Also: Court TV sold; Trump endorses Nexstar-Tegna deal Super Bowl LX wasn’t much to look at on the field, but it still drew a large crowd. Ratings released by Nielsen Tuesday showed the game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks averaged a 39.4 household rating and 79 share and drew 124.9 million viewers across all platforms for NBC, […]
I Beats Paramount and Comcast in bidding Deal includes HBO and HBO Max; does not include WBD’s cable networks, which will be spun off Passing regulatory tests could be difficult In a move that gained steam in the 24 hours before it was announced, Netflix is buying Warner Bros. Discovery for $82.7 billion, closing a period during which two other […]
Comes after Trump expresses disdain The bid to increase scale in local television has turned into an arms race. Sinclair is the latest to make a bid to acquire a rival, this time Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps, a company that was founded in 1878 as a newspaper chain. If successful, Sinclair would own and/or operate around 250 stations in the […]
WGN-TV, Fox 32 expands local programming [Editor’s Note: This post was updated on Sept. 8 to reflect the last-minute scheduling changes made at Fox 32 and Fox Chicago Plus.] If there’s any indication about the struggles of first-run and off-network syndication, look no further than this season’s new crop of shows, in which you count on one hand whereas in […]
Combined entity would own 265 stations covering 80 percent of country As hinted by the Wall Street Journal last week, WGN-TV and WGN Radio owner Nexstar Media Group has agreed to purchase rival Tegna, Inc. for $3.6 billion in the biggest deal in television history. The new combined entity gives Nexstar 265 stations with nine of the top ten markets […]
Cable networks such as USA Network and E! under new ownership by 2026 With the business in freefall, Comcast Corp. has decided to part ways with its cable networks. As hinted a few weeks ago, Comcast announced Wednesday it is spinning off its cable networks from its NBCUniversal into a new company. Tentatively titled SpinCo (we hope it’s a temporary […]
Also: Final Wheel with Pat Sajak draws four-year viewership high; Tegna’s Daily Blast Live to end The WNBA continues to soar to new ratings heights as Sunday’s Chicago Sky-Indiana Fever game illustrated thanks to the heated rivalry between the two teams courtesy of Caitlin Clark. Despite the 11 a.m. Chicago start time, the contest airing on CBS drew 2.252 million […]
Also: Alyssa Donovan promoted to full-time to WGN-TV’s Weather Team; WBEZ continues its ratings freefall; Indianapolis station to air Fever games As hinted by Politico’s Shia Kapos last week, it was made official Tuesday: Paris Schutz is headed to Fox-owned WFLD (Fox 32) where he’ll be the chief political reporter and anchor his own half-hour weekly political show, essentially replacing […]
Deals made as CBS sitcom wraps up five-season run In a move that was expected given it was approaching the five-season mark, Warner Bros.’ sitcom Bob Hearts Abisola was sold in broadcast off-network syndication to several station groups this fall with 92 episodes available to air, announced last week. Warner did not announce what percentage of the country is cleared, […]
Also: Richard Mline’s wife dies; DirecTV retains NFL Sunday Ticket….for business customers; Standard General-Tegna merger called off Sports business website Front Office Sports reported Monday evening the owner of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls acquired a majority stake in Stadium, the multiplatform sports network seen on over-the-air digital channels and streaming. The network is based out of the […]
Also: New Illinois member of Congress supports Standard General-Tegna; Toledo’s WNWO ends “local” newscasts; Phoenix’s basketball teams bail on Bally In what you can call a “weekend news dump”, Cumulus Chicago last Friday let Troy Hanson go from his positions at the cluster. During his time there, he wore several hats including PD of Q101 (WKQX), and VP of programming […]
Nexstar financial chief says money from sale of printing press property helped purchase The CW [Editor’s Note: This story was updated November 19.] It turns out there is a Chicago connection to the recent purchase of The CW network by Irving, Tex.-based Nexstar Media Group – and it involves a future casino in our town. As reported by Hollywood trade […]
Pritzker, Bailey showdown tops time slot in viewers, demos Chicago viewers obviously love their politics: according to Nielsen in a press release from Nexstar’s WGN-TV, the first of two Illinois gubernatorial debates between incumbent Democrat J.B. Pritzker and Republican Darren Bailey was a big local ratings hit on October 6, winning the 7-8 p.m. time period with an exact total […]
Also: The Drive promotes Janda Lane to middays; Nexstar closes the deal to buy The CW; NATPE files for bankruptcy; Svengoolie is hiring! The move was expected for months, and now it’s official: The Chicago Sun-Times announced Thursday it is removing the paywall for all stories. This comes as the newspaper and Chicago Public Media’s WBEZ-FM announced a non-profit merger […]
Teams with Irika Sargent for newscasts Former WGN-TV and NewsNation executive Jennifer Lyons has landed another Nexstar alum to join her at CBS-owned WBBM-TV (CBS 2). As first reported by Robert Feder, Joe Donlon is joining Irika Sargent as co-anchor of the station’s 5, 6, and 10 p.m. newscasts starting May 2. This is the second NewsNation alum to join […]
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