Radio+Television Business Report

Comscore will soon begin incorporating YouTube and YouTube TV measurement into its Comscore Campaign Ratings service — a move that builds on Comscore’s partnership with Google to help build the next generation of YouTube measurement without third-party pixels.

The arrangement, Comscore notes, will also help it offer marketers a deeper understanding of how audiences are consuming content on YouTube and YouTube TV across desktop, mobile, and, with this integration, connected TV (known outside of Canada as “CTV”).

Comscore Campaign Ratings provides advertisers and agencies with a deduplicated view of reach and frequency across linear TV, OTT/CTV, PC and Mobile inventory. This includes measurement for co-viewers on OTT/CTV. The new capability announced today, Comscore believes, “will pave the way for advertisers and agencies to understand combined co-viewing for YouTube and YouTube TV across OTT/CTV as well as incremental reach to their linear TV buys, providing total cross-platform ad measurement.”

Comscore adds that the addition of YouTube and YouTube TV will enable one of the largest advertising sources for modern cross-platform measurement. As previously published by Comscore, more than 80% of CTV reach in the U.S. falls on only five streaming services — and only two are ad-supported.

“People are watching more YouTube than ever — on mobile, on laptops, and especially on our fastest growing screen, the TV, and we want to ensure advertisers can measure their reach across all devices with third-party partners like Comscore,” says Debbie Weinstein, Vice President of Global Solutions at YouTube. “We also know people are choosing to watch their favorite YouTube content on connected TVs with others, and the inclusion of co-viewing in this new integration will allow advertisers to understand the full scale of the audience they’re able to reach through YouTube CTV campaigns.”

Comscore CEO Bill Livek added, “This is a critical milestone for Comscore and for the industry. Our clients are placing a large portion of their advertising spend with YouTube, and they need a holistic view of how that spend is performing relative to the entire media mix. We’re confident that clients using Comscore Campaign Ratings will have the most complete picture of advertising performance in the market.”

In 2020, for the first time, the Radio + Television Business Report offered readers the opportunity to submit their nominations and vote for the individuals who have demonstrated leadership excellence at the local level — serving as the stewards of sales and on-air operations that deserve national recognition. Now, RBR+TVBR is pleased to accept your nomination for the Top Local Leaders of 2021. There’s limited time for your vote, however. PLEASE TAKE THREE MINUTES NOW TO SUBMIT YOUR BALLOT. Voting ends August 20, 2021 at 5PM Pacific/8PM Eastern. 

 

It owns such broadcast TV stations as WUSA-9 in Washington, D.C., the CBS affiliate serving the National Capital Region; and key NBC affiliates including KPNX-12 in Phoenix, WGRZ-2 in Buffalo, and KGW-8 in Portland, Ore. It also owns the Premion over-the-top (OTT) advertising platform.

How did TEGNA perform in Q2 2021? Its quarterly revenue beat Wall Street forecasts, as its earnings per share on an adjusted basis beat the Street by a penny.

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Come Wednesday, FEMA and the FCC will test the nation’s public alert and warning systems at 2:20pm Eastern.

Here are all of the details of what this means for your broadcast radio and/or television stations.

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Spotify’s Megaphone is launching an audience insights tool for podcasters which will be powered by Nielsen. The new reporting tool will offer publishers a real-time look at their listeners’ demographics, interests, and behaviors.

Through the dashboard, publishers will see insights about which audiences are listening and compare trends year-over-year across their entire podcast network or on an individual show-by-show basis.

Matt Turck, Head of Megaphone Publisher Solutions, will be discussing the new dashboard live at Podcast Movement today.

More details on the new product can be found HERE

The nation’s No. 1 owner of broadcast radio station late Thursday released Q2 earnings that reflect strong year-over-year improvement as it continues to dig itself out of a multi-billion financial hole.

Things are progressing. The net loss narrowed year-over-year. But, perhaps the existence of any net loss worries Wall Street. Shares of iHeartMedia stock tumbled significantly in Friday’s trading.

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RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION

The FCC’s “Auction 109,” which saw active bidding for a host of new radio stations, is over.

As expected, iHeartMedia and Radio Brands Inc., an entity tied to the CEO of Ampex Brands were the big winners. Other winning bidders include a Hispanic media entrepreneur in the Savannah, Ga., market; and a Maria Guel’s Mekaddesh Group Corporation, devoted to evangelical programming en español.

Yet the biggest takeaway from Auction 109 is the fate of four defunct AM radio stations in Market No. 24.

Zero bids came for these facilities. Even with the prospect of HD Radio on AM, not one bidder for the AMs emerged.

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Audacy CFO Rich Schmaeling and CEO David Field had much to offer beyond what was stated in the company’s second quarter earnings release early Friday.

Chatting with a variety of financial analysts, Schmaeling said Local is narrowing the gap in Q3 for Audacy. He also offered an update on net leverage goals, while adding that the depth of active advertisers is significantly higher than in recent months.

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The Entertainment Sports Programming Network known as ESPN has received a proposed fine from the FCC for its use of an emergency alert system (EAS) code during a documentary it aired in October 2020 as part of its popular 30 for 30 series.

BE SURE TO FOLLOW RBR+TVBR ON TWITTER!

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DAYTON, OHIO — It’s no secret that Cox Media Group and its related Cox Enterprises maintains a dominant position in the Miami Valley, with its WHIO-7 perhaps the nation’s most-watched CBS affiliate, its WHIO radio operation a top ratings-getter, and the Dayton Daily News a near-monopoly among print publications.

Yet, Nexstar Media Group has a formidable presence, too. It owns the local NBC affiliate.

Soon, it will also own a second station in this market.

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Over the past year, ViacomCBS has “bravely jumped into the streaming deep end,” notes MoffettNathanson Senior Analyst Michael Nathanson.

With its relaunch of CBS All Access as Paramount+, accelerating investment and revenue growth at Pluto and promoting Showtime OTT to help offset linear declines, Nathanson says ViacomCBS harbors a heightened focus on becoming “a scaled global competitor” in the business of streaming.

There’s just one question about ViacomCBS’s goals that’s vexing to him.

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Add The E.W. Scripps Co. to the list of broadcast media companies offering stellar second quarter earnings reports to investors and Wall Street financial analysts.

The visual media company, which has sold off its audio content and distribution assets, beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 8 cents per share.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Comscore, the company that seeks to greater compete against Nielsen in the television sector has successfully expanded and extended its relationship with Fox Corporation.

The multi-year agreement comes as a result of this media consumption analysis company’s expanded data rights, “driving increased measurement stability, as well as continued improvements to its television measurement products.”

The new agreement includes Comscore’s National TV measurement.

“It is a privilege to continue our longstanding relationship with Fox and have their vote of confidence in our TV measurement,” said Carol Hinnant, Chief Revenue Officer at Comscore. “As the industry accelerates its shift toward impressions-based buying, Comscore has strengthened its stable and reliable television footprint to ensure marketers have modern media measurement.”

Audrey Steele, Executive Vice President of Sales Research Insights & Strategy at Fox, commented, “The rapid evolution of consumer behavior makes it more important than ever to have stable, granular audience measurement, and Comscore has made significant progress in its measurement capabilities. We’re excited to work even more closely with the team to drive a multi-currency marketplace.”

— RBR+TVBR Washington Bureau

From air talent consolidation across its Country and Top 40 stations to high-profile departures at its KROQ in Los Angeles, Audacy management has had its share of PR challenges in the last several months.

Now, the C-Suite has a potentially greater challenge on its hands. As its peers have reported highly positive Q2 results, the company formerly known as Entercom has released a second quarter fiscal health report reflecting a significant Earnings Per Share miss.

Investors immediately reacted in early trading on Friday (8/6).

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Until recently, Entravision Communications was largely viewed by the industry and by investors as a Hispanic-focused company with revenue equally derived from its digital, television and radio divisions.

That’s no longer the case. The company’s Q2 earnings results demonstrate that digital is, by a very wide margin, the revenue driver today.

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The nation’s largest audio media company by number of AM and FM radio stations and online streaming exposure, thanks to its freshly minted distribution partnership with TuneIn, is the latest company to beat its own Q2 earnings forecasts.

Just after the Closing Bell on Wall Street, with IHRT shares sitting at $26.49, iHeartMedia released its second quarter fiscal report card. The quick takeaway: iHeart beat its own revenue guidance with terrific results.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC on Thursday, as anticipated, moved forward with the creation of two new innovation zones.

This, the Commission says, will allow for advanced wireless communications and network innovation research.

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“Throughout the second quarter, the resumption of advertising in key categories combined with the success of our content monetization strategies resulted in year-over-year revenue growth across all fifteen of our markets,” Beasley Media Group CEO Caroline Beasley noted ahead of her company’s Q2 2021 earnings call — scheduled opposite Saga Communications’ call on Thursday.

What drove Beasley’s financial success in the quarter? “Healthy double-digit revenue increases” were seen in its biggest markets.

Those markets include Boston, where Beasley owns such stations as Sports Talker WBZ-FM 98.5 — an important asset that also comes with big expenses. Beasley also enjoyed double-digit revenue gains in Detroit and in both Philadelphia and nearby Wilmington, Del., where WJBR is in a fresh battle with independently owned WSTW.

Net revenue surged to $59.6 million, from $30.4 million, as Beasley eeked out $200,000 in net income ($0.01), swinging from a net loss of $17.7 million (-$0.63) in the COVID-19 ravaged Q2 2020.

Station Operating Income of $11.1 million was seen, shifting from a Q2 2020 negative SOI finish of -$11 million.

According to Ms. Beasley, there’s more growth percolating today: Q3 is pacing up 30%, with July up 40%, August up 29% and September pacing at 23%.

And, assuming events continue to come back the company is hopeful to return to 2019 levels in the near-term. However, 2022 is more realistic, she believes.

Ms. Beasley also took care in highlighting the sports betting category during its earnings call. She said sports betting was the seventh largest category for the company in Q2. “Our second quarter sports betting revenue increased 340% year over year and represented over 5% of our total revenue,” she said. “This was driven by our Philadelphia, Detroit and New Jersey market clusters.”

Massachusetts and Florida are in the process of legalizing sport betting, she said.

— With reports from Radio Ink

“Overall we had an extremely strong second quarter,” Urban One President/CEO Alfred Liggins III said Thursday ahead of his company’s earnings call.

Not only was Adjusted EBITDA up 82.4% year-over-year, but the media company superserving Black consumers also surpassed its Q2 2019 pre-pandemic Adjusted EBITDA.

Net revenue increased to $107.59 million from $76 million. And, even with increased expenses as the economy reopened from the pandemic, consolidated net income surged to $17.87 million ($0.33 per diluted share) from $1.42 million ($0.03).

Adjusted EBITDA? That came in at $44.77 million, increasing from $24.54 million.

The biggest takeaway for Urban One? One year ago, COVID-19 ravaged its Radio One division, lowering revenue to just above what the company sees from its cable TV affiliate fees.

In Q2 2021, Radio roared back.

Within the Radio Advertising segment is Reach Media, Urban One’s national media arm. In Q2, segment revenue climbed to $9.4 million from $6.3 million.

Meanwhile, Urban One enjoyed net revenue improvements in all of its radio markets.

With minutes remaining in Thursday’s trading on the Nasdaq GlobalSelect market, UONE was up 5.4% to $7.08. UONEK, the company’s preferred shares, was up 14.7% to $5.70 on lighter than average trading volume.

It was an exceptionally busy day, again, for media companies on Wall Street. No less than eight fresh quarterly earnings reports were released, including the fiscal Q4 2021 report from Fox Corporation and a Q2 ’21 report from Roku.

MoffettNathanson Senior Analyst Michael Nathanson reviewed each of those companies’ fiscal report cards, and RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson offers an audio summary of what he said in this InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.

The podcast also offers a synopsis of the Q2 reports released August 5 by Beasley Media Group and Urban One, and comments about the use of “audio” vs. “radio” from Saga Communications CEO Ed Christian made during his company’s Q2 earnings call for investors and analysts.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: A Special Q2 Review” on Spreaker.