Business

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.”

The industry trade group Adds Cintia Gabilan, VP of Media Center; Arlene Mu, assistant general counsel, and Nadine Karp McHugh, executive in residence.

Tubi, Fox’s free, ad-supported streamer, has partnered with British streaming service DAZN to add new channels featuring live and recorded women’s football, or soccer, as its known in the U.S., as well as boxing and MMA.

E.W. Scripps, one of the largest local TV broadcasters in the U.S., has hired a financial adviser to evaluate interest in acquiring Bounce TV, its over-the-air network geared toward African Americans, according to Scripps CEO Adam Symson.

The streaming services will be looking for a larger share of the $27-billion pot for commercial time in the 2024-25 TV season.

With the augmented reality advertising market expected to reach $14.5 billion in 2027 (up from $3.4 billion in 2022), the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Media Rating Council have added game creator Niantic’s Rewarded AR ads technology to the set of ad industry measurement guidelines that both companies first released in February. “The Augmented Reality advertising market is projected to generate $1.2 billion in revenue in the U.S. this year,” explained Zoe Soon, vice president of IAB’s Experience Center, in February, adding: “Thus, as an industry, we need to establish a greater consistency on how we define and measure AR advertising to foster fairness and transparency for buyers and sellers.”

The TikTok legislation was included as part of a larger $95 billion package that provides foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel and was passed 79-18. It now goes to President Joe Biden, who said in a statement immediately after passage that he will sign it Wednesday. Pictured: A TikTok content creator, speaks to reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, April 23, as Senators prepared to consider legislation that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban, a contentious move by U.S. lawmakers. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)

Jo Ann Ross, the long-running queen of television advertising sales, is stepping down from her role as chairman of Paramount Advertising at the end of the month, the company says. A year ago, Ross was named chairman, taking an advisory role to Paramount Advertising President John Halley. The new move comes weeks before the upfront. Pictured: Jo Ann Ross with Jon Batiste’s band during a CBS upfront at Carnegie Hall (CBS).

If the Federal Trade Commission’s decision to ban noncompete agreements stands, anchors and many reporters should brace for the probability of seeing their salaries fall.

Wall Street rallied again Tuesday to erase more of April’s losses. A weaker-than-expected report on U.S. business activity helped support the market, which remains in an awkward phase.

The Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 Tuesday to ban noncompete agreements that prevent tens of millions of employees from working for competitors or starting a competing business after they leave a job.

The extension will keep him in charge of the trade association through 2029.

He moves across town from Nexstar’s KGET Bakersfield to oversee the Scripps ABC affiliate there.

Streaming video might have made the turn from a go-go industry to a mature business, according to a new report from MoffettNathanson senior research analyst Michael Nathanson. Looking at data from HarrisX, Nathanson noted that streaming penetration dipped to 84% in the first quarter from 85% in the fourth quarter of 2023. “Whether this marks a new plateau or whether there is additional room for streaming to increase its penetration will be a key question for investors going forward,” Nathanson said.

We are in the midst of a shift in the media industry in which many companies are pursuing business models that have yet to be proven and may never pan out. As consumers shift to an on-demand approach to television viewing driven mostly by digital delivery of video, many of the biggest media companies, far bigger than Scripps and our peer-group broadcasters, have taken steps to break their content out of the exclusivity of existing bundles that have served the industry so well for the last 50 years.

Spotify Technology, the audio streaming giant, reported Q1 results broadly in line with analyst forecasts as the company continued to add new features. Paid subscribers rose 14% year over year to 239 million, the company said Tuesday in a statement, in line with analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Total active users, including those plans with advertising, grew to 615 million, compared with the 617.9 million forecast by analysts.

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish saw total compensation in 2023 of $31.3 million, compared with $32.0 million in 2022.

Nexstar Media Group is asking the Federal Communications Commission to cancel its order that WPIX New York be divested by Mission Broadcasting, claiming that the agreements under which Nexstar runs the station for Mission are legal and approved by the commission. Nexstar also wants a $1.2 million fine levied against it by the FCC canceled. Mission was also fined $612,395 as part of the commission’s Notice of Apparent Liability. “Through the NAL, the commission seeks to wield its enforcement authority in a myriad of improper ways,” Nexstar said in its response.