The latest Spot Ten TV report as measured by Media Monitors finds that one brick-and-mortar retailer is using spot television to reach audiences than any of its competitors.
It makes Target the lone member of its category on a chart dominated by auto insurance specialists.
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The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report is out, and for the week ending Feb. 28, there’s not much movement among advertisers using national radio to reach consumers.
That’s actually good news, as this demonstrates brand consistency. Progressive remains the No. 1 paid brand, with more than 57,000 spot plays. Babbel is also a key user of spot radio, as are Indeed and Bank of America-owned Merrill.
New this week: Pfizer, a maker of the approved COVID-19 vaccinations.
It began broadcasting on Christmas Eve 1925. It may be the only radio station audible, after dark, on a radio in locales as diverse as Los Angeles, Orlando and Hartford.
In 2021, however, the might of a 50kw Class A clear channel signal on the AM isn’t what it used to be. That explains why, starting March 22, one of America’s most recognized radio stations will be gaining a 250-watt FM translator superserving this station’s home market.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The NAB has launched a new volunteer initiative designed to “enhance communication” between broadcast media’s biggest lobbying organization and its member stations’ employees at all levels.
The association says its Broadcast Ambassador Program ensures stations are taking full advantage of the benefits that come with NAB membership.
“Broadcast ambassadors” have a direct line of communication with NAB staff, who share timely information on benefits ranging from professional growth opportunities and advocacy updates to human resources tools and technical expertise. The ambassadors in turn share this information with interested colleagues to ensure all levels of the company are reaping the benefits of NAB membership.
Those with a desire to build relationships with colleagues, communicate on behalf of NAB and provide valuable member insights are encouraged to apply or nominate an individual. Ambassadorships are open to those in non-executive or general management positions in NAB member organizations, and the application process is ongoing.
“We are excited to enrich relationships with our members through this new ambassador program,” NAB EVP/Industry Affairs April Carty-Sipp said. “Ambassadors will complement our board of directors in helping to shape NAB’s goals to meet the industry’s evolving needs.”
Broadcast Ambassadors are distinguished representatives for their station or group working directly with NAB to meet the needs of the member company. They provide important updates and help shape new NAB initiatives and benefits by providing feedback and member insight.
As a critical point-of-contact, Broadcast Ambassadors offer guidance and information on NAB events, educational offerings, advocacy initiatives and other membership benefits. They also update their colleagues and leadership on NAB’s work on behalf of local broadcasters.
Participants will be featured in NAB Member News and receive industry-wide recognition for their participation in the program. They also have the opportunity to network and engage with broadcasters throughout the industry.
All candidates must receive a recommendation from an NAB member station or group executive. For more information, contact nabambassador@nab.org.
LOS ANGELES — She’s been EVP/General Manager of Horizon Media’s Century City-based operation since 2012 and joined the ad buying giant in October 2009 after two years as SVP/Communications and Planning Director at Universal McCann.
In her time at Horizon, she was responsible for a diverse portfolio of client business including Corona Beer, Jack in the Box, STX and ABC.
Today, the media and advertising worlds are mourning the loss of Serena Duff.
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He spent more than 20 years in key positions with WarnerMedia and predecessor Turner Broadcasting, where he created and led dozens of nationally recognized products including the Watch TCM steaming service and TCM.com.
Now, this esteemed industry veteran is joining The E.W. Scripps Co. to lead its newly expanded national television business’ digital efforts.
Selected by Cincinnati-based Scripps for the role is Richard Steiner.
He’ll be responsible for developing, directing and managing the digital strategy for Scripps’ new national networks, including oversight for OTT, AVOD, SVOD, TVOD, web and mobile
applications.
Steiner reports to Scripps networks COO and entertainment head Jonathan Katz; Scripps’ national assets are comprised of the former Katz Networks and ION Media properties.
At WarnerMedia and Turner, Steiner rose to SVP/Digital, developing and launching Turner’s Turner’s first entertainment-focused direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service, FilmStruck. Steiner also developed TVEverywhere (TVE) and multi-platform strategies for digital activation and new media for TCM, TNT and TBS; created and supported e-commerce initiatives, and developed web and mobile products. Earlier, Steiner was Turner’s VP/Digital Activation.
Before joining Turner, Steiner evaluated programming titles for acquisitions for the Starz Encore Group.
“Richard is a visionary,” Jonathan Katz said. “As a proven innovator in developing world-class streaming products, he’s the perfect leader to help the Scripps Networks leverage the popularity of our content and brands to serve diverse audiences across OTT and connected devices.”
As recently as December 21, 2020, public relations firm NRPR Group was busily pitching opportunities to chat with Charlie Nooney, CEO of MobiTV, on how cable television companies “can maintain its relevance” in the coming years as subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) continues to gain market share.
Now, NRPR and Nooney are fielding calls of a whole other nature: the pioneering Emeryville, Calif.-based company is voluntarily reorganizing by seeking federal bankruptcy protection.
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It’s Tuesday morning in Guam, a U.S. territory much closer to Tokyo and Manila than Tenleytown, in Northwest Washington D.C., or McLean, Va.
Yet, veteran communications law expert and Jacksonville, Fla.-based attorney John Wells King is well versed on the Hagatña radio scene. That’s because he’s the legal counsel for a licensee that’s parting ways with an AM on the Pacific island taken silent last year.
The incoming licensee? A broadcast ministry seeking donations for a new transmitter for its station serving Saipan, in the nearby U.S. commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
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Matrix Solutions’ Monarch Media Ad Sales Platform is now in place at one of the nation’s biggest owners of both radio and television stations.
As such, the company will now have what Matrix calls “complete visibility into their aggregated data while also providing extensive CRM capabilities and media intelligence designed to increase revenue opportunities and extend operational efficiencies.”
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When financial historians look back at the final three months of 2020 and take a microscope to the broadcast media sector, they’ll likely notice one very clear delineation point between those companies focused on audio content and their brethren with a lens on visual fare.
Radio station owners, even with political bumps that bolstered earnings, still suffered from steep double-digit revenue and profit dips in Q4.
Television station owners, thanks largely to retransmission consent fees and political ad dollars, took to their collective surfboards and collectively rode the high surf caused by COVID-19 across October, November and December 2020.
Add TEGNA to the list of companies that navigated the waves smoothly.
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LOS ANGELES — Facility management software maker Xytech has agreed to purchase Net Insight subsidiary ScheduALL.
The company says the acquisition provides Xytech “the ability to afford customers, and the marketplace as a whole, an end-to-end resource management system with scalability and configurability in a cloud-enabled platform.”
Xytech will continue to support the ScheduALL application and all ScheduALL clients.
Xytech also offers the MediaPulse facility management software and the MediaPulse Managed Cloud.
“With this transaction, we reach an important milestone in our journey towards a more focused and stronger Net Insight where we accelerate growth in our core Media Network’s business,” said Net Insight CEO Crister Fritzson. “ScheduALL has been a valuable part of the Net Insight portfolio, and I would like to thank all ScheduALL employees for their contribution over the years. We believe Xytech is the best future owner of the business and look forward to partnering with them to continue to serve shared customers across the media industry.”
— Katie Kailus
Nexstar Media Group President of Broadcasting Tim Busch, a potential nominee for RBR+TVBR’s Broadcast Television’s Best Leaders of 2021, will retire on June 1, the company has announced.
It will conclude a 36-year career in the broadcast industry, with the last 20 years spent within Nexstar.
Busch joined Nexstar in 2000 as GM for the CBS affiliate serving Rochester, N.Y., WROC-8. Before that, Busch served as General Sales Manager and held various other sales positions
at NBC affiliate WGRZ-2 in Buffalo, his professional home from 1989 to 2000.
Earlier in his career, Busch worked in radio broadcasting, holding various sales and management positions at WGR-AM & FM (today WGRF) in Buffalo under Taft Broadcasting ownership.
During his tenure at Nexstar, Busch worked closely with company founder, chairman and CEO Perry Sook as Nexstar expanded its local television station group, digital offerings and
national market presence.
Sook commented, “Tim and I have worked collaboratively for over 20 years and I’m grateful for his leadership, expertise and friendship. Tim has been instrumental in building the foundation for what Nexstar has become and the values that we have established in terms of our commitment to our team members and the local communities where we operate. On behalf of Tom Carter, Elizabeth Ryder, our Board, shareholders and the entire Nexstar team, we thank him for his many contributions to our long-term success.’
He added that Busch leaves Nexstar “well positioned” to continue Nexstar’s growth as, Sook said, “we have a deep bench of experienced broadcast and digital executives and we are immediately commencing a search for Tim’s successor. We will miss Tim and wish him all the best as he enters the next phase of his life.”
Busch added, “Throughout my years at Nexstar, I have been fortunate to work directly with Perry Sook and Nexstar’s talented team which has re-shaped the industry, delivered great service to the viewers and users of our content and delivered compelling marketing solutions for companies of all sizes. I have had the honor of working with the executive leadership team that consistently drives strong growth and operating results reflecting the talents of our General Managers and team members across the Nexstar Nation. In addition
to building America’s largest local media company, I am proud of our countless accomplishments over the past two decades.
“With a dynamic executive team in place, I am highly confident that the next generation of leaders at Nexstar will extend the Company’s exemplary long-term record of success and the continued creation of shareholder value. I wish everyone in the Nexstar Nation the very
best as they execute on their plans for continued growth.”
Thursday evening’s big headline across business media was AT&T‘s revelation that it will sell a 30% stake in its satellite and terrestrial video services provider business, inclusive of DirecTV. The entity grabbing the stake: TPG Capital.
For Moody’s Investors Service, this is a credit positive move for AT&T.
The deal includes AT&T’s DirecTV, U-Verse, and all of AT&T’s virtual MVPD business, AT&T TV.
The transaction values DirecTV at about $16 billion, which is down considerably from the $67 billion that AT&T paid (including debt assumption) to acquire DirecTV in 2015.
TPG will pay $1.8 billion for its stake, which will include TPG receiving senior preferred equity yielding 10%. AT&T will have junior preferred equity in DirecTV that will PIK.
The new company will incur about $6 billion of new debt, with the proceeds expected to be distributed to AT&T at the close of the transaction.
As the DirecTV valuation is low, the transaction, Moody’s says, “is moderately credit positive for AT&T only because we expect that it will provide AT&T with about $7.8 billion of proceeds, which we expect will be used to help offset the company’s C-band auction cost obligation, which as a result, should quicken AT&T’s leverage reduction.”
The deal also includes AT&T funding about $2.5 billion of net losses from the NFL Sunday Ticket contract for the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
“The significant decline in DirecTV’s valuation is largely driven by the secular pressure hitting the linear pay-tv industry as consumers switch to over-the-top (OTT) MVPDs, subscription video on-demand (SVOD) and advertising video on-demand platforms, such as Netflix, Inc., Disney+, Amazon Prime, CBS All Access, HBOMAX and others,” Moody’s notes. “These secular headwinds as well as competition for resources within AT&T and failure to manage competitively have caused the company’s DirecTV business to be one of the hardest hit in the industry, as the company has lost over 7 million video connections over the past two years.”
Moody’s believes that DirecTV has been “a drag” on the company’s overall equity valuation.
Thus, it says, “it is logical that management would sell a part of this declining business and structure the sale such that it is deconsolidated from AT&T.”
Due to the pandemic, the company has shifted its strategic priorities and is now focusing on four things:
As a result, AT&T has divested multiple non-core assets over the past year.
In December 2020, the company announced the sale of its anime streaming service, Crunchyroll, to Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation, for $1.175 billion.
In October 2020, the company also closed on about $3 billion in proceeds from the sales of Central European Media and real estate, and the sale of its Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands wireless business.
On the evening of Thursday, Feb. 18, Ed Stolz was placed in jail. U.S. Marshals arrested him, as he was a fugitive, unwilling to surrender control of his three FM radio stations to a court-appointed receiver in lieu of unpaid music royalty payments.
Stolz was released from jail one day later. Since then, U.S. District Court of the Central District of California’s Eastern Division, which is presided by Judge Jesus Bernal, continues to hear from the receiver, Larry Patrick, about Stolz’s interference.
Stolz, meanwhile, has filed an appeal of Bernal’s ruling in yet another attempt to thwart the loss of his FMs.
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United States recorded music revenues grew 9.2% in 2020 to $12.2 billion at estimated retail value.
It marks the fifth consecutive year of growth for the industry, as paid subscription services continued to be the primary driver of revenue increases, and reached a record number of subscriptions.
Streaming music’s share of total revenues grew to 83%.
Covid-19 affected the industry significantly through tour cancellations, retail store closures, and other disruptions.
Revenues from recorded music measured at wholesale value grew 8.9% to $8.0 billion.
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Of the major publicly traded audio media companies operating in the U.S., Entercom Communications, iHeartMedia and Beasley Media Group have each reported their fourth quarter earnings. Saga Communications will offer its results on March 12.
Where is Townsquare Media? The results, which are expected to be positive, are still forthcoming and due the week of March 15.
While the company’s top executives will be participating in upcoming investor conferences, a top Wall Street blog believes the company’s shares are nearly half of their intrinsic value estimates.
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RBR+TVBR RELATED READS:
Entercom Head Touts DEI Task Force Work, and Urban League Plan Adam Jacobson Entercom Communications President/CEO David Field has taken time out to take pride in the company’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force. As he noted in an internal memo, the audio media company “has been hard at work this summer” developing action plans — and with “a big assist” from employees who provided input. Entercom Adds UWG Head To Its Board of Directors RBR-TVBR She currently serves as the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of UWG, a multicultural advertising and marketing agency. Now, she’s also a member of Entercom’s Board of Directors, expanding it to 11 directors.It is exiting the digital audio business, as it is spinning Triton to iHeartMedia following the divestment of its radio properties, “with fantastic returns.”
It boasts “a powerful new national network business” thanks to its blockbuster merger with Ion Media.
This is the new path The E.W. Scripps Co. is speedily traveling forward on, and Scripps President/CEO Adam Symson says the transformation of the company makes it “exceptionally positioned for the growth of television.”
With that, Scripps released its Q4 and year-end 2020 results. How did Scripps do?
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Aside from former FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, there may be few people outside of Kansas familiar with the town of Ulysses. It’s to the northwest of Liberal, southwest of Garden City, and a 300-mile drive from construction-cluttered Denver International Airport.
Here, a group of eight radio stations are heading to a new licensee.
Why? The current operator defaulted on payments owed to the entity getting the octet.
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Gray Television‘s Board of Directors has unanimously voted to expand the board by one seat.
To fill that extra chair, the board has elected the SVP/General Counsel and Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer for Georgia Power as an independent director.
That would be Sterling A. Spainhour Jr.
Like all Directors, Spainhour’s term will run through the next Gray Annual Meeting.
Spainhour’s resume includes roles at Southern Company, and was a partner at Jones Day for more than 20 years.
He’s also served as senior counsel for CNN.
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