Headlines
While You Were Out
Happy New Year and welcome back to reality after the Christmas and New Years break.
FCC Gives Broadcasters A Lump Of Coal For The New Year
Entrenched in the past, the commission has held firm — and even tightened — its deeply out-of-date regulations, dealing a deep blow to broadcasters.
FCC
Broadcast Regulation Does Not Take a Vacation: FCC Resolves 2018 Quadrennial Review with No Significant Changes in Ownership Rules; Proposes a Reporting System for Retransmission Blackouts; and Advances New EEO Reporting Rules
While we normally publish a weekly summary of regulatory actions relevant to broadcasters, the weekend before last we said that we would take the holiday weeks off – and return with a summary on January 7 of all that occurred over the break – unless there was news in the interim.
Television
TV Stations' Cord-Cutting Remedy: Pull On Old-School, Over-The-Air Cords
Amid ongoing issues with legacy pay TV systems, TV stations are prepping at least a partial return to real over-the-air TV.
Gray Officially Unveils Two NBA OTA Partnerships
Following a brief voiding of the deal to resolve contractual matters between the bankrupt Bally Sports parent Diamond Sports Group and the National Basketball Association franchise serving Arizona,
Radio
Salem To Say Goodbye To Nasdaq With OTC Shift
Salem Media Group has given formal notice to the Nasdaq Stock Market of its intention to voluntarily delist its Class A Common Stock from the Nasdaq Global Market and to deregister its Class A Common Stock under Section 12(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Five Oregon Stations Go Dark As Bank Forecloses On Property
Five radio stations owned by Yaquina Bay Communications ceased broadcasting on Monday, Jan. 1, after a bank foreclosed on the property that housed the company’s radio stations and offices in Newport, OR.
Pay TV
Cable Industry’s 2024 Will Be a Chore
Predicting how things shake out politically for the cable industry in 2024 involves juggling too many possible outcomes. So that’s anyone’s guess. But what is predictable is this: Cable lobbyists will find 2024 to be quite a chore.
Verticals
A Record For Off-Year Political Spending. More Dollars Are On Tap For 2024.
It was a historically robust year for campaign spending, especially considering there were no federal elections during 2023.
