Since joining the radio industry in September 1992, she’s been associated with some of Southern California’s most successful Hispanic-targeted radio stations. And, she came from a circus operation — literally.
Now, this accomplished broadcast sales executive has joined iHeartMedia to serve as a Senior Account Executive at its Los Angeles radio station group.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises has selected a Senior Vice President of Research Strategy and Insights — an individual who joins the company to lead research, insights and analytics to inform programming, marketing and digital strategies across the portfolio.
He joins from iHeartMedia and reports to Mónica Gil, Chief Administrative and Marketing Officer at NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
With report after report of late illustrating the seemingly ceaseless wave of cord-cutting that’s upending the pay TV industry, it was only a matter of time before a research report emerged that put a date on when U.S. consumers will cough up more cash for streaming video than for MVPD-delivered channels.
That, according to Strategy Analytics, is coming in three years.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
Ad spend and pricing data research and analytics firm Standard Media Index (SMI) has a new Vice President of Sales.
It’s someone who brings 20 years of leadership experience within media and technology to the SMI team, and will oversee the expansion of the ad intelligence company’s sales strategy and new business development.
“It’s truly a pleasure to welcome Dave Dembowski to the SMI family,” said Ben Tatta, President of Standard Media Index. “As an accomplished sales executive, he brings with him two decades of sales leadership and experience from top digital platforms. In this new role, he will be instrumental in further developing the sales pipeline and driving growth for the business, across the board.”
Dembowski most recently served as Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development at IgnitionOne, and previously held various sales leadership roles at Yahoo and EDGAR Online.
From April 2007-September 2017, Dembowski was a key Yahoo! executive, serving as VP/Sales through its acquisition by Verizon.
On March 19, Discovery Inc. shares closed at a remarkable $77.27, climbing from $20.24 on Oct. 30, 2021. There was lots of buzz about its Discovery + OTT launch, which features a massive marketing campaign that continues to dominate the Media Monitors Spot Ten Cable report.
Then, the bubble burst for DISCA on the Nasdaq GlobalSelect market, with Wall Street responding to signs that the OTT growth could perhaps wound core MVPD-distributed channels a bit too rapidly.
With Tuesday’s Closing Bell, DISCA finished at $39.01. Wednesday will be a difficult trading day for Discovery.
Why? Its Q1 2021 results missed Street expectations.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
Pandora who? As the fourth month of 2021 nears its close, Spotify is arguably one of the most popular audio streaming services in the world. Its penetration in Mexico City is among the company’s best. Across the U.S., Spotify is nothing to shirk at.
So, how did it do in the first quarter of 2021? Futuresource Consulting lead market analyst for music and audio Alexandre Jornod digested the numbers early today from London, and offers up the details.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
It’s described as “a unique identifier that enables the resolution of both linear viewership and digital audiences into a common identity framework.”
Introducing OpenID from Comcast-owned NBCUniversal’s advanced advertising company OpenAP.
As OpenAP sees it, OpenID has the power to “unlock” cross-platform capabilities for advanced TV advertising.
The news follows the recent launch of OpenAP’s SSP, which offers advertisers transparency and visibility of available premium video inventory at scale.
OpenID enables efficient matching with viewership currencies for distribution to multiple television publishers, NBCU notes, “evolving advanced TV from age and gender demographics to ID-based targeting.”
The ID is built on a graph of offline and online data and is able to connect directly with buy-side data partners and sell-side platforms.
“With this launch, advertisers will start every campaign by identifying an audience that will be resolved to a set of OpenIDs, which can be broad or narrow based on campaign objectives,” OpenAP notes. Audiences are defined at the ID level then matched to viewership data and platform IDs for linear, digital and addressable activation to create a unified, cross-platform OpenID audience. OpenIDs are shared with TV publishers for use in linear and digital campaigns, with publishers using their internal tools to build targeted media plans.
The OpenID is designed to allow TV publishers to maintain control of data and protect data leakage through the central identity framework, reducing onboarding costs, while creating standards that can unlock cross-publisher measurement and attribution.
“For advertisers, the OpenID increases speed of audience activation, reduces the reporting lag for OpenID audiences, and enables cross-platform use cases to drive investment,” OpenAP says. “Advertisers benefit from more effective campaigns and now have the ability to see who they are reaching across each environment.”
Participating publishers able to accept OpenIDs include AMC Networks, A+E Networks, Crown Media, Discovery, Disney, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal, Univision, ViacomCBS, WarnerMedia and The Weather Channel.
“The acceptance of OpenIDs will facilitate cross-platform convergence when used to seamlessly onboard and activate data across publishers and platforms, powering cross-platform use cases requested by the buy-side with new capabilities planned for launch in Broadcast Year 2022,” OpenAP says.
The first agencies to integrate with and activate all audiences for advanced cross-platform TV campaigns as OpenIDs are dentsu Media, GroupM, Haworth Marketing + Media, Horizon Media and Omnicom Media Group.
Meanwhile, OpenAP has partnered with TransUnion as its identity backbone.
In an effort to provide increased value for advertisers, OpenAP is collaborating with The Trade Desk on behalf of the TV ecosystem to drive interoperability between the OpenID and Unified ID 2.0, the industry-wide initiative to create an upgraded alternative to third party cookies.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On February 1, television stations located in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi were required to file applications for license renewal for terms expiring on June 1, 2021.
Eight stations failed to file license renewal applications. A goodbye to said facilities is in the works, but can be prevented.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
On the eve of RBR+TVBR’s arrival as Editor-in-Chief, Adam R Jacobson met with Pacific Media Group CEO Chuck Bergson at the company’s headquarters in Kahului, on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
In this InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM, Jacobson catches up with Bergson, gaining insight into whether or not COVID-19 curbed rapid growth for the company, which today is the only radio station owner with properties across all of the Hawaiian Islands.
Along the Wasatch Front, viewers seeking FOX programming can tune to KSTU-13. It’s a sibling to KUPX-16, the ION O&O serving Salt Lake City.
The stations are owned by The E.W. Scripps Co., and it could explain Scripps’ interest in a pair of low-power television stations serving Utah’s closest cities to Las Vegas, Nev.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
Allen Media Group isn’t just a growing broadcast TV station owner.
Its digital platform Local Now is gaining notice as a free streaming service for local news and entertainment, with localized content including local news programming meshed with movies and TV shows available for viewing.
Local Now is available on nearly all platforms across OTT on connected TV, Mobile and Web. Now, Local Now is accessible via the newest set-top boxes associated with one MVPD.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
Comscore has landed an expanded deal with ViacomCBS, which has renewed its National TV measurement contracts with the consumer data and analytics firm seeking to compete against Nielsen.
Comscore has been providing ViacomCBS linear TV measurement since 2014.
Since then, their relationship broadened to help build out Viacom’s Vantage Platform. Now, ViacomCBS will be calling on Comscore to boost its traditional linear advertising campaigns on Comscore’s National TV currency, “a key element as the media and entertainment company looks to diversify its partnerships around measurement across both its linear and digital assets.”
Comscore Chief Revenue Officer Carol Hinnant noted, “We highly value our innovative partnership with ViacomCBS and are now pleased to expand the relationship to include traditional linear currency solutions. Once again we are proud to partner with ViacomCBS to change the currency landscape.”
ViacomCBS Chief Operating Officer of Advertising Revenue John Halley added, “Under its new ownership structure, Comscore is making meaningful strides in investment, engineering, and product innovation to support the industry’s evolving needs as a cornerstone measurement provider. We believe Comscore can drive significant value for ViacomCBS, helping us achieve our goals around cross-screen measurement, while supporting our efforts toward a diversified currency strategy.”
International marketing intelligence service WARC‘s latest Global Advertising Trends report has been released. In it, WARC outlines “the new, long-term shifts in e-commerce, social media, online video and gaming for brands and consumers.”
What’s the key takeaway for broadcast media executives? Linear television advertising plummeted, making retransmission consent revenue more essential than ever in the U.S.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
The Media Sales Institute (MSI) has entered into a strategic alliance with Media Staffing Network (MSN). The arrangement brings MSN’s media recruiter’s expertise to the MSI curriculum at the 2021 NABOB MSI.
The event is scheduled for October 25-November 24, at the Atlanta University Center (AUC) and hosted by Morehouse College.
“This new partnership will allow our candidates to gain a better insight into how to research prospective employers and create an effective personal marketing presentation,” said MSI Developer Jeffrey P. Myers. “Additionally, our alliance includes incorporating MSN’s expertise in the first Media Sales & Operations Department (MSD) collegiate curriculum in the country, which is being developed at the AUC and housed at Clark Atlanta University (CAU), starting in 2022.”
MSN CEO and founder Laurie Kahn (pictured) added, “With our tutelage, we can better prepare the MSI graduates to address the position for which they are applying. Sadly, many colleges and universities are not as up to date on what a recent graduate should include on their resumes. Nor do they teach their students how to best stand out and showcase their value when they have little to no work experience.”
The MSI curriculum was developed in 1999 by Personal Selling Principles (PSP), a media management and sales marketing company, and is designed to properly expose and prepare talented individuals for a career in media sales. Since 2006, PSP has partnered with the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) to host the MSI Program at various colleges and universities.
The 10-day “intense” curriculum addresses the ever-evolving media sales process and concludes with sponsoring companies interviewing the candidates for open sales and operations positions.
MIAMI — Nearly one month into the second quarter of 2021, Spanish Broadcasting System late Monday (4/26) officially revealed its financial results for the final three months of 2020.
While its television arm enjoyed double-digit year-over-year revenue improvement, its core radio station group suffered from a double-digit year-over-year revenue decline.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
Live event production tech services company CP Communications is now providing wireless RF technology and a camera package to a specialty camera system company based in Tulsa for live coverage of professional and collegiate basketball.
Supracam has incorporated the technology in its coverage, and was used earlier this year for telecasts of the women’s college basketball Final Four at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
It is also in place at the Barclays Center for all remaining Brooklyn Nets home games for the 2020-2021 season.
Supracam is using CP’s standard Sony HDC-P1R camera package, which includes the compact HD camera, wide angle zoom lens, CP Custom Paint Control to adjust and optimize individual colors, and a Wave Central Pico+ wireless RF video transmitter. Supracam’s RF transmission strategy, which includes frequency selection prior to each game, ensures the best reliability and coverage for live, wireless content acquisition inside arenas where WiFi signals are prevalent.
Established in 2014, Supracam provides unique aerial shots for sports and other events with its computer-controlled system, which smoothly moves a camera across cables vertically and horizontally.
“As the excitement of live sports as we know it returns, specialized camera systems like the Supracam aerial system help capture that excitement for viewers,” said Aaron Segarra, Vice President of Sales at CP Communications. “We are proud to partner with them and bring these unique visuals to Brooklyn Nets fans through the rest of the season.”
MIAMI — In 2015, after working in Washington, D.C., for several years, she joined iHeartMedia. Most recently, this radio industry pro served as Region SVP of Sales for the company once known as Clear Channel Communications in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood market.
Now, she’s been promoted to Market President.
Taking the top slot for the cluster is Shari Gonzalez.
She’ll now oversee over a group of radio brands comprised of WHYI-FM “Y-100,” WBGG-FM “Big 105.9,” WZTU-FM “Tú 94.9,” WIOD-AM 610, WMIA-FM “Totally 93.9,” WMIB-FM 103.5 “The Beat, FM translators “The Bull” and “Throwback Miami,” Black Information Network (BIN)-affiliated WXBN-AM 880, and Sports WINZ-AM.
Gonzalez will report to Linda Byrd, Division President for iHeartMedia.
“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to promote Shari into her first Market President role,” Byrd said. “In the short time that we have worked together, I have seen her competitiveness, work ethic and ability to move her team in the direction we need to go. Shari has the experience and smarts to make a great Market President of iHeartMedia Miami/Fort Lauderdale. She will be a great leader in one of our most important markets.”
Gonzalez first rose to prominence in the radio industry as a General Sales Manager and Director of Sales for CBS Radio’s former Washington, D.C., radio stations, now a part of Audacy (formerly Entercom).
Previously, she spent 15 years in sales and leadership at WMAL-AM 630 in Washington, D.C., today a Cumulus Media station that was once a ABC Radio O&O. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Gonzalez was an account executive for WJZE-FM “Jazzy 100,” which morphed from WDJY-FM “DJ 100,” an early prototype of the rhythmic Top 40 format. She began her career at DJ 100; WJZE was sold by Colfax to an iHeart predecessor, becoming Oldies WBIG-FM.
“I am honored and thrilled for this opportunity,” Gonzalez said. “To continue to work with and now lead this incredible portfolio of brands and this ‘best-in-class’ team of talented, passionate colleagues is a dream come true. Miami/Fort Lauderdale is experiencing a boom like no other market in the country and the South Florida market is filled with a culture and uniqueness that is second to none. As our market continues to grow as a multi-cultural, global economic and entertainment destination, we at iHeartMedia Miami/Fort Lauderdale remain committed to being the largest and most meaningful connection to millions in South Florida.”
If the name Searchlight Capital Partners sounds familiar to you, it is because the private investment firm founded by Wade Davis in January 2021 — through its Searchlight III UTD and ForgeLight units — grabbed a majority stake of Univision Holdings.
The purchase placed Davis in the CEO slot, some seven months after Searchlight completed its acquisition of Frontier Communications‘ operations and assets in the Pacific Northwest, creating Ziply Fiber.
Now, Searchlight, led by Davis associate Eric Zinterhofer, has selected a new Partner who also become a prospective board member of “a number of Searchlight’s existing investments in the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors.”
It puts a former FCC Chairman in the slot.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
KAISERSLAUTERN, GERMANY — A Munich-based digital technology firm with a regional office in the U.S. that works with such companies as ViacomCBS and Discovery has forged a collaboration agreement with a company controlled by one of the busiest buyers in broadcast TV today: Byron Allen.
Allen-controlled Weather Group Television LLC, parent of The Weather Channel and OTT subscription service Local now, will now see tech support in digital product development from intive.
Specifically, intive will support the media group with digital services including consulting, design, product strategy, development, and quality assurance. “The collaboration will help bring the Weather Group in a position to advance their digital portfolio, tap into their OTT potential and drive further digital growth,” intive says.
Local Now SVP/GM Michael Senzon comments, “Going forward, it was crucial for us to find a trustworthy technology partner who would help us make the most of our digital portfolio. In intive we’ve found the perfect mix of domain-specific expertise and design and engineering excellence.”
— Additional reporting from the RBR+TVBR European News Desk
Shulins Solutions, known for its monitor, control and protection products for use at transmission sites and its broadcast consulting services, has completed the installation of its Stellar Eclipse broadcast site monitor and protection system.
It includes VSWR Sentinel to protect four FM radio stations and their shared antenna and combining systems.
Shared common antenna sites often with complex combining networks demand monitoring and protection beyond a simple remote control. To protect these significant investments, broadcasters need a proactive solution to not only provide next level of monitoring, logging and control, but a comprehensive VSWR system for maximum protection.
According to Shulins, Stellar Eclipse with VSWR Sentinel technology was installed to protect and monitor transmission system operations by constantly monitoring the VSWR on all inputs and outputs to the combiner system and refreshing these values many times every second. Anytime a VSWR is detected that exceeds a preset threshold, hard relay interlock
relays are controlled that can open interlocks on connected transmitters. RF power is then removed from the system when an unsafe condition exists, thereby saving the systems from costly damage.
Stellar Ellipse also provides unique cloud-based monitoring of many shared systems often overlooked in an individual stations remote control, Shulins adds.
Visit www.shulinssolutions.com for more information.
Please show your support by using the Ko-Fi link at the bottom of the page. Thank you for supporting REC's efforts!
