Radio+Television Business Report

The 2026 Gracie Awards will once again unite trailblazers, emerging talent, and storytellers shaping the future of media at two signature events. A May 2026 event is in Beverly Hills, Calif. A June 2026 event is in the City of New York.

U.S.-based employers announced 62,075 job cuts in July 2025, rising 29% from June’s 47,999. Worse yet, the total is up by 140% from 25,885 announced in July 2025 and comes amid widespread industry chatter that Paramount Global's merger with Skydance Media will soon claim thousands of jobs.

The station that serves as TEGNA's NBC affiliate serving Northeast Ohio has appointed a News Director who will assume the role on August 4. She'll be responsible for overseeing the station's news content across all platforms, including streaming, broadcast, and digital.

It is an ABC affiliate that has historically played an outsized role in U.S. presidential politics, as it has brought the New Hampshire primary debates between candidates to voters across the nation for generations. Now, this Hearst Television property has a new News Director.

State Broadcasters Associations representing television station owners across all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico have united to pass a resolution that seeks the FCC to adopt "a clear, industry-wide date-certain transition plan for the full deployment" of the digital broadcast standard that powers NEXTGEN TV.

The E.W. Scripps Co. says it is "enhancing its consumer insights strategy" with the appointment of a media industry executive to the role of post of VP of Head of Enterprise Research and Consumer Insights. Its a woman who frequently lectures on the power of storytelling with data at several universities.

The July 7 announcement that Gray Media and The E.W. Scripps Co. have entered into agreements to swap television stations across five mid-sized and small markets, resulting in the creation of new duopolies for each group, has led the FCC to establish a pleading cycle for the purpose of seeking public comment on the proposed change in control.

The SAG-AFTRA labor union that represents more than 160,000 professionals in the media and entertainment industries has renewed its agreement with Nielsen, again selecting the firm as its third-party provider of streaming content measurement.

He would become an honorary Cincinnati "Commissioner of Fun," years after his father sold WEBN to the Randy Michaels-led Jacor. Now, many across Southern Ohio are pausing to pay respects to Frank "Bo" Wood, who went from hosting "The Jelly Pudding Show" to becoming a nationally respected Rock and Roll Radio renegade. 

It bills itself as "the world’s first fully interactive TV music channel," and it is powered by FastStream Interactive and ATSC 3.0 head cheerleader Sinclair. Thanks to a newly signed strategic partnership, ROXi’s music channel is being brought to 31 DMAs — with additional US markets launching later this year.

He's most recently served as President of MAX Returns alongside Jon Lammers, who holds the Vice President role of the MVPD-focused broadcast television station consultancy. But, from 1997 through 2008, he served as Chief Operating Officer for Nexstar Broadcasting. Now, the industry is pausing to mourn the death of Duane Lammers.

According to MoffettNathanson Senior Analyst Robert Fishman, the Upfronts "still represent a good barometer of the future of the industry, measuring advertiser sentiment and signaling where budgets are flowing in the year ahead."

The licensee of a Class A digital television station serving Korean-language audiences in the Atlanta market has signed a Consent Decree with the head of the FCC Media Bureau's Video Division, ending an investigation into children's programming rule violations.

S&P Global Market Intelligence has released data from Kagan's US MediaCensus online consumer survey that offers an in-depth look at the vMVPD subscriber in 2025. The big eye-opener? Elder Americans are driving the success of Sling TV.

The E.W. Scripps Co. has priced an offering of $750 million aggregate principal amount of new 9.875% senior secured second-lien notes, which represents a $100 million increase from the previously announced size of the offering.

A temporary moratorium on filing the reports on FCC Form 323 or 323-E is now in place. Why? The Media Bureau, headed by Acting Chief Erin Boone, says, "With the next filing window approaching, we find there is good cause to waive the biennial ownership report filing requirement for a period of 18 months."

The CEO of NBCUniversal parent Comcast has been told the agency is launching a formal inquiry focused on whether NBC affiliation agreements — and Comcast's practice in negotiations and affirming these deals — are in conflict with station owner independence and their stations' public service obligations.

Bell and Rogers today announced an agreement to distribute each other's specialty channels across platforms. The deal comes as Bell TV has launched Canadian versions of three popular U.S. cable television networks.

A Tallahassee, Fla.-based licensee of low-power broadcast TV stations has moved forward with an acquisition that will give it ownership of a trio of LPTV properties, all of which serve the Southernmost City in the Continental U.S.

Get After It Media (GAIM), the national digital multicast network company that's parent to Retro TV, The Heartland Network, The Action Channel, The Family Channel, and Rev’n, has a new Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering.