Radio & Television Business Report

On Tuesday, Inside the Beltway insiders spread the word that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr was teeing up an Order for consideration at the Commission's August Open Meeting addressing the nation's media ownership rules. We now know that it will not involve AM/FM radio station ownership rules as the Commission seeks to repeal the 39% national television multiple ownership rule.

A New York federal district court has declined to grant a motion to dismiss the case. This clears the path for DirecTV to continue litigation against Nexstar Media Group on the grounds that it engaged in antitrust activities when it failed to reach a retransmission consent accord with the DBS provider in 2022.

It has already inked an agreement with Eastlan to provide the advertising community with ratings currency in such markets as Atlanta, where Cumulus Media relied on Nielsen Audio data until a legal spat put a stop to that. Now, it is the flagship launch partner for Xperi's AutoStage Radio Audience Measurement Service.

WBD and Paramount Skydance were asked to refrain from closing their game-changing merger until after the judicial process concludes by way of a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court by a group of state Attorneys General. With a hard "no" from the companies, the coalition moved forward with the filing of a temporary restraining order.

The Media and Democracy Project has submitted a mandamus petition with the D.C. Circuit that would compel the FCC to act on the advocacy group's desire to appeal a Media Bureau decision granting the license renewal of a FOX-owned property, ignoring MAD's concerns tied to news reports deemed false and ownership character issues.

"Local first" digital advertising and radio station ownership group Townsquare Media has announced when it will release its results for the second quarter of 2026.  The answer? The financial health report is due a short time before the biggest broadcast TV station licensee in the U.S. discloses its Q2 2026 report.

For Nielsen and the nation's biggest radio station licensee, removing AM/FM radio "is a multibillion-dollar gamble for automakers." The declaration in a new report comes as the FCC is expected to introduce rule changes at its August Open Meeting that would loosen media ownership limits for radio and TV licensees.

He's worked at a wide range of radio ownership groups since joining Mid-West Family Broadcasting's WSJM-FM in Benton Harbor, Mich., in 1994 as a Production Director. Most recently, he served as Executive VP of Content for the former Alpha Media. Starting July 20, he'll be taking a key Cox Media Group role.

A federal appeals court has upheld an injunction won by Cumulus Media against ratings giant Nielsen, agreeing with a lower court that the company likely violated antitrust law by leveraging an alleged monopoly over national radio data to pressure broadcasters into buying local data they didn't want.

In August 2025, Beasley Media Group agreed to sell all of its Fort Myers-Naples market stations to a pair of local operators. Now, that deal is complete, and the new owners would rather not keep the home of ESPN Southwest Florida in operation.

She's been associated with Beasley Media Group since May 2017 and was promoted to her current role in 2019. Now, Heidi Raphael, a highly visible radio industry leader long associated with the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation, the NAB Board, and the Alliance for Women in Media, is taking a key SBA role.

The E.W. Scripps Co. will report its Q2 2026 results on the first Thursday in August but not discuss the results until Friday morning. Here's a look at what investors may see from the company that's parent to ION Network, Scripps Sports and a group of stations that returned to DirecTV last week after a five-week "blackout."

The Broadcast Standards Association known as ATSC, the body responsible for the new digital broadcast signal enabling NEXTGEN, says it has completed "a major revision" of its A/85 Recommended Practice: Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television.

Americans’ engagement with others is not one-dimensional. That's the focal point of a just-released Pew Research Center study from the Pew-Knight Initiative that looks across a range of behaviors: political activity, civic involvement, religious attendance and attention to news.

The Latino Donor Collaborative (LDC) has released its 2025 LDC U.S. Latinos in Media Report™: Full Year Update and the 2026 LDC Strategic Roadmap for the Entertainment Industry. The data highlights "a widening chasm" between where Latinos consume English-language content and how they are represented on and off screen in the industry.

Radio has a fresh lineup of sessions on AI, streaming, and broadcast innovation to look forward to in Manhattan this fall. Registration is now open for NAB Show New York, returning to the Javits Center on October 21 and 22 with roughly 80 hours of programming.