AmericanErrorist

Gene Simmons dropped in on a weather segment Thursday: https://deadline.com/2025/03/gene-simmons-weather-forecast-los-angeles-video-1236327349/

They finally determined what the channel was.

Nexstar insists that the network will become profitable in 2026, as affiliation deals covering "more than two-thirds of The CW’s subscriber base" expire this fall: https://deadline.com/2025/02/the-cw-broadcast-tv-network-profit-2026-nexstar-sports-1236303664/

MCA Media (the Miracle Channel) is bringing what is described as "a version" (presumably including Canadian-produced shows) of the channel to Canada: https://thedesk.net/2025/02/dr-phil-ending-cbs-syndication-merit-street/

Paramount and Google have reached a new carriage deal: https://deadline.com/2025/02/paramount-youtube-tv-carriage-deal-cbs-1236288766/

Sony has just unilaterally claimed worldwide distribution rights to the series starting with the episodes scheduled to air next Monday (CBS is seeking an injuction): https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/sony-jeopardy-wheel-of-fortune-syndication-cbs-1236126022/ Update: CBS got their injunction, and will continue to distribute the programs as the legal process moves.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has asked the CEOs of NPR and PBS to testify at an upcoming House hearing on "news bias": https://deadline.com/2025/02/pbs-npr-news-bias-house-hearing-1236277262/

Remember, RAV shows convicted felon Steve Bannon.

Actually the suburb of Arlington, VA.

This rule only involves the bigger markets, right? Because there are already smaller markets that have major affiliations on their .2s.

The FCC has renewed WTXF's license, swatting down Media and Democracy Project's challenge with ease: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-25-57A1.txt The upside is that the settlement in the Smartmatic case can't be considered because it doesn't rise to the level of a criminal conviction, and even if it did, lying on cable news isn't severe enough to affect broadcast license ownership as per the 1st Amendment. (The FCC refused to due MAD's homework in combing over the WTXF archives for objectionable material.)

Back when Imagicomm first bought these stations, there was debate here over what their play was: ATSC 3.0 or an OTA feed of INSP. Whatever it was (if there even was one), it won't get to come to fruition.

KTLA's coverage included an on-the-scene interview with Steve Guttenberg, who the reporter did not recognize: https://ktla.com/entertainment/actor-steve-guttenberg-helping-fire-crews-by-moving-cars-near-pacific-palisades-brush-fire/

Starting next year, ESPN is sharing the National Championship Game with the network, so that should help.

Carr will seek to alter the equilibrium between stations and networks along with opening up ownership rules: https://deadline.com/2024/12/fcc-donald-trump-broadcast-tv-local-stations-brendan-carr-1236196688

It will be a spin-off to holders of Comcast stock, which means the Roberts will hold a third of it (as with Comcast), but it will be otherwise a separate company.

I believe that is due at least in part to the fact that the Polish channel is still named SciFi because Syfy is similar to the Polish language word for syphilis.

It is my understanding that FCC rules preserve the rights of affiliates to pre-empt network programming as necessary (it was only a few years ago when most of the NBC affiliate body opted out of airing a 30 Rock upfront special that included promotions for Peacock).

I'm wondering how much of the changes here are due to cord-cutting as opposed to fluctuations in population.

CNN owner Warner Bros. Discovery and Charter reached an early renewal Thursday. Liberty Broadband, whose controlling shareholder is WBD director/significant shareholder John Malone, owns 26% of Charter. Reportedly TNT retained the same carriage rate despite potentially losing the NBA in a year. https://deadline.com/2024/09/warner-bros-discovery-charter-announce-early-carriate-renewal-1236085902/

ABC offered to run a 3-hour feed of last night's Presidential debates on the channels of the blacked-out ABC stations (and on the ABC channel space of DirecTV Stream) for free. DirecTV, knowing that ABC had already let the event simulcast on every major news-generating outlet in the country, rejected it out of hand and countered with a blanket reinstatement of all affected channels through the the end of next week's MNF game. https://deadline.com/2024/09/debate-blackout-lifted-directv-1236083661/

Skydance has promised it will “make strategic investments in the legendary newsgathering and reporting efforts of the national CBS television network and the company’s O&O local stations” in their filing to the FCC, including enhancing the online presences of the TV stations. https://deadline.com/2024/09/skydance-paramount-fcc-1236079534/

It's unclear how relevant this would be to this board because it doesn't involve any news-producing stations, but Xfinity and the Big Ten Network are in a mini-dispute involving the regions of 4 programs that the B10 raided from the Pac-12: https://www.nexttv.com/news/comcast-customers-lose-big-ten-network-access-to-pac-12-refugees

The remaining customer base of DirecTV, being a satellite company, is overwhelmingly rural and more likely to be without viable broadband service. Those streamers wouldn't do that much for them.

Disney and DirecTV are going down to the wire for a deal scheduled to lapse on Sunday, in another referendum on the state of the pay TV business: https://deadline.com/2024/08/directv-pay-tv-disney-carriage-negotiations-streaming-1236051151/