Business

She was the first woman to own and run a major national advertising agency. Her company, Wells Rich Greene, was best known for the “I ♥ NY” campaign.

The media giant closed its upfront presentation with the statistic and other findings detailed for the first time by Mark Marshall, chairman, global aAdvertising & partnerships, at the NBCU upfront Monday. Marshall laid out first-quarter results from One Platform Total Audience, a cross-platform tool introduced at CES last January that helps advertisers find strategic audiences across linear and digital on a single media plan.

Television companies expect this year’s upfront to be stronger than last year’s. “We’re in a much better place than we were a year ago going into this upfront presentation,” Rita Ferro, president of global advertising sales at The Walt Disney Co., says. “It’s not 100% back, but it’s most definitely better than it was when we were going into the upfronts a year ago.”

Nexstar brings the former head of WTIC and WTTC in Hartford, Conn., to oversee its CW affiliate in Texas.

As television executives prepare lavish stage presentations in New York this week to dazzle advertisers during the annual TV upfront sales season, a harsh economic reality looms offstage — digital video advertising now eclipses spending on traditional television ads. The shift in spending and competition from tech players like Amazon has taken a toll on media companies’ financial results, raising the stakes for the annual showcase of TV content to attract spending commitments from advertisers.

Forget MJ, Tiger or Serena. When it comes to boosting TV audiences, the former Iowa star — who plays her first WNBA game Tuesday — is in a league of her own. (Darren Cummings/AP)

Brands turn to retailers, Google, Meta and TikTok for additional reach.

Some of broadcasters’ diginets have greater reach than many cable networks and are attracting general market advertising as well as original, first-run and off-network syndicated programs.

Wall Street coasted to the finish line of another winning week on Friday.

The station group has increased its political estimates for the election cycle based on expectations for a very strong back half of the year. That’s not only because of general election races, but also ballot measures related to reproductive rights, which could be substantial.

Comcast said its Now Internet and Now Mobile prepaid services are now available nationwide across the cable operator’s footprint. The Now brand is designed to be a low-cost option for consumers looking for reliable digital connectivity services.

OpenAI plans to announce its artificial intelligence-powered search product on Monday, according to two sources familiar with the matter, raising the stakes in its competition with search king Google. The announcement date, though subject to change, has not been previously reported. Bloomberg and the Information have reported that Microsoft-backed OpenAI is working on a search product to potentially compete with Alphabet’s Google and with Perplexity, a well-funded AI search startup.

Vice Media said Thursday it will create a joint venture with Nashville-based Savage Ventures to relaunch its digital properties, including Vice.com, Munchies, Motherboard and Noisey. The deal will see Savage Ventures investing “tens of millions of dollars” into the joint venture, a Vice spokesperson said.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Thursday signed a privacy law that imposes tough new restrictions on online data collection and ad targeting. Major ad industry groups had urged Moore to veto the measure, which the groups said includes “the most onerous and restrictive approach to data privacy in the United States to date.”

KXAS Dallas-Fort Worth and WTVF Nashville have won 2024 Peabody Awards. Given out by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, 34 winners were named. They represent “the most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and streaming media” in 2023.

The increase to $353 million was driven by increased political advertising and distribution revenue. For the company as a whole, total Q1 revenue was $561 million, a decrease of 6.4%, or $33.7 million.

Wall Street rose Thursday to pull the S&P 500 back within 1% of its record. A report showing a pickup in layoffs helped to support the market.

Tegna moves him from GM of WOI-KCWI Des Moines, Iowa, to oversee its Texas CBS-Quest duopoly.

The company has hired Moelis as its investment banker and has identified more than 60 stations in various regions of the U.S. that it would be willing to sell, said people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. Sinclair owns or operates 185 TV stations in 86 markets. The stations are a mix of Fox, NBC, ABC, CBS and CW affiliates. If sold together, their average revenue for 2023 and 2024 is an estimated $1.56 billion, the people said. Sinclair is willing to sell all or some of the stations, which are in top markets like Minneapolis; Portland, Ore.; Pittsburgh; Austin, Texas and Fresno, Calif., among others.

The Nexstar CEO tells analysts: “If I had to bet, I would bet the company will be larger three years from now than it is today. What acquisition will lead to that in combination with organic growth? I can’t really say. But I’m excited to run out those ground balls and find out.” What it won’t include is streaming, he added: “The main reason we’re not in streaming is because we just don’t think it’s a good business.”

The multiyear agreement also includes launch of two additional cable networks and continued carriage of AMG’s KITV and KIKU Honolulu.

Overall, revenue of $9.958 billion was down from the year before and shy of Wall Street expectations, of over $10 billion. Ditto with net loss per share of 40 cents. TV numbers felt the impact of strikes with fewer episodes delivered. Streaming was a bright spot, where WBD added 2 million subs to 99.6 million and had a profit of $86 million, up from $50 million the year before. Revenue firmed, including a 70% jump in ad sales.

The total of $1.284 billion was attributed to increased distribution revenue and higher political revenue of $39 million.

CBS and other well-known properties would be sold if Sony and Apollo were able to buy Paramount. But the new owners would keep the movie studio.