Lachlan Murdoch ascends to throne While somewhat calling it a career, 92-year old Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chairman of both Fox Corp. and News Corporation, effective in Mid-November when the next shareholders’ meeting takes place. Murdoch is transiting to chairman emeritus of each board, meaning it’s a honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of […]
Shows put season premieres on hold after WGA With the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes heading into fall and no resolution in sight, the latest battleground is the daytime talk show arena. Last week, Drew Barrymore decided to return her CBS Media Ventures-distributed show to production, angering the WGA and picketed her program last week outside CBS Broadcast Center in New […]
Impasse lasted 77 days [Editor’s Note: This article was originally published a day earlier. It has been slightly re-written to reflect updated news.] In news that broke overnight Sunday (and I do mean literally), the signal for Nexstar stations returned this morning to DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, and U-Verse after 77 days under an interim agreement, leading to a more concrete […]
The decline of linear TV claims another victim as WTTW pairs back public affairs show With the news Nexstar is looking to buy ABC and its owned stations – which could eliminate a local newsroom in Chicago in a possible merger of WLS-TV and WGN-TV, comes this bit of unwelcome news: WTTW is reducing the number of episodes of its […]
Comes a day after a former Nexstar exec says it could happen [Editor’s Note: This story has been updated.] News of a potential ABC sale picked up Thursday after Bloomberg reported The Walt Disney Co. was in talks for either Nexstar or Allen Media Group (led by Byron Allen) to purchase ABC and its owned eight stations, after a Deadline […]
Disney to permanently remove some channels as it agrees to sell apps through Spectrum in a blueprint others will likely follow After all the countless pieces over how the Charter-Disney feud could wind up killing linear TV and the cable bundle, customers woke up Monday morning to find their Disney channels back – but not all of them returned. Disney […]
…or not, as reruns, court shows dominate local schedules As linear TV viewership continues to tumble, fall schedules for local television stations across the country certainly reflect the trend. Unlike last year when Sherri Shepard and Jennifer Hudson debuted with new syndicated talk shows, there is no such new programming being offered – especially with an ongoing work stoppage in […]
Move takes place the same day ratings were released With all the attention lately focusing on the decline of linear TV hastened by labor disputes and retrans blackouts, let’s not forget terrestrial radio – especially on the AM side of the band – is also in the fight of its life. The latest evidence of this came Wednesday as Cumulus […]
But vote divided mostly among partisan lines as five Republicans cross over to vote for her After three years of waiting, the FCC finally got their fifth member as Anna Gomez was finally voted in by the Senate to serve. But as a confirmation vote in the past would sail through the Senate easily with both members of either party […]
Marquee expands Bears programming by adding “Bears Post Game Live” ; NBC Sports Chicago resumes similar shows Even though neither Marquee Sports Network and NBC Sports Chicago carries any Chicago Bears games, it doesn’t mean the two regional sports networks are ignoring them – in fact, both are stepping their game bigtime to serve fans who are looking for more […]
NatGeo, Disney Channel, Freeform and more off Spectrum nationwide; ABC 7 off in Wisconsin Well, you can add another carriage dispute to the Barbie (and we’re not referring to the blockbuster movie of the summer.) Without any advanced warning – no commercials, no red flag banners on station websites – nothing, The Walt Disney Company pulled all of its 20+ […]
White Sox debacles, news crews getting robbed spotlight tremendous failure of city institutions If you were a kid in the 1970s or 1980s perhaps you remember a commercial for Resse’s Peanut Butter Cups when someone got peanut butter into their chocolate, and vice versa. So what happens when the problems of sports’ worst-run franchise mashes up with a problems […]
Also: WBD inching closer to exiting RSN business; WGN to air ACC Football through The CW [Editor’s Note: The second item in this post has been updated.] We have another local TV personality announcing his retirement – this time it’s Jim Rose, the longtime ABC 7 (WLS-TV) sports anchor, who announced Monday he was stepping down from the station after […]
First casualty of Writer’s Strike; Fox readies replacements for stations The ongoing Writer’s Strike in Hollywood has claimed its first victim – a game show strip. A piece in TVNewscheck published last Wednesday revealed a little nugget – the end of Jay Leno’s revival of You Bet Your Life after two seasons as the strike shut down production of the […]
Second incident in a month If you think you’ve seen it all when it comes to crime in Chicago…now we have TV news crews getting robbed while covering…robberies. According to local crime blog CWBChicago, a local news crew was ready to do a live shot around 5 a.m. on the Near North Side near the intersection of Division and Milwaukee […]