Industry News

DraftKings is now the official odds supplier for iHeartMedia’s broadcast, digital, podcast and social platforms.

It’s thanks to a new agreement that allows DraftKings to co-create and distribute long-form content with iHeartMedia.

The agreement also means DraftKings will receive preferred access to iHeartMedia’s roster of on-air personalities.

Furthermore, DraftKings and iHeartMedia will collaborate around “a wide range of possible content development opportunities,” including the distribution of shows and segments across the company’s radio and digital properties and integrations within iHeartMedia’s live sports broadcasts.

DraftKings and iHeartMedia will also collaborate on a number of possible experiential opportunities for listeners and fans including providing cross platform interactive games.

“Customer engagement remains a primary focus for DraftKings, and this latest agreement with iHeartMedia amplifies our reach immensely to a dedicated audience that spans more than 160 markets across the country with the largest audio company in the U.S.,” said Matt Kalish, Co-founder and President of DraftKings North America. “Analytically tapping into iHeart’s coveted listenership while powering authentic betting content is a landmark moment for both organizations and precursor to new possibilities in media innovation.”

The Federal Communications Commission continues to hand out forfeitures to stations that fail to file their license renewal application on time.

Whether it’s only a few days late or nearly four months overdue, the FCC rules on license renewal application deadlines matter are clear: a broadcast station license renewal must be filed by the first day of the fourth calendar month before the license expires. For WPGS Inc., the deadline for filing a license renewal application for station WPGS(AM) in Mims, Fla., was Oct. 19, 2019. WPGS finally submitted the application on Jan. 31, 2020 — a day before the license outright expired on Feb. 1, 2020. The licensee did not provide an explanation, the Media Bureau said in its forfeiture order.

[Read: Sunshine State Licensee Agrees Penalty After Environmental Miss]

The FCC has some wiggle room on the amount a proposed forfeiture should be — based on the severity or length of the violation — but the base forfeiture amount for a violation like this is $3,000. In July 2021, the Media Bureau sent a Notice of Apparently Liability for Forfeiture to WPGS Inc. giving them 30 days to either pay or file a written statement asking for cancellation of the proposed forfeiture. As of Nov. 1, 2021, the licensee had not responded.

Accordingly, the Media Bureau released an order concluding that WPGS Inc. willfully violated the rules. The request for payment of the $3,000 still stands and is due before Dec. 1, 2021.

The post Florida Licensee Faces $3,000 Forfeiture After Late Filing Penalty appeared first on Radio World.

Converged TV ad measurement and attribution firm TVSquared has a new Chief Revenue Officer.

At the same time, the company is welcoming a new SVP of Identity and Partnerships.

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He’s known across the media industry as the owner of a company that today is comprised of radio stations in Indianapolis, and Indianapolis Monthly magazine. In the past, it owned television stations, Top 40 stations in markets such as Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis, and even owned the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team — which he threatened to relocate as the old Kingdome wasn’t the most hospitable home for the franchise.

Jeff Smulyan has seen a lot in his career. Now, thanks to his teenage daughter, he’s collected his thoughts, put pen to paper, and has written a book that is set for a 2022 release.

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WorldDAB says a total of 110 million DAB receivers have now been sold globally.

Twice a year, the organization — which positions DAB+ as “the core future platform for radio in Europe” — publishes an infographic that depicts trends for the digital radio format, including receiver sales, population coverage and road coverage.

It now has released its latest infographic.

It reports that over the past 12 months, the number of automotive DAB receivers sold surpassed 10 million for the first time, while consumer receiver sales totaled about 5 million units.

“The automotive DAB+ market has been transformed over the last two years,” the organization stated, “with DAB+ now a standard feature in over 89% of new cars in all key European markets.” It noted that the European Electronic Communications Code now requires new car radios in the EU to be capable of receiving digital terrestrial radio.

“In the consumer receiver market, the proportion of devices featuring DAB / DAB+ has also seen a sharp increase — from 28% two years ago to 42% in the second quarter of 2021. DAB sales are benefiting from strong marketing in Germany and the Netherlands, receiver regulation in Germany, France and Italy, and the emergence of new DAB markets including Belgium, Austria and the Czech Republic.”

Among other data points, WorldDAB said that digital radio reach “has achieved record levels in several markets, including the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Australia,” and it cited growth patterns in the sales of consumer DAB+ receivers in countries like Italy, the Czech Republic and France and a number of other countries.

Below is one chart from the infographic; the full version is available on the WorldDAB website.

The post WorldDAB Celebrates Receiver Sales Numbers appeared first on Radio World.

Ad software firm Viant and convergent TV advertising platform Beachfront have integrated Beachfront’s linear and connected TV inventory into Viant’s Adelphic software.

With the integration, Adelphic becomes the first demand-side platform (DSP) to support Beachfront’s linear TV inventory, which is enabled for real-time bidding.

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Discovery Inc. shareholders appear to be satisfied with the company’s third quarter results, despite falling short on analysts’ EPS estimates and coming in just shy of the Zacks Consensus Estimate on revenue.

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He has served as President and as a board member of Firestone Communications, where he launched Spanish-language children’s cable television network Sorpresa. Most recently, he served as the co-founder and CEO of equestrian sports, culture and lifestyle network Ride TV.

Now, this “serial entrepreneur” has been tapped as a co-CEO alongside Lynn McBee of the television enterprise connected to the international environmental organization “dedicated to a more sustainable future worldwide.”

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iHeartMedia wants more of the fast-growing action in sports betting, so it has signed a “strategic relationship” with DraftKings.

It says the agreement makes DraftKings “the official odds supplier for iHeartMedia’s broadcast, digital, podcast and social platforms.”

Sports gambling is a hot commodity for big companies with radio roots just now. Audacy and Cumulus for example have been active in the sector.

iHeart and DraftKings cited all sorts of possible joint projects, including DraftKings co-creating and distributing long-form content.

“The two can also collaborate around a wide range of possible content development opportunities, tapping into iHeart’s 270 million+ monthly consumer base on its broadcast platform alone,” according to the announcement.

Further opportunities include integrations in iHeart live sports coverage and “possible experiential opportunities for listeners and fans.”

This seems like a natural fit, given the scale of iHeart’s sports audio network, which includes broadcast products as well as the large iHeartPodcast Sports Network.

Among other things DraftKings will be able to use iHeartMedia’s SmartAudio advertising products.

“The data integration would enable fact-based audience planning and targeting optimizations across iHeartMedia’s broadcast and digital platform,” they said in the announcement.

Both companies are publicly traded on Nasdaq. The announcement was made by Greg Ashlock, CEO of iHeartMedia’s Multiplatform Group, and Matt Kalish, co-founder and president of DraftKings North America.

Kalish and friends Jason Robins and Paul Liberman started DraftKings in Liberman’s apartment in Massachusetts, launching a daily fantasy sports platform in 2012. Last year it combined with Diamond Eagle Acquisition Co. and gambling technology firm SBTech, going public in April 2020. It now calls itself a “vertically integrated pure-play sports betting and online gaming company.”

Kalish was quoted saying, “Analytically tapping into iHeart’s coveted listenership while powering authentic betting content is a landmark moment for both organizations and precursor to new possibilities in media innovation.”

“Audacy Expands BetQL Sports Betting Network”

“WynnBET and Cumulus Media Forge Betting Advertising Alliance”

“Cumulus Highlights AM/FM for Reaching Bettors”

The post Betting on Sports, iHeartMedia Partners With DraftKings appeared first on Radio World.

It’s all about the bat.

A native Floridian bat plays a significant role in a case before the Federal Communications Commission after a broadcasting firm failed to determine if the habitat of the endangered bat would be impacted by a new communications tower.

As a result, the Florida Myers Broadcasting Co. has agreed to pay a $20,000 as part of a consent decree between FMBC and the FCC.

FCC rules require a licensee to determine if its proposed facilities might have a significant impact on the environment by preparing an environmental assessment (EA), during which a licensee needs to determine if the proposed site would affect threatened or endangered species and their habitat. These rules must be followed before any work begins at the site.

[Read: Seventh Generation Asked to Pay $3,000 Forfeiture for Late License Renewal]

In the summer of 2020, FMBC began assessing a site in Southwest Florida that it was considering for a new wireless communications tower. The area is within Punta Gorda, Fla., and is home to the endangered Florida bonneted bat, an animal found only in South Florida, making its nests in wetlands, cliff crevices and tree cavities. In August 2020, without first finishing a required environmental review of the site, FMBC began clearing vegetation at the tower site, two months before it completed the required FCC antenna structure registration (ASR) process as well as an environmental assessment EA.

In FMBC’s case, those assessments weren’t completed until November 2020. After the application was received, the matter was referred to the commission’s Enforcement Bureau, which asked FMBC to submit a series of sworn questions about the situation. As part of the investigation, FMBC admitted it violated the environmental and ASR rules, specifically stating that it did not determine if its tower would have a significant impact on the environment before beginning to clear vegetation.

FMBC agreed to enter into a consent agreement with the bureau, admitting that its actions violated FCC environmental and ASR rules.

As part of the consent decree, FMBC must develop a compliance plan for this project, which includes creating a compliance manual, setting up a compliance training program revolving around the FCC’s environmental rules, filing several compliance reports detailing FMBC’s efforts to comply with the consent decree over the next 3 years and paying a civil penalty of $20,000.

The good news: the environmental review has been completed and the commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau found that the tower would have no significant impact on local wildlife. To offset potential impacts to the environment based by premature clearing, the FCC said FMBC voluntarily contributed to the Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Florida Bonneted Bat Fund to address the loss of any trees that could have been a potential roosting spot for the bats.

The post Sunshine State Licensee Agrees Penalty After Environmental Miss appeared first on Radio World.