The announcement that Oprah will end her broadcast television show upon its 25th anniversary in 2011 has created quite a stir. Her category leading position for the past 20+ years has led to her show being a “must buy” for many advertisers trying to reach certain demographic groups. Consequently, local television stations have spent considerable …

Uncertainty reigns in the media landscape. That uncertainty leads to some very wide predictions on the outcome of the upcoming network advertising upfront selling season.
To start with, economic conditions facing all businesses are unclear. While there have been some recent positive news coming from some sectors, there is still a feeling that things are going …

In the past few days, two large media companies – Time Warner and Newsday (Cablevision) – have announced that they are either moving towards or are seriously considering restricting access to their content on the Internet. In the case of Time Warner, CEO Jeff Bewkes suggested that only existing subscribers (through cable, telco or DBS …

The Rocky Mountain News ceasing operations after nearly 150 years. The San Francisco Chronicle possibly soon following. Other daily newspapers cutting back delivery of copies in certain areas and not publishing on certain days. Hundreds of newspapers being forced to cut back on their reporting staffs. Could any of these cutbacks in service been avoided?
The …

Mel Karmazin carved out bookend strategies to preserve life for Sirius XM including preparations for a possible Chapter 11 filing and negotiating an apparent deal with John Malone and Liberty Media. We wonder whether this company will continue to be an important player in the audio entertainment marketplace. Clearly, it starts from a position of …

The recent deal between the radio broadcasting industry and the recording industry on adjusting the royalties associated with streaming of simulcast radio broadcasters is a welcome development during a very tough time for the radio industry. Faced with three consecutive years of negative revenue growth, with at least some more negative years to come, the …

Since the FCC revised its local radio ownership rules in 2003, questions have been posed as to the procedure by which BIA Advisory Services (BIA) assigns radio stations to local markets. The FCC referenced BIA’s database, Media Access Pro™, as a source for delineating the number and owners of radio stations in areas that the …

The final tally of the number of radio and television station transactions for the full year 2008 shows an incredible decrease from the previous year’s subpar levels. While nearly 800 radio stations (778) were sold in 2008 the total value of those transactions only totaled $856 million. The number of stations sold was down 26.7% …