Radio+Television Business Report

The Board of Directors of Media Ratings Council, Inc., the independent watchdog devoted to insuring the accuracy of audience measurement services, has agreed to create a subcommittee focused on the organization’s efforts to assess and promote the quality of data sources.

Introducing the MRC Data Quality Subcommittee, which will formally commence its activities “in the coming months.”

The board will determine where this subcommittee will sit within the existing organizational structure of MRC later in 2021.

The news was publicly disseminated some eight days following the MRC’s annual Board of Directors meeting. At the event, the following members of the Board were appointed to serve on MRC’s Executive Committee for the 2021-22 term:

Board of Directors Chair:                         Dale Coons, Campbell Ewald

Board Chair, ex officio:                            Matt Ross, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations

Print Committee Chair:                            Rob Frydlewicz, Carat USA

International Committee Chair:                Atin Kulkarni, PepsiCo

Radio Committee Chair:                           Annette Malave, Radio Advertising Bureau

Out of Home Committee Chair:               Andy Sriubas, OUTFRONT Media

Television Committee Chair:                    Kevin Stuart, Hearst Television

Digital Committee Chair:                         Eric Warburton, Horizon Media

The departing members of the 2019-20 MRC Executive Committee include Board Chair ex officio Joanne Church, Radio Research Consortium; Digital Committee Chair Nathalie Bordes, CBS Interactive; Radio Committee Chair Dan McDonald, National Association of Broadcasters; International Committee Chair John Montgomery, GroupM; Television Committee Chair Beth Rockwood, Warner Media; and Print Committee Chair Maria Sacchetti, Initiative.

Matt Ross, who was the 2019-20 MRC Board of Directors Chair, and Dale Coons, the Out of Home Committee Chair for 2019-20, will continue to serve on the 2021-22 MRC Executive Committee in the new roles noted above.

It appears the broadcast TV company that eventually merged with Tribune Broadcasting also has a desire to monetize the consumer product recommendations company that Tribune Publishing Co. put on the map.

A definitive agreement has been reached that sees Nexstar Inc., a subsidiary of Nexstar Media Group, grab BestReviews for $160 million.

It’s a transaction that is “immediately accretive to Nexstar’s operating results,” the nation’s top owner of broadcast TV stations and the WGN America cable TV channel said.

How does the consumer review-focused website make money?

“BestReviews monetizes its content through a revenue share model with its retail partners against all sales generated by BestReviews,” Nexstar explains.

There are more than reviews, however: BestReviews also produces seasonal, lifestyle and
how-to articles with integrated links to retailers distributed across its publisher network, and these could feed broadcast TV station websites while also sparking product review news reports in its newscasts and news magazines.

The volume of content currently authored by BestReviews includes more than 8,000 product categories covering more 40,000 product reviews — on behalf of a network of more than 50 retail partners.

Nexstar President/COO and CFO Tom Carter explains, “The planned accretive acquisition of BestReviews diversifies our digital content portfolio while presenting the company with new and significant revenue channels by leveraging our media content, national reach and significant consumer digital usage across multiple platforms.”

He adds that Nexstar’s digital properties are No. 1 according to Comscore for local news and information, in terms of unique users. As such, “we are ideally positioned to quickly scale BestReviews through increased content syndication and brand awareness.”

Carter also considers BestReviews to be “a fast-growing digital product review company with a profitable and scalable business model at an attractive pro forma EBITDA multiple.”

Nexstar Inc. President of Digital Karen Brophy adds, “The acquisition of BestReviews further strengthens Nexstar’s core product offering by adding new content and gathering expert and user-generated insights that help build consumer confidence in products. This will allow Nexstar to strengthen its focus on distributing content consumers want most.”

The transaction is subject to Hart-Scott-Rodino clearance and customary closing conditions and is expected to close by the end of 2020.

Townsquare Media has priced an offering of $550.0 million in aggregate principal amount of its 6.875% senior secured notes due 2026.

The notes will bear interest semi-annually at a rate equal to 6.875% per annum and were offered at par value. They are senior secured obligations of Townsquare Media and will be guaranteed on a senior secured basis by the company’s direct and wholly owned subsidiaries.

Closing of the offering is anticipated to take place on or about January 6, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions.

As previously reported, Townsquare intends to use the net proceeds from the offering, together with cash on hand, to repay its existing senior secured credit facilities, to redeem all of Townsquare’s outstanding 6.500% senior notes due 2023, and to pay the premium, fees and expenses related to the offering.

Townsquare also intends to terminate its existing senior secured credit facilities, including its existing revolving credit facility.

DISH shares were off by more than 11% in the final hour of trading on Wednesday (12/16), as investors soured on the news that it plans to offer $2 billion aggregate principal amount of convertible notes.

DISH Network also expects to grant to the initial purchaser an option to purchase up to an additional $300 million aggregate principal amount of the notes to cover over-allotments, if any.

The net proceeds of the offering are intended to be used for “general corporate purposes,” including 5G network buildout costs.

Moody’s assigned a B1 rating to the offering. It notes that the rating is supported by the substantial asset value derived from DISH’s “vast spectrum holdings, although they have yet to be deployed and monetized.”

It further noted, however, that its rating “reflects our concern that competition from cable and telecommunication companies, who offer multiple products (video, voice, and data in particular), and pressure from changing television consumption habits towards SVOD (subscription video on demand) services like Netflix and other emerging OTT (over-the-top media) platforms, will result in increasing cord cutting of traditional linear pay TV.”

The notes will be unsecured obligations of DISH Network.

Upon any conversion, DISH Network will settle its conversion obligation in cash, shares of its Class A Common Stock, or a combination of cash and shares of its Class A Common Stock, at its election. The interest rate, the initial conversion rate, and other terms and conditions of the notes will be determined by negotiations between DISH Network and the initial purchaser of the notes.

The offering didn’t charm investors. On heavy volume of 15.7 million shares as of 3:15pm Eastern (normal volume is 2.7 million shares), DISH was down $4.05 to $31.63.

The dip erased one month’s worth of gains on the Nasdaq GlobalSelect market,

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire has officially been inked on the growing list of institutions of higher learning that no longer want to put its dollars toward the upkeep of a broadcast radio station run by its enrolled students.

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As the $2.65 billion merger between West Palm Beach-headquartered ION Media and The E.W. Scripps Co. winds its way toward completion, a series of amendments have been submitted with the FCC that have seen the inclusion — and now exclusion — of three stations that had been designed for sale to INYO Broadcast Holdings, which is getting a host of spin-off properties.

 

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A partnership that enables “a new way” to measure TV marketing has been brought to market.

And, it is being billed as a “first-of-its-kind solution” that combines MarketCast‘s data science expertise and Kinetiq‘s ad detection platform to measure competitive benchmarking for tune-in TV attribution.

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SAVANNAH, GA. — Just how much did Gray Television‘s broadcast TV stations and digital platforms attracted in the form of political advertising in 2020?

It’s in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and the twin U.S. Senate runoff races in Georgia are the icing on the cake.

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Gray’s total tally for political advertising since Jan. 1, 2020, is now upward of $400 million, net of commissions and agency fees.

There’s more: Since Election Day, Gray’s local television stations and digital platforms in the Peach State have run approximately $20 million net in political campaign and political issue advertisements related to the two run-off election races for U.S. Senate seats.

With the special elections scheduled for Jan. 5, 2021, and President-Elect Biden campaigning for the Democratic candidates in Atlanta on Tuesday, Gray expects political advertisements in Georgia to continue well past New Year’s Eve and into the first days of 2021.

Gray has a presence in Augusta, Albany, Columbus and tiny Thomasville, Georgia, where WCTV-6 also serves Tallahassee, Fla. Most notably, Gray owns long-dominant CBS affiliate WTOC-11 in Savannah, Ga.

ATSC 3.0-powered next generation television signals have been launched in the biggest DMA to date: the home of Russell Wilson, and the setting for the cinematic classic “10 Things I Hate About You.”

Seven Seattle TV stations are now broadcasting with NEXTGEN TV, the new digital broadcast standard.

It makes the Seattle-Tacoma DMA the largest market where NEXTGEN signals are available, following the recent launch of Tampa-St. Petersburg.

The stations offering ATSC 3.0-powered signals are Sinclair Broadcast Group‘s ABC and Univision affiliates, KOMO-4 and KUNS-51; Cox Media Group‘s CBS affiliated KIRO-7; FOX O&Os KZJO-22 “Joe TV” and KCPQ-13; and TEGNA‘s NBC and unaffiliated KING-5 and KONG-16.

BitPath led the planning process and coordinated efforts across Seattle’s seven local television stations.

In a major about-face that signals a fresh retransmission consent deal — perhaps under pressure from key Massachusetts legislators on Capitol Hill — Comcast‘s Xfinity cable TV service will no longer be pulling the plug on stations from “neighboring DMAs” that would have seen all Hearst Television stations not bound by must-carry rules removed from its channel lineups.

It’s also signals a big victory for some small communities near Brunswick, Ga.

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Media ad sales platform Matrix has formed a group of thought leaders from across the industry, including some of its own executives, to identify outcomes and workflows that will advance how television will be bought and sold within the next three years.

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A graduate of the University of Georgia and Vanderbilt University School of Law, he’s served as an artist manager and has been a professional drummer with The Chris McCarty Band. 

Since August 2008, he’s been in the Atlanta office of legal giant Greenberg Traurig LLP.

Now, he’s leaving, as the music and entertainment industries has come calling … sort of.

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Former Senior VP and Head of Corporate Communications and PR Esther-Mireya Tejeda exited in September, later resurfacing as SoundExchange‘s Chief Marketing & Communications Officer.

Soon afterward, Jennifer Morales Mathews exited as VP/Corporate Communications and PR and shortly thereafter took the role of Public Relations Manager at Amazon Music.

The exits left a big hole at Entercom Communications. Now, it has filled it with Tejeda’s successor.

Now SVP/Head of Corporate Communication and PR at the audio media company that owns Radio.com and podcasting platforms Pineapple Street and Cadence13 is Ashok Sinha.

He will serve as a member of Entercom’s executive leadership team, reporting to Chief Marketing Officer Paul Suchman.

Who is Sinha? He has been VP of Corporate Communications at WarnerMedia since October 2016, and in that role most recently headed internal and external communications strategy for WarnerMedia’s technology organization, as well as employee communications across the company’s direct-to-consumer, sales and distribution divisions.

Before joining WarnerMedia, Ashok was SVP/Corporate Communications at Publicis Media from March 2013, VP/Corporate Communications for Current TV for 11 months, Director of Communications for Oxygen Media for 15 months, and Chief of Staff at (RED) for 20 months.

From May 2005-September 2008, he was Manager of Communications and Public Affairs for MTV Networks’ Logo, at the time a LGBTQ-focused cable TV offering.

“As a lifelong consumer of music and the spoken word, I believe in the power of audio and its ability to engage, entertain and inform the world,” Sinha said. “I’m delighted for this opportunity to join Entercom and its award-winning corporate communications team, and lead the charge as we tell the story of audio in this dynamic time for media.”

Subscription video on demand (SVOD) consumers between the ages 13 and 49 have become more culturally literate, primarily due to Netflix, YouTube creators and social media featuring increasingly diverse and global content.

In fact, more than half of Gen Zers and parents have watched a show in a language they do not speak, with Hispanics over indexing on this trend.

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MESA, ARIZ. — In June, Vic Michael’s Mountain Community Translators executed a lease-to-sale conversion for an FM translator that has been rebroadcasting a “relevant” AM’s Christian-themed programming.

Now, Michael is selling a second FM translator using the Shaw Butte antenna farm north of downtown Phoenix, and it’s going to a local Hispanic operation.

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IT’S NOT TOO LATE … BUT THE CLOCK IS TICKING!
Available on-demand until

 

• IF YOU DIDN’T ATTEND FORECAST 2021, IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO BENEFIT FROM THIS YEAR’S PREMIERE RADIO CONFERENCE
• REGISTER NOW FOR ON-DEMAND REPLAY OF EVERY FORECAST 2021 SESSION
• CLICK HERE FOR THIS YEAR’S OUTSTANDING AGENDA

 

REGISTER FOR REPLAY NOW!

Forecast LIVE is this year’s virtual version of Radio Ink’s annual Forecast conference, the radio industry’s premier financial summit, gathering the smartest minds in media and advertising to forecast revenue and analyze projections and trends for the coming year.

Don’t take it from us – here’s what attendees are saying: Caroline Beasley “From incredible speakers to real and relevant insights, Radio Ink’s annual Forecast gathering is an absolute ‘must attend’ event for forward thinking leaders, decision makers, and influencers working within and outside of the media industry! And this year’s virtual event was no exception.” – Caroline Beasley, Beasley Media Group

 

Pierre Bouvard “Radio Ink’s Forecast 2021 was spectacular: It felt like two days of knowledge and insights were compressed into a few hours. Very actionable! As Ghandi said, ‘Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.’”
-Pierre Bouvard, Cumulus Media/Westwood One

 

 

“Thank you for not letting this just not happen this year. I enjoyed it very much. Your team did an amazing job executing this event virtually. All of the sessions were very informative and helpful.”
-Ron Stone, Adams Radio Group

 

“The best online event I have attended. Just enough time, great content, well produced. Great work!”
– Jinny Laderer, vCreative

 

“Great Sessions! Eye Opening and Thought Provoking… Each session provided an honest view of where our industry is today, where it’s headed, and how we need to pivot to meet the needs of tomorrow.” – Danny Tankersley, Wide Orbit “The team did an outstanding job. I think that the program was great and went off technically well.” – Andrew Rosen, Miller Kaplan “The speaker lineup, production pieces and hosts stepped up big time in a virtual time of need for the industry. It was lively and informative while giving lots for the attendees to think about in contemplating 2021 and beyond.” – David Pearlman, Pearlman Advisors “Forecast is one-stop shopping for an overview of where the industry is and where it is going. I gain information and knowledge that I use throughout the year and find myself quoting panelists and keynotes such as Matt Britton. This year’s virtual event was spectacular.” – Heather Cohen, The Weiss Agency “Thank you for a wonderful, informative conference. Excellent!!!!”
– Jeanne-Marie Condo, Skyview Networks “This was absolutely fantastic. The education was strong, and the platform was ideal.” – Becky Brooks, Alliance for Women in Media

Broadcasting companies publicly traded on Wall Street were largely up at the Closing Bell on Tuesday. One company, however, sticks out for another dip in value.

That would be Entercom.

Shares dipped 2.2% to $2.28 in heavier-than-average trading of 2.41 million. Average trading for Entercom is 1.93 million shares.

In contrast, Cumulus Media enjoyed a 3.3% gain as shared reached $9.14, and iHeartMedia gained 5 cents, to $12.45.

On the TV side, it was another banner session for Nexstar Media Group, with gains also seen by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In 1979, The Media Institute was established as a nonprofit foundation specializing in communications policy issues of concern to all Americans, including the promotion of Freedom of Speech and encouraging a competitive media environment.

On Tuesday, the soon-to-depart Chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, addressed the organization in a virtual luncheon that saw him quip about a Commission predecessor before offering “some thoughts on where the federal government should go” once he departs on January 20, 2021.

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The November 2020 Nielsen Audio ratings for Colorado Springs have just been released, and guess what — the top 5 stations, 12+, are all owned by Cumulus Media.

Yes, stations owned by Bahakel and a News Press and Gazette-owned Talk station, do not appear publicly in the ratings. Nevertheless, this group of radio stations’ success is very noteworthy. What’s the No. 1 reason for this cluster-wide strength?

Scott Jones, Vice President and Market Manager for Cumulus Media’s Colorado Springs operations, shares the answer and more in this fresh RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast!

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Scott Jones, Cumulus Media” on Spreaker.

TORONTO — The President of Cogeco Media, a takeover target of Rogers Sports & Media, has exited the Montréal-based owner of 23 radio stations across the Canadian province of Québec.

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