Major League Baseball set up a DTC streaming platform for the team after its RSN went belly-up, but no local linear deals have emerged yet with the Rockies' regular season starting Thursday night.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has sued Media Matters in an attempt to protect Elon Musk and X from the nonprofit watchdog group's investigations into hate speech on the social network. Bailey's lawsuit claims that "Media Matters has used fraud to solicit donations from Missourians in order to trick advertisers into removing their advertisements from X, formerly Twitter, one of the last platforms dedicated to free speech in America."
By hiring and then quickly firing the former RNC chair, the organization managed to alienate nearly every constituency that matters. Insiders blame a byzantine structure and a lack of news chops at the top.
Walmart plans to redo and refile documents pertaining to antitrust issues regarding its proposed acquisition of Vizio. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Vizio, “following informal discussions with the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, Walmart notified the antitrust agencies that Walmart will voluntarily withdraw and refile the Hart-Scott-Rodino notification report form for the merger in order to give the antitrust agencies additional time to review the proposed transaction.”
Paramount Global‘s credit rating has been lowered to junk status by S&P Global, which cited the toll of ongoing pay-TV declines as a key factor in the downgrade. The company said Wednesday it dropped Paramount’s rating to BB+ from BBB- due to the “accelerating declines in linear media and the shift toward a more competitive and less certain streaming model.”
He will continue to oversee the legal, regulatory, distribution and network affiliate functions for the entire company, as well as serve as part of the executive leadership.
Dow Jumps 478, Nasdaq Gains 84, S&P Climbs 45
The S&P 500 set a record Wednesday after Wall Street broke out of its lull. It was the first gain for the index since setting its last all-time high on Thursday.
The former RNC chair is in talks with a prominent media talent lawyer about potential legal claims.
WPP's GroupM unit this morning announced plans to double its annual media investment in women's sports-related media, and has created a new, dedicated marketplace to focus on it. As part of the initiative, GroupM said it is looking for "first-to-market" opportunities for its roster of clients including Adidas, Ally, Coinbase, Discover, Google, Mars, Nationwide, Unilever, Universal Pictures and others in its 2024-25 upfront media-buying negotiations.
NBCUniversal Syndication Studios has renewed The Steve Wilkos Show for an 18th season in national syndication. The Steve Wilkos Show is the second longest-tenured syndicated talk show in current production and is averaging 765,000 viewers for the 2023-24 season, according to NBCU Syndication Studios.
Martin Scorsese is partnering with Fox Nation for an eight-part docudrama series, Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints. Hosted, narrated and executive produced by Scorsese, the series will encompass eight one-hour episodes exploring the stories of eight figures on their journey to sainthood.
After a major Wall Street firm sides with activist Nelson Peltz ahead of an April 3 shareholders meeting, investors are questioning how the CEO plans to plot out growth — and his own succession.
Amazon is investing $2.75 billion in the artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, part of a larger push to “accelerate” adoption of generative artificial intelligence technologies. The company announced the investment Wednesday, noting that the new $2.75 billion investment is on top of the $1.25 billion the company poured into Anthropic last year. The companies also said that Anthropic will use Amazon Web Services as its “primary cloud provider.”
In a meeting Wednesday, the DeSantis-appointed members of the board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District approved the settlement agreement, ending almost two years of litigation that was sparked by DeSantis' takeover of the district from Disney supporters following the company's opposition to Florida's so-called "Don't Say Gay" law.
In addition, the insurance company has invested in the National Women’s Soccer League Saturday Night Soccer on Ion with primary brand positioning and in-game sponsorship.
Collecting data when retransmission consent disputes lead to signal blackouts on cable and satellite TV systems is only a half measure, according to the National Association of Broadcasters. The lead trade group for TV station owners told the FCC that it preferred a data collection system that not only included blackouts but also the number of times carriage deals were reached without controversy.
Disney’s streaming bundle combining Hulu and Disney+ in one service officially launched Wednesday morning, ending a three-month beta period described by the company as a success. The “duo” plan, Hulu on Disney+, is priced $2 higher than each individual subscriptions alone. It follows in the the estimable footsteps of the three-service Disney Bundle first introduced in 2020, which also includes ESPN+. Unlike that ongoing offering, though, the two-service one is focused on streamlining the consumer experience and pooling the content of two large, established streaming players within a single outlet.
Proxy adviser Egan-Jones on Wednesday became the second independent firm to support activist Nelson Peltz‘s effort to secure seats on the Disney board. The endorsement follows that of ISS earlier this month, which was a notable win for Peltz’s Trian Fund Management as it is the biggest advisory firm and highly influential. While ISS backed Peltz alone, Egan-Jones is supports both the billionaire activist investor and former Disney executive Jay Rasulo, Trian’s other nominee to the Disney board.
Karen Gadbois has kept The Lens alive as other newsrooms have crumbled. Her next move is important not just for her outlet, but a whole industry.
A privacy case against TikTok would add fuel to the bipartisan chorus of criticism directed at the company over its ties to China.
Ibrahim Samra says he was fired from WWJ-TV has filed suit against the station, alleging he was discriminated and retaliated against after complaining about what he saw as its anti-Arab bias.
A search advertiser can't proceed in court with claims that Google conspired with Apple to avoid competing in the search business, a federal judge has ruled. In a dismissal order, U.S. District Court Judge Pitts in the Northern District of California completely threw out the advertiser's claims against Apple, and sent the claims against Google to arbitration because its contract with advertisers requires arbitration of disputes.
‘The Bachelor’ Improves On Previous Finale, ‘NCIS’ & ‘NCIS: Hawai’i’ Eye Season Lows
CBS’s NCIS was Monday’s most-watched show, while ABC’s The Bachelor finale dominated the night in the coveted-and-delicious 18-49 demo.
Fox News beat the full-court press of TBS and TNT’s coverage of the March Madness college basketball tournament to top cable’s primetime chart for the 10th straight week. Fox News averaged 1.9 million viewers in primetime for the week of March 18-24, topping second place TBS’ 1.7 million viewers and TNT’s 1.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen numbers supplied by Fox News.
Overall, the tournament is averaging 9.07 million viewers on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV. That is a slight increase over the 9.05 million average at this point last year. Pictured: Alabama forward Nick Pringle (23) celebrates with the mascot after Alabama beat Grand Canyon in a second-round college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament in Spokane, Wash., Sunday, March 24. (Ted S. Warren/AP)
Local reporters, anchors and news helicopters played an invaluable role in telling the story of Tuesday morning’s shocking disaster in Baltimore, proving once more their value as a signal amid the noise.
On Tuesday, NBC News fired former Republican National Committee chief Ronna McDaniel, less than a week after hiring her as an on-air political contributor, a decision that followed a furious protest by some of its journalists and commentators. In announcing the decision in a memo, NBC Universal News Group Chairman Cesar Conde apologized to staff members who felt let down by the hire, acknowledging he had signed off on it.
Executives from CBS, Fox Television Stations, Fremantle and Apploff Entertainment to discuss the need for cross-platform interactivity and other strategies to keep viewers more engaged in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere conference at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on April 14. Register here.
New Jobs Posted To TVNewsCheck
New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a reporter in coastal California and a media salesperson to work remotely.
Companies may now create master accounts, buy TVN Plus subscriptions in bulk and assign “sub-accounts” to their executives, managers and professionals. Try it here.