IHeartMedia will buy digital advertising and audience measurement company Triton Digital from E.W. Scripps for $230 million, iHeart announced Wednesday: IHeart "will now be able to provide audio content to producers and advertisers with an industry-leading full ad service package for streaming and podcasting." The deal is subject to regulatory approval.
This year is proving to be "very difficult" for local ad revenue, said Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb in a teleconference Friday with acting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, per a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-349. Retransmission consent revenue is increasingly important for stations to provide local content such as news, the company said. With more consumers streaming and traditional MVPD subscribers declining, revenue from “virtual MVPDs” has risen in importance, the filing said: “vMVPDs are generally unwilling to carry independent stations to the disadvantage of local viewers.”
The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment on several requests for channel substitutions, said NPRMs in Friday’s Daily Digest. Many of the proceedings concern stations owned by Gray Television. Gray wants to change WTOC-TV Savannah channel 11 to 23; WRDW-TV, Augusta, Georgia, channel 12 to 27; KAIT Jonesboro, Arkansas, channel 8 to 27; and KCRG-TV Cedar Rapids channel 9 to 32. Gray also wants to swap KFVS-TV Cape Girardeau, Missouri, channel 11 to 32. KUTV Licensee seeks to switch KMYU St. George, Utah, channel 9 to 21; KHGI Licensee wants to swap KHGI-TV Kearney, Nebraska, channel 13 to 18, and KVII Licensee wants to switch KVII-TV Amarillo, Texas, channel 7 to 20. Four Seasons Peoria wants to delete WAOE Peoria, Illinois, channel 10 and move the station to channel 10 in Oswego, Illinois, changing the community of license.
An administrative law judge will decide whether imprisoned radio chain owner Michael Hubbard and his Auburn Network should keep their FCC broadcast authorizations, the Media Bureau said in a hearing designation order Thursday. Noting Hubbard's felony convictions under Alabama's Ethics Act, the bureau said there are "substantial and material questions [whether he and Auburn] possess the basic character qualifications to hold Commission authorizations." Hubbard is serving a four-year sentence for corrupt acts while he was speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, it said. A pending application to assign Auburn authorizations to Frank Lee Perryman, "a Commission licensee with no known qualifications issues," will be held in abeyance pending the proceeding's resolution, it said.
Beasley Broadcast Q4 net revenue fell about 5% to $68.5 million from Q4 2019. That “primarily reflects a year-over-year decrease in commercial advertising revenue due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, partially offset by growth in digital, esports and political revenue,” the radio station owner reported Wednesday. “Esports allowed us to make lemonade out of lemons last year,” CEO Caroline Beasley told investors. Operating income was $19.6 million vs. $11.2 million, the result of lower operating and corporate expenses, lower impairment losses and a land sale, the release said. The Q4 “results reflect the ongoing recovery of our business,” said the CEO in a release. The company has continued to generate month-over-month revenue growth if political ads are excluded from the calculation, she said. Caroline Beasley expects revenue from events to “hopefully” begin returning at the end of 2021 and continue into 2022. She said the company is focused on digital and attracting new advertisers in the coming year.
IHeartMedia is expanding into binaural podcasting, in a “shift toward a more immersive listening experience,” said the company Tuesday. Such 3D audio creates a sense of movement and location.
The FCC Media Bureau approved zoned broadcast coverage petitioner GeoBroadcast Solutions' request for permission to build two channel boosters to gather more data on the technology (see 2101270069), said a company spokesperson Monday. The test will be done at Universal Media Access’ KSJO San Jose, said a GeoBroadcast release. This will be the fourth experimental permit requested for the technology, with the test to last 90 days, it said. Comments on an NPRM on the geotargeted radio technology are due Wednesday in docket 20-401.
The FCC’s “abrupt elimination” of the FM portion of the radio duplication rule was an “unnecessarily broad deregulatory action,” said the American Association of Independent Music, Sound Exchange, musicFIRST Coalition and Future of Music Coalition in a call Friday with an aide to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, per a filing Tuesday in docket 19-310. The agency should reconsider that elimination, the groups said. A healthy radio “ecosystem” can be achieved only through “viewpoint diversity,” the filing said. That will be harmed if commonly owned stations can duplicate programming in the same market, it said. As a commissioner, Rosenworcel and fellow Democrat Geoffrey Starks dissented from the FM portion of the duplication rule order in August (see 2008060072).
The FCC Media Bureau seeks comment on procedures for an upcoming auction of 136 FM allotments and four AM facilities, “the license of which have expired and their call signs deleted,” and enacted an accompanying freeze, said an order and public notice Monday. The freeze affects applications that modify allotments involved in the auction, which is called Auction 109. Many permits involved in 109 were originally on offer in Auction 106, which was postponed indefinitely in March because of COVID-19. Auction 106 is now canceled, and applications from participants were dismissed, the PN said. Comments on auction procedures are due March 15, replies March 22.
The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $1,500 forfeiture for a late-filed FM translator renewal application and will grant the renewal for Letcher County Broadcasting's W278BK Jenkins, Kentucky, said a notice of apparent liability and order Friday.