedia has placed their trust in us to deliver an accurate and timely read on radio audiences.  Equipped with CDM, SummitMedia’s talented sales pros will be well positioned to optimize revenue and attract new advertisers by delivering better, faster, keener insights to the local radio ad marketplace.”

— RBR+TVBR West Coast Bureau

RBR-TVBR

Super Save: AT&T’s DirecTV, CMG Ink A New Retrans Deal

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

EUREKA, CALIF. — In the region of California behind the “Redwood Curtain,” National Football League fans largely support the San Francisco 49ers or the Raiders. Still, when it comes to the Super Bowl, everyone with an interest in the NFL — or the commercials in-between the game action — are of interest to just about anyone.

As such, not getting the game due to a retransmission consent “blackout” is a big frustration — one that fueled the ire of a Member of Congress, in addition to pro-MVPD lobby ATVA.

Lo and behold, just before 11am Eastern on Game Day, AT&T and Cox Media Group scored a touchdown for DirecTV subscribers in markets where CMG owns TV stations.

Among those markets: Humboldt County, Calif.; Dayton, Ohio and Seattle.

There, CMG owns the CBS affiliate, home of Super Bowl LV.

In a joint statement, AT&T confirmed that the DirecTV owner and CMG entered into a new multi-year retransmission consent agreement. As such, the prevention of any DirecTV customer receiving a CMG-owned station was immediately lifted.

Had a deal not been reached, viewers in the Seattle and Dayton DMAs with DirecTV as the television service of choice would have been left scrambling for an alternative to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by Tom Brady, smother the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 in Tampa.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“The parties appreciate consumers’ patience during this negotiation,” the companies said Sunday.

The stations impacted by the retrans impasse and Sunday signing include not only the legacy Cox Media Group stations but also those acquired by Apollo Global Management from Brian Brady’s Northwest Broadcasting and later merged into a new CMG under Apollo majority control.

The stations now back on DirecTV include:

  • WSB-2, the ABC affiliate in Atlanta
  • WFXT-25, the FOX affiliate in Boston
  • WSOC-9, the ABC affiliate in Charlotte, and independent sibling WAXN-64
  • WHIO-7 in Dayton, the market’s dominant station and a CBS affiliate
  • WFOX-30 in Jacksonville, the FOX affiliate along Florida’s First Coast, and the MyNetwork TV affiliate using WFOX-30.2
  • WHBQ-13, the FOX affiliate in Memphis
  • WFTV-9, the ABC affiliate in Orlando, and unaffiliated WRDQ-27
  • WPXI-11, the NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh
  • KIRO-7, the CBS affiliate in Seattle
  • KOKI-23, the FOX affiliate in Tulsa, and MyNetwork TV sibling KMYT-41
  • FOX affiliate KAYU-28 in Spokane
  • FOX affiliate WICZ-40 in Binghamton, N.Y.
  • FOX affiliate WSYT-68 in Syracuse
  • FOX affiliate KMVU-26 in Medford-Ashland, Ore.
  • KPVI-6 in Idaho Falls, Idaho, a NBC affiliate
  • KFFX-11 in Yakima, Wash., the market’s FOX affiliate, and simulcast partner KCYU-LD 41 in Tri-Cities, Wash.
  • CBS affiliate KSWT-13; Estrella TV, on KSWT-13.2; and NBC affiliate KYMA-11 in Yuma, Ariz.
  • KLAX-31 and KWCE-LP 27 in Alexandria, Va.
  • WABG (ABC), WABG-HD2 (FOX), WNBD (NBC), and WXVT (CBS), all stations serving the Greenville-Greenwood, Miss., DMA.

The return of all of these stations to local DirecTV lineups on Sunday morning (2/7), after being yanked Tuesday (2/2), came following an all-out assault on Apollo and CMG by the American Television Alliance (ATVA).

“As a result of Wall Street giant Apollo Global Management’s ongoing and egregious broadcast blackout of its Cox Media Group subsidiary stations, fans in players’ hometowns and college towns won’t be able to watch them suit up with their team for Super Bowl LV this Sunday,” the ATVA stated in a communiqué released late Friday.

It noted how viewers in Seattle with DirecTV were threatened from being able to watch two former University of Washington football players now on the Buccaneers roster.

The ATVA also pointed to Alex Cappa, a Bucs Guard who once played at Humboldt State University in Eureka, Calif.

Chalk that up as another frustration point for locals who had to ensure a “blackout” of CMG-owned CBS affiliate KVIQ-14 and NBC sibling KIEM-3 on Suddenlink systems across much of January. That impasse led some in Humboldt County to drop Suddenlink and shift to DirecTV. Then came the DirecTV/CMG impasse.

Across the impasse with AT&T, CMG stuck to its guns — and even offered a statement that is wholly false.

We cannot force AT&T/DIRECTV to keep retransmitting our stations – we are dark because AT&T/DIRECTV has chosen to remove KIEM and KVIQ from its service. We are hopeful that AT&T/DIRECTV will abandon its blackout of our stations to the detriment of viewers in favor of meaningful negotiations that lead to a mutually beneficial deal for all parties. 

In retransmission consent negotiations, both the MVPD and the TV station owner are responsible for reaching a retransmission fee accord that is both prudent and fair to each party.

As AT&T and CMG fought just days after CMG and Altice USA-owned Suddenlink scuffled over a fresh retransmission consent deal, Rep. Jared Huffman spoke up, noting that he’s moving forward with a bill that would go far to end retrans impasses such as these.

“My constituents are tired of these finger pointing exercises where big media conglomerates blame each other while consumers get screwed by blackouts,” Huffman said. “I’m sure there’s some blame to go around, but CMG is the common denominator in the two recent blackouts. At a minimum, that suggests they’re not working proactively to protect consumers. At worst, it suggests they’re using consumers as hostages by letting blackouts happen to maximize their negotiating leverage.  Either way, it’s unacceptable.”

While viewers in big markets such as Seattle and Dayton were in the crosshairs of the potential Super Bowl “blackout,” it is smaller markets such as Eureka-Arcata, Calif.; Yuma, Ariz.; and Greenwood, Miss.; that have seen repeated squelching of signals presently owned by CMG.

In late January 2020, former Northwest Broadcasting stations under Apollo/CMG control were blocked by Dish Network due to a retrans impasse.

That followed a “blackout” by DirecTV of the Northwest-owned stations in October 2019, a reprise of earlier problems between the DBS provider and Brian Brady-led Northwest. In January 2011, the then-Northwest stations were prevented from reaching DirecTV customers in January 2011 and did not return until four weeks later, just in time for the Super Bowl. Then came a new impasse and “blackout,” in late August 2012.

Reporting by Ethan Hunt in Eureka, Calif. Editing by Adam R Jacobson in Boca Raton, Fla.

MORE FROM THE RBR+TVBR ARCHIVES:

Suddenly, Suddenlink Impasse With Cox Ends RBR-TVBR It was hardly expected, considering all of the back and forth rhetoric and typical “it’s their fault” statements between a TV station owner and an MVPD in the midst of heated negotiations during a retransmission consent accord impasse. But,  Altice USA-owned Suddenlink on Thursday restored each of the Cox Media Group stations that had blocked from viewers. Could Suddenlink/CMG Impasse Lead To Congressional Action? Adam Jacobson CMG stations once owned by Brian Brady’s Northwest Broadcasting have been blocked from Suddenlink customers due to a retransmisson consent fee impasse entering its third week. Now, the Member of Congress serving Northwest California is ready to take action on Capitol Hill that could help thwart such disputes — and the consumer harm they create. Apollo-Controlled CMG Caught In a Small MVPD Retrans War RBR-TVBR Despite what station management led by Rob Rohr (pictured) calls its “best efforts,” the dominant TV station serving Ohio’s Miami Valley was “blacked out” by a small MVPD serving a county due north of metropolitan Dayton. There’s a lot more to the story, as the county impacted is the subject of a 2018 FCC action that amended the market for this Dayton TV station.

 

RBR-TVBR

Scripps, With Shares In Full Recovery, Preps For Virtual Investor Event

Radio+Television Business Report
4 years 4 months ago

Its share price hasn’t been this strong since April 2019.

Now, armed with new vigor and ION Media properties in its stable, The E.W. Scripps Co. is busily preparing for a “special investor presentation” with its President/CEO and its Local Media President, among other C-Suite members.

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