Radio+Television Business Report

MIAMI — Just days after the closing of a transaction that effectively melds Televisa’s media content and production assets with those of Univision, the combined company now known as TelevisaUnivision Inc. has appointed a pair of sales leaders who are each taking Senior Vice President roles under EVP/Multimedia Sales John Kozack.

Joining the company are Rob McGovern, as SVP of Multimedia Sales, and Richard Bertodatti, as SVP of Multimedia and Audience Sales.

McGovern will be based in Los Angeles and will lead the West Coast National Sales efforts. McGovern was previously SVP/National Sales & Client Partnerships at Outfront Media, where he led West Coast national ad sales and the development of revenue growth strategies to drive new OOH business. McGovern has also served as SVP of Sales & Client Partnerships at WarnerMedia and spent nine years at Discovery Networks as VP/National Sales Manager.

Bertodatti will lead the company’s business with Publicis, IPG, Havas, the Boston territory, and at other agencies and work with Univision’s multimedia sales teams “to help optimize and accelerate the advanced advertising sales capabilities.”

Bertodatti joins TelevisaUnivision from Facebook, where he was Director of Global Investment Programs, focused on video and sponsorship opportunities. He previously spent six years at ViacomCBS, where he was active in the data advertising sales and strategy team.

Bertodatti started his career at Telemundo parent NBCU, where he held various sales roles during his 12-year tenure, across various network, digital and cable properties.

In the Public Relations trade, it has become standard practice to release headline-making breaking business news late in the day on a Friday. By doing so, the impact will be lessened, while consumers affected by the now-resolved dispute are happy and going on with their lives.

This is what occurred just before 6pm Eastern on February 4 between DISH and TEGNA. A new carriage agreement was reached — with its timing expressly tied to the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

But, is the second reason for an end to a particularly bitter battle tied to the institutional investment firm led by Soohyung Kim, which is reportedly close to a per-share buyout of the company he unsuccessfully sought to lead via two failed shareholder proposals?

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It was expected, yet some remained concerned that the necessary percentage of Radio Music License Committee (RMLC) members needed to approve an agreement was still out of reach.

Those worries can now be swept away. A settlement between the RMLC, a group representing several smaller and independently-owned radio stations, and the Irving Azoff-controlled Global Music Rights (GMR) has been reached.

News of the agreement, which RBR+TVBR learned on Friday was imminent, was first shared by Streamline Publishing’s co-owned Radio Ink early Monday.

The deal puts a settlement of long-running litigation between GMR and the RMLC over the royalties that the radio stations which are members of the Committee, led by Executive Director Bill Velez, will pay for the public performance of music written by composers aligned with GMR.

One condition of the settlement, an important one, called for a sufficient percentage of radio stations to opt into the deal by signing the form license agreement that
RMLC and GMR negotiated. The negotiated form license agreement, with member
stations’ annual license fees, was sent directly by GMR via e-mail. That sufficient percentage of signatures was met.

The new GMR licenses that radio stations represented by the RMLC signed will begin on April 1. An interim license previously agreed upon by the parties expires on March 31.

In a statement, Azoff said, “Global Music Rights stands for songwriters and the value of their music. I am proud of the GMR team for the hard work on behalf of songwriters in achieving this settlement. It is wonderful that GMR and thousands of radio stations coast to coast are partnered to bring great music to fans for many years.”

Speaking for the RMLC is its Chairman, Ed Atsinger III, the Executive Chairman and former CEO of Salem Media Group. Atsinger commented, “This settlement puts an end to more than five years of litigation and represents a shared desire by both sides to find a way for radio stations and GMR to work together on a long-term basis without repeatedly resorting to litigation.”

Litigation was perhaps an unfortunate hallmark of GMR’s battles with RMLC, as the settlement resolves antitrust litigation that dates to late 2016.  The battle was bruising, with RMLC striking first in November 2016. A month later, GMR countersued, assailing the RMLC as “an illegal cartel.”

With the deal, radio stations now have rights and royalty accords with GMR, SESAC, BMI and ASCAP. Despite these payments paid by radio, groups including musicFIRST, led by former New York Congressman Joe Crowley, are aggressively seeking Congressional approval of the American Music Fairness Act. While the AMFA was in the spotlight last week on Capitol Hill, it has far less support than the Local Radio Freedom Act, a resolution that serves as a pledge to vote against any legislation placing new fees on broadcast radio with respect to airplay of recorded music.

Forty-three years ago, he began his career at a Class A FM at 92.7 MHz serving Nassau County, N.Y., and parts of New York City with a mix of rock and punk music that would eventually coalesce under leadership that built a radio station that “Dared to Be Different.”

He later made waves as the man who preceded Howard Stern in overnights at a station that previously featured Jay Thomas in mornings that just couldn’t shake its association with Disco.

For the last 18 years, he’s been running a Class A Adult Alternative FM based in Maryland’s state capital.

Now, Bob Waugh is ready to say farewell.

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Could department store retailers be ramping up their spot TV efforts because of the Olympic Games? Or, are other forces at work?

Whatever the case, Target and Macy’s are highly active users of Spot TV, according to the latest Media Monitors report.

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How many active advertisers are there at Spot Radio these days?

Once one deletes iHeartRadio promotional spots and podcast teasers from the mix, the answer is, sadly, not that many.

On the bright side, Macy’s is back with a new effort. This puts the retailer at No. 10 with some 35,145 spot plays.

By comparison, the top paid advertiser, Indeed, comes in with 62,554 spot plays for the week ending February 6.

At No. 4 thanks to a renewed campaign push is DuckDuckGo, “the Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs.”

Meanwhile, ZipRecruiter is present to challenge Indeed in the job search category.

Lastly, the QSR category is represented by Wendy’s.

It’s a company “dedicated to providing Great Local Radio and is committed to being an active and integral part of the communities it serves.”

As of today, meeting that goal is now a bigger part of the role Jim Smith will play at the radio broadcasting company led by Mary Quass.

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A Bauer Media brand with national coverage of the United Kingdom has unveiled the name — and, as such, the winner — of an all-digital radio station named after one of its listeners.

It concludes a unique promotion that began one month ago at Absolute Radio.

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On December 8, 2021, now-former Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey ordered the Elliot Evers-administered “CXR Radio Station Trust” to move forward with the timely divestiture of two Florida FM radio stations. While Evers wanted an extra six months to get the price he believes is fair for the properties, despite an offer for one of the FMs from Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS), Carey said no.

Now, with days remaining, industry observers are eagerly awaiting the station sales. Little is being said privately about the matter, leading some to question when the necessary deals will be struck.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Senate has confirmed three Corporation for Public Broadcasting board members.

Two of the board members were re-nominated, and retain their seats. The third board member is new to the CPB. He’s a major Hollywood figure.

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There’s a new individual who will oversee all live-action programming, scripted and unscripted series and movies created by Disney Branded Television for the Disney Channels and for OTT platform Disney+.

It is an individual stepping into a role most recently held by DBT President Ayo Davis.

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Are you a bilingual executive who struggles with a marked accent when speaking in English? Does presenting on Zoom make it worse? “Zoom expert” and veteran public relations executive Rosemary Ravinal offers three quick fixes to help you communicate your authentic personality and expertise without needing to reduce your accent.

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As of September 29, 2021, the second-largest investor in Townsquare Media reported having a 6.39% stake in the “local first” owner of radio stations in small and medium-sized markets.

It has now revealed in a SEC filing that it has taken a bigger position in Townsquare.

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The advocacy and lobbying group acting on behalf of the nation’s small and independently-owned MVPDs has filed comments with the FCC that present the argument that broadcast television station owners’ fast-rising retransmission consent revenue needs to be tempered.

If not, consumers, and cable television service providers, will continue to be harmed.

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It’s a town due south of Dallas known as the home of the Munster Mansion. And, it is the city of license for an AM and FM translator that at present is control by a husband and wife.

Pending FCC approval, their shares in the stations will be transferred to a single individual.

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Podcast Business Journal

Who knew signing the most successful podcaster in the world would become such a headache? In addition to reporting quarterly earnings on Wednesday that includes a weaker Q1 2022 forecast and the revelation that it will no longer offer annual guidance, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek had to field questions about the growing discontent from content creators over the Rogan show.

Ek told investors he’s trying “trying to balance creative expression with the safety of our users. Of course, this is a very complicated issue. But I’m really proud of the steps that we took following the concerns raised by the medical and scientific communities.”

A handful of artists pulled their music from Spotify after objecting to guests Rogan has had on that are not lock-step in line with the COVID-19 vaccine. They believe Rogan is spreading misinformation about the vaccine.

Ek said the company does not “change our policies based on one creator nor do we change it based on any media cycle or calls from anyone else. While Joe has a massive audience… he also has to abide by those policies.

Rogan has apologized for causing this headache for Spotify and said he will strive for more balance.

Spotify’s stock dropped by nearly 17% to $159.70 on Thursday, but was up slightly in immediate after-hours trading.

As RBR+TVBR first reported Wednesday, Spotify in Q4 2021 had 406 million monthly active users, up 18% from a year earlier. Paying subscribers rose 16% to 180 million.
Revenue from subscriptions jumped 22% to $2.6 billion. Advertising revenue increased 40%. Advertising revenue has jumped from 10% of Spotify’s overall revenue to 15%.

Spotify now has 3.6 million podcasts available on its service, up from 3.2 million in the previous quarter.

For the first time, Urban One‘s audio divisions will have a Chief Revenue Officer.

Who’s earning the job? It is a 17-year veteran who has served as SVP of National and Network Sales for the company that owns Radio One and national radio entity Reach Media.

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Ensuring a broadcast station’s license renewal application is filed in a timely manner with the FCC is a must. Yet, it doesn’t always happen.

That’s the case with a Meridian, Miss., licensee that’s just received a forfeiture notice for its tardiness, which also involves the unauthorized operation of its AM radio station in lieu of an active license.

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In recent quarters, iHeartMedia has taken the approach of releasing its fiscal report card after the Closing Bell on Wall Street on a Thursday. As such, results that may not seem as rosy as its peers would appear Friday morning in trade publications covering Radio — a soft news consumption day.

For Q4 2021, iHeartMedia is going with a pre-market release on a Wednesday. Is it a sign that the nation’s No. 1 audio content creation and distribution company is poised to report some of its best-ever numbers?

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Two-thirds of broadcast professionals believe the industry is adapting technologically to change, compared to 7 in 10 respondents one year ago.

That’s one of the key findings in a survey focused on the current media production landscape and state of broadcast workflows fielded by NewscastStudio.

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