Business

Scott R. Flick: “On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission announced a new rule banning employee noncompete agreements, treating them as harmful and an ‘unfair method of competition.’  This includes noncompetes in the broadcast industry, where they serve a vital purpose that was given short shrift by the FTC.

The Los Angeles Times newsroom continues to feel the invisible hand of owner Patrick Soon-Shiong in coverage of his pharma research, home page choices and in pushing for livestream video.

Whistleblowing isn’t unique to any industry. Yet the contrary outlook baked into many journalists — which can be a central part of their jobs — and generational changes in how many view activism have combined to make it probable these sort of incidents will continue.

Paramount and Skydance are inching closer towards a potential merger that would see David Ellison’s media company buy out Paramount’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone. According to individuals with knowledge of the talks, Skydance has agreed as part of a potential merger deal to infuse between $4.5 and $5 billion of fresh capital into Paramount, $2 billion of which would be used to buy Redstone’s shares and to settle the company’s debts. Ellison would become CEO of Paramount, replacing current CEO Bob Bakish, with former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell serving as president.

Google and YouTube parent Alphabet blew away Wall Street estimates with revenue up 15% to $80.5 billion driven by strong ad growth. The company also announced a major milestone, its first ever dividend of 20 cents a share in June. The stock is up more than 12% after market close. During a call, CEO Sundar Pichai said YouTube TV has more than 8 million subscribers, a stat YouTube CEO Neal Mohan noted in February.

Roku posted solid first-quarter financials, with positive results in several key metrics illustrating the benefits of ongoing price inflation in the streaming sector. Net losses totaled 35 cents a share, far better that Wall Street analysts’ consensus estimate of 62 cents and much narrower than the $1.38 recorded in the year-ago quarter. Revenue of $754.9 million fell significantly short of the Street’s expectation for $848.6 million, but the company notched its third straight quarter of positive Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.

Shares of Snapchat parent Snap popped 26% in late trading after the social media network said revenue jumped more than expected last quarter to $1.95 billion, up 21% from 2023. The number, and the outlook for the current quarter were nicely above Wall Street forecasts, as were daily active users, which hit 422 million.

Wall Street fell Thursday on a double dose of disappointing economic data. Meta Platforms, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, dropped 10.6% even though it reported better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Investors focused instead on the big investments in artificial intelligence Meta pledged to make.

League is advancing toward lucrative deals with incumbent partners and is in talks with tech giants as well as NBCUniversal.

Following years or analysis and months of vetting, the Media Rating Council has released an update of the invalid traffic (IVT) guidance for third-party measurement firms used by advertisers to avoid buying fraudulent ad inventory. The update, which began when the MRC began considering the impact of various browser and publisher privacy compliance updates a few years ago, expanded into other areas including new variants of domain spoofing, as well as property-level reporting due to the explosion of new questionable forms of publishing, especially so-called made-for-advertising (MFA) sites.

Heading into the upfronts, Warner Bros. Discovery said it launched Olli, a first-party data platform advertiser can use for converged, targeted advertising campaigns. Media agencies IPG Mediabrands, OMG and RPA and retailer Wayfair are the first to use the platform, which enables campaign planning activation and measurement across Warner Bros. Discovery’s portfolio of content and brands, the company said.

The streaming service was largely the reason why revenue for Comcast’s media sector increased 3.6%, in comparison with the same quarter last year. Paid subs increased 55% to 34 million paying customer level, compared with 2023’s first quarter. And the streaming platform’s revenue was up 54%, to $1.1 billion.

The new deal includes Tegna stations in Seattle, Portland and Spokane and streaming on Prime Video across Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

David Buonfiglio: “I love TV. Always have. I’m still convinced it’s the single most effective branding medium ever created. I worked in (or for) local broadcast TV for 35 years. Briefly in news, but almost entirely in sales. That ended last year. And now that I have some distance and time between me and the medium I’ve loved for so long, I realize a couple a stark and unnerving truths about the business of local TV.”

Continued investment in streaming contributed to a first-quarter loss for Spanish-language media giant TelevisaUnivision, which is seeing the bulk of its growth come from its Mexican operations while U.S. revenue stays flat with year-earlier results. Revenue during the quarter improved 7%, to $1.1 billion. Revenue from Mexican operations rose 23%, to $409 million. But revenue from U.S. businesses — a bigger part of the company’s overall financial results — stayed flat at $740 million, despite a first-quarter airing of a Spanish-only version of the 2024 Super Bowl on Univision.

Comcast reported first quarter results that outpaced Wall Street expectations, with Peacock reaching 34 million subscribers but posting higher programming costs. Total revenue inched up 1% to $30.1 billion, with adjusted earnings per share coming in at $1.04, up from 92 cents in the year-ago period. The Media division, which includes Peacock, reported a nearly 4% gain in revenue, to $6.4 billion. But higher operating expenses, notably higher programming expenses at Peacock, contributed to wider losses. Adjusted EBITDA, a key measure of profitability, fell 6% to $827 million.

The parent company for The Enquirer, the tabloid now famous for its ties to former President Donald Trump, has tried repeatedly to sell the publication. It hasn’t been easy. (Mary Altaffer/AP)

Meta Platforms earned $12.37 billion, or $4.71 per share, in the January-March period. That’s up from $5.71 billion, or $2.20 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 27% to $36.46 billion from $28.65 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $4.32 per share on revenue of $36.14 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.

Conditions put on the proposed sale of WADL Detroit to Mission Broadcasting have created a potential drama in the Motor City. Kevin Adell, CEO of Adell Broadcasting, owner of WADL, said he expects the $75 million deal to go through, but said that Mission called the conditions “problematic.” Mission’s bid is being financed by Nexstar Media Group, which wants WADL to become the market’s CW affiliate after Sept. 1, when the CW’s deal with WMYD, owned by E.W. Scripps, expires. Scripps and Nexstar have said the affiliation deal won’t be renewed.

The nation’s biggest business lobbying group and a national tax-services firm have sued the Federal Trade Commission.

Digital media data and analytics company DoubleVerify has received accreditation from the Media Rating Council for Video Viewable Impressions for connected TV (CTV). The company says this will help identify issues with advertisements that have run or played when TV sets are off.

Stations everywhere take pride in having a main anchor who comes from the market they represent. That applies in St. Louis, too, but it also pertains to general managers. The bosses at KTVI-KPLR, KMOV and KSDK were all born and raised there. “St. Louisans love St. Louisans,” Kurt Krueger, KTVI-KPLR VP-GM says. “It gives me a special insight into what viewers like, and what they want to tune into.”