LOS ANGELES—CBS LA has concluded a new multi-year agreement with the Los Angeles Rams that will make it the NFL team’s official hometown television partner in the Southern California market and provide it with exclusive rights to air preseason games and other programming.

More specifically, the agreement brings exclusive local broadcasts of Rams preseason games to CBS LA, along with a slate of weekly year-round programming, including a coaches show featuring head coach Sean McVay and original Rams content available exclusively across CBS LA platforms.

In addition to game coverage and weekly shows, the partnership also establishes a joint year-round collaboration focused on community initiatives serving Southern California.

“With nearly 90 hours of news and sports programming every week, CBS LA is uniquely positioned to deliver more Rams coverage than any other media outlet in the market,” said Tim Wieland, regional president and general manager of CBS LA and CBS Colorado. “This partnership is about serving fans, celebrating Los Angeles and extending our shared commitment to the community. We’re proud to once again be the Home of the Rams.”

The agreement marks a return for the Rams to CBS LA.

“CBS LA partnered with us in 2016 when we returned to Los Angeles and helped reintroduce our organization to this city,” said Los Angeles Rams president Kevin Demoff. “We are thrilled to once again team up with CBS LA to bring fans closer to Rams football through our preseason games and exclusive content year-round. This partnership will enable us to deepen our connection with Angelenos through CBS’ dynamic programming as well as shared efforts that will make an impact on the community we all call home.”

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—CBS Sacramento is debuting a new augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) technology-driven studio today, Monday, May 11, at 12:00 p.m.

The launch is part of an ongoing push to provide viewers with more immersive storytelling and next-generation journalism at the CBS Television Station group, which has been deploying AR/VR technologies developed in-house at various stations around the country.

The Sacramento station becomes the 12th newsroom in the CBS Television Stations group to adopt AR/VR technology across its local newscasts.

“CBS Sacramento has long served our community through trusted journalism and compelling storytelling,” said Scott Warren, president and general manager of CBS Sacramento and CBS Bay Area. “This new AR/VR studio gives viewers greater context and perspective, creating a more immersive way to experience the weather and local news stories that matter to them.”

Beginning with the 12:00 PM newscast on CBS Sacramento (KOVR), AR/VR technology will be integrated into all the station’s newscasts, including news, weather and sports. Select AR/VR elements will also be used during news and weather segments on GOOD DAY on KMAX, while the remainder of the program will continue to originate from a traditional studio.

The technology allows journalists to visually explain complex stories, breaking news and weather systems with greater clarity while maintaining the station’s editorial standards.

As previously reported, the Sacramento launch continues the expansion of the CBS Stations AR/VR newsroom initiative, building on innovations first introduced at CBS Bay Area under Warren’s leadership.

CBS Sacramento serves viewers across the greater Sacramento region through CBS KOVR and KMAX, delivering local news, weather, sports and community coverage across broadcast and digital platforms.

DETROIT—CBS Detroit has announced that it will debut an Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) technology-driven studio, on Monday, April 20, during the 5:00 PM newscast, with AR/VR-enhanced weather forecasting.

The CBS O&O is billing the launch as a first for the region. It is part of a larger rollout of AR/VR technologies at the station group, with Detroit becoming the 11th CBS station to launch the studios.

The AR/VR experience will premiere during the weather segment, led by chief meteorologist Ahmad Bajjey, providing viewers with a more dynamic and visual way to understand forecasts and weather conditions.

“Having seen firsthand how AR/VR strengthens local journalism, it’s especially meaningful to bring this technology to Detroit,” said Jennifer A. Lyons, regional president and general manager of CBS Detroit and CBS Chicago. “It powerfully enhances storytelling – making complex information clearer, more engaging and more immersive – while allowing us to elevate how we explain, visualize and connect with the communities we serve.”

As part of a broader commitment by CBS Television Stations to invest in local journalism, CBS Detroit joins a growing group of CBS owned stations nationwide to launch AR/VR technology, which was developed in-house by the stations.

“This is a big moment for Motown,” said Kennan Oliphant, station manager and vice president of news at CBS Detroit. “Detroit has always been a place of innovation and creativity, and this investment aligns with that legacy. Being the only station in the market using AR/VR technology allows us to push forward with journalism that is modern, thoughtful and focused on the community we serve.”

As the technology continues to roll out, CBS Detroit plans to expand AR/VR use into additional newscasts, including morning programming and into immersive storytelling areas such as sports and other news coverage later this summer.

Associations representing ABC, CBS, FBC and NBC have filed reply comments with the Federal Communications Commission arguing that the ongoing shift of major sporting rights from broadcast to streaming service is not in the “public interest” because it is forcing consumers to sign up for expensive streaming services and threatens the economy viability of the local TV stations who use the profits from sports to fund local news.

The filing also laid out a series of policy recommendations that would preserve major sports on broadcast TV. Those include: ending station ownership caps, speeding up the transition to NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0, changing the rules on how retrans fees are negotiated with vMVPDs, and giving local stations more power to preempt network programming so they can air local sports and ensuring that

Changing rules regarding station ownership caps and the ATSC 3.0 transition were also major policy recommendations made by the NAB and other broadcasters.

“[W]hile live sports have never been so critical to local broadcasting, the Public Notice comes at a time when the continued availability of marquee national live professional and collegiate sporting events on local broadcast television faces unprecedented uncertainty,” the associations stressed in their filing. “The Affiliates Associations echo NAB’s observation that Internet streaming of sports content threatens to completely upend the system of local sports distribution that has served America so well. The increasing placement of major sports programming behind paywalls on multiple different streaming platforms, including those owned by the Big 4 Networks themselves, threatens to further fragment audiences while forcing consumers to spend more and more just to watch what used to be and should remain free. Sporting events can’t unify Americans if the cost of watching them turns us into a nation of haves and have-nots. And those sporting events locked up behind paywalls won’t help fund local television service because, quite simply, none of the streaming platforms is required to operate in the public interest and none provide any local service to any local communities.”

Like the NAB, the affiliates also blasted the Consumer Technology Association and others who argued the rise of sports on streaming media has given consumers more choice and that the FCC does not have the authority to dictate where those sports air.

“in 2025, NFL games appeared on 10 different paywalled platforms, and the cost of the subscriptions necessary to watch every NFL game approached $1,500,” the affiliates contented. “These developments threaten to get worse because streaming platforms owned by Google/Alphabet, Amazon, Netflix, Apple, and the like have nearly limitless budgets and face no regulations that would check their growth. Indeed, they are already increasingly outbidding Big 4 Networks for major sports rights and cutting local broadcasting out of the picture entirely.”

“When the Big 4 Networks are forced to outbid streaming platforms for sports rights, those Networks inevitably pass those costs on to their Affiliates in the form of spiraling and unsustainable affiliation fees,” the filing said. “Since these affiliation fees grow more quickly than local station revenue, local Affiliates have no choice but to cut costs and reduce local service. Marquee sporting events must remain on local broadcast television to sustain important, but costly, local news operations, but the more sports rights cost and the higher affiliation fees rise, the less local news and fewer jobs will remain.”

“The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) argue that this is nothing more than the marketplace providing more and better choices to consumers and that the Commission is powerless to step in,” the affiliates complained. “Consumers know better, which is why thousands of individuals have filed comments in this proceeding urging the Commission to take action to help keep national sports programming on local broadcast television. The Commission should reject the arrogant and simplistic `free market’ rhetoric of CCIA and CTA. Despite the claims of CCIA and CTA that all of this `competition’ among streaming platforms will increase choice and lower prices, the reality is that consumers always end up paying more for less, and they’re sick of this same old song and dance.”

The filing did highlight the fact that the decline of pay TV and regional sports networks has allowed local stations to successfully acquire sports rights in recent years. “Even here, however, there are hurdles to local stations acquiring local sports rights,” the affiliate reported. “In particular, Big 4 Network preemption policies can make it impossible for stations to air more than a handful of games of local sports programming on their main channels, forcing them to instead broadcast that programming on multicast channels or commonly owned independent channels.0 These alternate channels are carried less frequently by traditional MVPDs and even less frequently by virtual MVPDs. The combination of Network preemption

policies and vMVPDs’ refusal to negotiate directly with local television stations significantly complicates local stations’ efforts to acquire sports programming on local broadcast stations.”

“The Commission must recognize that additional steps must be taken in order to preserve – and grow – sports on local television stations while at the same time helping ensure stations are financially healthy enough to afford that programming and are positioned to acquire that programming when certain rights become available,” the affiliates stressed in one of their major policy recommendations.

“That requires the Commission to address two pressing issues that the Affiliates Associations’ members face every day," they said. "First, the Commission should ensure that local television stations, including Network Affiliates, have the right to negotiate for local sports programming without third-party interference. In support of this right, the Commission should make clear that local stations’ preemption rights under the Commission’s rules extend to preempting Network programming for local and regional sports content. Existing rules require that broadcasters must have the right to preempt Network programming in favor of programming that a licensee deems, in its mandate to serve the local community, of greater importance to its local community than Network programming. The Commission should clarify unequivocally that this right applies when a local station rejects Network programming in favor of airing local and regional sports programming. This step will allow local broadcasters to compete for local sports rights without the fear that doing so could negatively impact their relationship with their affiliated Networks.”

The full filing is available here.

The 8,600 plus filings received by the FCC in it "Sports Broadcasting Practices and Marketplace Developments" proceeding (Docket 26-45) is available here.

BALTIMORE—CBS Stations has announced that it will launch its 10th cutting-edge Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) technology-driven studio at CBS Baltimore (WJZ-TV), on Monday, Feb. 23 at 12:00 PM, ET.

The station group is billing the deployment of the new studio as a “first of its kind in the region” that will use AR/VR to “transform the way Baltimoreans engage with news.”

“The launch of our AR/VR studio marks the beginning of an exciting new era for CBS Baltimore and how we serve our viewers,” said Tanya Black, vice president and news director of CBS Baltimore. “This technology allows us to meet our audience where they are and bring them closer to the stories that matter most.”

The launch follows the inhouse development of innovative AR/VR technologies for CBS stations in the Bay Area and the subsequent rollout of those solutions to other CBS owned-and-operated stations that has been extensively covered by TV Tech. The AR/VR system is currently available at CBS Stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, the Bay Area, Denver, Texas, Miami and Atlanta. More AR/VR studios are expected to launch nationwide throughout 2026.

“By combining trusted local journalism with innovative technology, we’re creating more immersive and engaging ways to help our community understand the stories that impact their daily lives, from severe weather to the sports teams they love,” said Kathy Hostetter, president and general manager of CBS Baltimore. “We’re proud to help move the region forward with storytelling that is as dynamic as Baltimore itself.”

The AR/VR studio allows CBS Baltimore to use AR/VR weather coverage that turns complex forecasts into immersive, hyper-local visuals, allowing viewers to see and understand the real-world impact of conditions like flooding, snowfall differences and shifting microclimates – all led by the station’s veteran weather experts: Steve Sosna, Cutter Martin, Rachael Jay, Marty Bass and Tim Williams.

The AR/VR sports coverage also opens the door to more dynamic sports analysis and visual storytelling, led by CBS Baltimore’s on-air sports team, sports director Alex Glaze and sports reporter Grace Grill, the station reported.

ATLANTA—CBS Atlanta has announced the launch of its new weekday morning newscast, CBS News Atlanta Mornings, a one-hour morning newscast will feature hyper-local reporting, immersive weather reporting and national headlines from a state-of-the-art AR/VR news studio.

“Our goal is to meet viewers where they are in their communities and deliver news that helps them start their day informed, prepared, and connected,” said Tom Canedo, president and general manager of CBS Atlanta. “This morning show reflects our commitment to meaningful local journalism, paired with the unmatched resources of CBS News.”

The show will also offer a 24/7 monitor look that offers live feeds from all CBS stations and bureaus around the country.

Using advanced mapping technology and on-the-ground reporting, the team will cover stories that matter most from neighborhood developments to public safety, transportation, education, politics, health and economic impact.

The debut of CBS News Atlanta Mornings is part of a significant investment by CBS Stations in the Atlanta market. Over the past year, the company has expanded its newsroom, launched a groundbreaking AR/VR studio, accelerated hiring across editorial, production, and digital teams, and rolled out new local news and weather operations.

Since launching its local news and weather operations in August, CBS Atlanta has quickly gained traction with viewers, surging with more than 150% in year-to-year growth.

CBS Atlanta’s AR/VR news studio is the first of its kind in the Southeast, the ninth in the CBS Station group. It is also the second fully immersive AR/VR-enabled studio in the station groups that delivers all the news in the AR/VR format. It's Bay-area stations in California were to first to go all AR/VR.

WASHINGTON—In the wake of a widespread crackdown on DEI initiatives by the Trump administration and Federal Communications Commission, Free Press has issued a new report detailing the impact those efforts have had on the civil rights commitments of the nation’s largest media companies.

The report, Complicit: Corporate Media’s Capitulation to Trump’s Attacks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, aims to shed new light on the ongoing capitulation of major media and tech companies to the dictates and provides a disturbing reversal of prior civil-rights commitments.

Complicit finds that 26 of the top 35 media companies caved to the administration by rolling back various DEI policies and practices just days or weeks after Trump issued anti-DEI executive orders on Jan. 20 and 21, 2025. Some of these companies got ahead of the executive orders: Amazon, Disney, Fox Corporation, Google, Meta and X had already backed away from prior diversity, equity and inclusion measures in the weeks following Trump’s November 2024 election.

As previously reported by TV Tech in our coverage of the FCC, NBCUniversal, CBS, AT&T, Verizon and several pending mergers, many of the media companies and telcos who have rolled back their DEI policies agreed to the changes as part of an effort to get FCC approval of pending mergers.

Paramount Skydance, for example, settled a libel suit with Trump and announced they would end DEI efforts shortly before the FCC finally approved the Paramount Skydance acquisition.

Report author and Free Press Campaign Manager Ruth Livier wrote that “Trump’s anti-diversity, equity and inclusion executive orders form the foundation of his regime’s efforts to dismantle our democracy. Outside of Trump and his enablers, no one is safe from attack. Failing to serve as an essential check against tyranny, corporate players are increasingly serving as megaphones for the MAGA movement, putting vulnerable communities at greater risk of attack — and betraying our democratic values.”

The full report is available here.

CALIFORNIA—CBS Stations has promoted Scott Warren, president and general manager of CBS Bay Area, to regional president and general manager of Northern California, overseeing CBS Bay Area and CBS Sacramento.

In the expanded role, he will continue reporting to Jennifer Mitchell, president of CBS Stations and CBS News and Stations Digital. Deborah Collura, who has been president and general manager of CBS Sacramento since 2022, is leaving the company.

Warren, who has led CBS Bay Area for nearly four years, has helped drive significant innovation and growth, most notably through the CBS Stations industry-leading AR/VR technology initiative. In his expanded role, Warren will maintain leadership of CBS Bay Area while also guiding strategic and operational efforts at CBS Sacramento. His focus will include expanding technological capabilities and fostering greater collaboration across both stations.

“Since joining CBS Bay Area in 2022, Scott has implemented and led groundbreaking AR/VR technology initiatives across all CBS stations,” said Mitchell. “He is a forward-thinking innovator and a transformational leader. He is well positioned to guide our Northern California stations into the future while building upon the strong legacy that Deborah established.”

“I can’t wait to lean into the talented team at CBS Sacramento and help lead our Northern California stations as we continue to build on our community-focused journalism,” added Warren. “I look forward to seeing what we can all create together across Northern California, while building on the innovative ideas and storytelling strategies we already have in place.”

As a veteran multiplatform media executive with more than 25 years of experience in leading broadcast, streaming and digital news, Warren has overseen newsroom operations across several television news stations and has personally earned several Emmy Awards for his work in driving innovation in the media industry and launching impactful news content. Additionally, under his leadership at CBS Bay Area, the station received multiple accolades, including the Northern California Emmy Award for Station of the Year.

NEW YORK—“Pass the turkey.” “Pass the stuffing.” “Pass the cranberry sauce.” All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and friends.

This year—like most in recent memory—another familiar plea was surely heard around millions of TVs across the country: “Pass the football!”

Nielsen is out today with its ratings for the week of Nov. 24-30, which includes Nov. 27, Thanksgiving Day, and NFL broadcast coverage put up big viewing numbers.

CBS coverage of the Kansas City Chiefs-Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving game was the most-watched NFL regular-season telecast in league history with 57.23 million viewers, Nielsen said.

Fox’s coverage of the early Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game, simulcast on Tubi, garnered 47.7 million viewers, making it Fox’s most-watched regular-season game ever, it said.

NBC’s Thanksgiving Cincinnati Bengals-Baltimore Ravens game, simulcast on Peacock and Telemundo, saw 28.4 million viewers tune in, making it the most-watched Thanksgiving-night NFL game in league history, Nielsen said.

The following day, an average of 16.33 million viewers streamed the Chicago Bears-Philadelphia Eagles game on Prime Video, making it the most-watched Black Friday Football game to date, Nielsen said.

In all, NFL games secured eight of the top 12 slots across networks and distributors, including Fox, NBC, CBS, Prime Video, ABC, ESPN and ESPN2.

College sports also proved to be popular, with Fox’s Ohio State-Michigan game telecast averaging 18.42 million viewers, the biggest college football audience this season, it said.

College hoops broke viewing records on Thanksgiving Day as well. Duke-Arkansas on CBS was the most-watched regular-season college basketball game on any network since the 1992-93, season with 6.8 million viewers.

Michigan-North Carolina was the most-watched college basketball game in Fox history, with 6.5 million viewers, it said.

Overall, college football occupied 12 of the top 25 slots across five different networks, including three games with more than 10 million viewers, Nielsen said.

ESPN coverage of the Minnesota Timberwolves-Oklahoma City Thunder NBA game placed No. 24 in the top 25, and the 2025 National Dog Show on NBC and Peacock averaged 12.8 million viewers to take the No. 11 slot.

In response to controversial efforts by the Federal Communications Commission to investigate broadcasters for airing biased news coverage, a group of seven former commissioners and chairs, plus additional senior-level former staff, have submitted a sternly worded petition to the agency slamming its attempts “to mold the speech of private broadcasters to the FCC’s own view of what is correct.”

The petition asks the agency to rescind the news distortion policy, which has “significantly chilled and otherwise altered the content of broadcasters’ speech, undermining First Amendment values.”

The petition is in response to several highly controversial investigations by the FCC into allegations of “biased” news coverage by ABC, CBS and NBC of President Trump and comments by FCC Chair Brendan Carr that the regulator has the power to punish broadcasters and potentially even remove broadcast licenses from stations violating “public interest” and “news distortion” rules.

The petitioners are a bipartisan group of former FCC chairs, commissioners, and other senior leaders who served the agency between 1981 and 2017. Signing on were Andrew C. Barrett, Rachelle B. Chong, Ervin S. Duggan, Mark S. Fowler, Dennis R. Patrick, Alfred C. Sikes, Thomas E. Wheeler, Christopher J. Wright, Kathryn C. Brown, Jerald N. Fritz and Peter Pitsch. The petitions were represented by Protect Democracy, TechFreedom, Andrew Jay Schwartzman and Gigi Sohn.

That controversy became particularly heated after Carr used the news distortion policy to accuse ABC and Disney of news distortion and threaten ABC affiliates’ licenses for airing controversial comments by late night host Jimmy Kimmel’s regarding the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The news distortion policy also provided the basis earlier this year for threats against CBS News during the lengthy FCC review of the Paramount-Skydance merger.

Skydance won approval for the merger after it agreed to end Paramount’s DEI efforts, paid $16 million to settle a libel suit filed by President Donald Trump and promised to name an ombudsman to ensure unbiased coverage at CBS News.

"As the Supreme Court has made clear, the government has no legitimate role in un-biasing or balancing the media," said Fowler, the FCC chair from 1981-87 under Republican President Ronald Reagan. "The news distortion policy allows the government to threaten censorship of speech it doesn't like; it cannot stand.”

“The Commission should focus on ensuring that all Americans are connected and have access to information and ideas — not imposing on broadcasters its vision of what presentation of the news is correct,” added Wheeler, who served as chair under Democratic President Barack Obama from 2013-17 and also joined in the petition. “The news distortion policy is being used by the current FCC leadership as a tool of speech coercion and that abuse will not stop until the agency repeals it.”

“The FCC has no business policing free speech,” said Conor Gaffney, counsel at Protect Democracy, a not-for-profit that works to combat authoritarian threats. “It is not for the federal government to decide what is ‘biased’ any more than it is for the government to decide what is ‘news.’ The Supreme Court has ruled time and again that policing speech is not the government’s job.”

“Carr’s threats have worked despite their unconstitutionality because the FCC has extraordinarily vast leverage over broadcasters,” added Berin Szóka, president of TechFreedom, a think tank dedicated to defending free speech, the Constitution and the rule of law. “Carr so clearly abused that leverage that even his fellow Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz, compared his tactics to a ‘mafioso, … right out of Goodfellas.’ Critical speech has been, and will be, chilled. Disney bent, even if it didn’t break. Fearing retaliation, many comedians and journalists will self-censor, or their corporate employers will muzzle them. The news distortion policy is too dangerous a weapon to entrust to any Chair.”

The petition argues that the FCC’s crackdown on news distortion violated longstanding free speech precedents and Supreme Court rulings while creating a climate of fear designed to chill free speech and reduce criticism of the Trump administration.

“The petitioners request that the FCC repeal the news distortion policy in full,” the petition said. “In Moody v. NetChoice, LLC, the Supreme Court, applying the First Amendment, reaffirmed that the government has no role in ‘un-biasing’ the media. In direct contradiction to that decision, the news distortion policy seeks to mold the speech of private broadcasters to the FCC’s own view of what is correct, complete, and accurate news. The First Amendment forbids the government from embarking on such a project.

“Furthermore, the application of the news distortion policy is constitutionally problematic,” the petition continued. “The vast scope and vague language of the news distortion policy cast an omnipresent shadow over broadcasters’ freedom of expression while leaving the policy open to partisan weaponization. Wielding the news distortion policy, the FCC has already opened or threatened to open investigations against private broadcasters due to disagreements with editorial decisions or statements made in a comedic monologue. Even if the FCC never tries to take enforcement action in these cases, the specter of government interference alone chills broadcasters’ speech and suppresses their message.”

“Because the FCC has no legitimate interest in correcting or punishing what it considers to be slanted news coverage, the news distortion policy lacks a meaningful function,” the petition concluded. “Over a period of 60 years, the FCC only enforced the policy eight times, typically in cases involving an intentional hoax. However, such cases are now covered by the FCC’s broadcast hoax role, rendering the news distortion policy a vestigial organ. In light of its redundancy and obsolescence, as well as its actively harmful effects, amply demonstrated as of late, the petitioners respectfully request the repeal of the news distortion policy.”

Both Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty, who make up the FCC’s Republican majority, argue Congress clearly gave the commission the power to enforce public-interest standards on stations because they receive licenses to use scarce spectrum.

The Nov. 13 petition by seven FCC chairs and commissioners follows comments made earlier this year by five former FCC chairs and commissioners in opposition to the onging investigation of CBS News for “news distortion.” They accused the FCC of acting as the “White House’s personal censor.”

The full petition can be found here.

LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK—Paramount has announced it is acquiring The Free Press, a subscription commentary website, and that site co-founder and CEO Bari Weiss will join CBS News as editor-in-chief.

Paramount did not disclose financial terms of the deal but reports have valued the acquisition at $150 million.

The deal follows months of turmoil at CBS News, whose coverage of the Trump administration became a major sticking point in getting the Federal Communications Commission to approve the Paramout Global-Skydance merger. Earlier this year, some top news executives resigned following reports that Paramount was planning to settle a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump over its handling of an interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election.

The FCC eventually agreed to approve the merger after Paramount paid $16 billion to settle the suit and agreed to hire an ombudsman to oversee its news operations. It also agreed to end all DEI efforts. All three decisions were widely criticized.

In announcing the acquisition, Paramount said that the combination “brings together CBS News’s scale and reach with The Free Press’s culture-shaping voice and innovative spirit, united in the pursuit of setting a new standard for trusted journalism in America.”

In a statement, David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount said “This is an important initiative for our company and Bari will report directly to me—leading the work of The Free Press and collaborating with our CBS News team in the pursuit of making it the most trusted name in news. We believe the majority of the country longs for news that is balanced and fact-based, and we want CBS to be their home.”

Ellison also noted: “Bari is a proven champion of independent, principled journalism, and I am confident her entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will invigorate CBS News. This move is part of Paramount’s bigger vision to modernize content and the way it connects—directly and passionately—to audiences around the world.”

Paramount reported that the Free Press will maintain its own independent brand and operations, and continue to do reporting, video and audio podcasts, and events for its fast-growing community of subscribers.

Paramount also reported that The Free Press, founded in 2021, has become one of the largest and fastest-growing digital media outlets today. Over the past 12 months, its revenues are up 82% and subscribers up 86% to 1.5 million over all; more than 170,000 of those subscribers are paid.

As editor-in-chief of CBS News, Paramount said that Weiss will shape editorial priorities, champion core values across platforms, and lead innovation in how the organization reports and delivers the news.

More specifically, Paramount reported that "Weiss will partner with CBS News president Tom Cibrowski, who reports to Paramount’s chair of TV Media, George Cheeks. Cibrowski’s decades of journalistic, operational, and broadcast experience provide essential continuity and expertise. Their partnership reflects Paramount’s recognition that the future of CBS News as a dynamic, multiplatform newsroom requires unified editorial leadership across television, streaming, digital, audio, social media, and events."

“This is a great moment for The Free Press,” Bari said. “This partnership allows our ethos of fearless, independent journalism to reach an enormous, diverse, and influential audience. We honor the extraordinary legacy of CBS News by committing ourselves to a singular mission: building the most trusted news organization of the 21st century.”

CBS is reporting that the 77TH Emmy Awards hosted by Nate Bargatze on Sunday Sept. 14 was seen by more than 7.42 million viewers on the CBS Television Network and streaming on Paramount+. It was the #1 entertainment program of the night and hit a four-year viewership high since it last aired on CBS in 2021, up +8% from its 2024 airing on ABC, the network reported.

That made it the most-watched Emmys since 2021, when it last aired on CBS and the most-watched entertainment special on CBS since the Grammy Awards.

In addition the company also reported that live-streaming on Paramount+ was up +76% from the last CBS-hosted event in 2021 and that the Entertainment Tonight Emmys pre-show (7:14-8:00 PM, ET) averaged 3.26 million viewers. This was up +12% from ABC’s 2024 red carpet show (2.91m viewers).

On social media, the awards show drove 60.9 billion potential impressions and 1.6 million mentions, up +66% in potential impressions from last year on ABC. #Emmys trended in the U.S. at #1 for seven consecutive hours and in the top 10 for 11 hours.

CBS said the audience data was based on Nielsen Time Adjusted Live+SD Fast National Data including Out-of-Home Viewing on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025

WASHINGTON—In a notable effort to obtain approval for the Skydance-Paramount Global merger, lawyers for Skydance have sent letters to the Federal Communications Commission saying that it will end all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts and that it will set up control to ensure “unbiased journalism.” Those controls will include the creation of a CBS News ombudsman to handle bias complaints for the next two years.

During the July 24 press conference following the agency's open meeting, FCC Chair Brendan Carr declined to say when the agency might approve the merger, but applauded the promises made in two separate letters to the FCC by Skydance on July 22. Carr has repeatedly stressed that alleged complaints about bias would be part of the FCC’s merger review.

“I will say that I was pleased with some of the filings that came in from Skydance just this week,” Carr added. “Again, my view has been pretty clear. I think Americans trust in national programmers, ABC, CBS, NBC, is at the historic low … So I was very pleased to see Skydance put in a filing that says, if this deal goes through, they are committing to serious changes at CBS. I think that will be a good day. They've committed to addressing bias issues. They committed to embracing fact-based journalism. They've also committed to either not extending or removing invidious forms of DEI discrimination. I think those are all significant commitments that they've offered. And so we're gonna take a look at that. We're gonna weigh it in our proceedings.”

Later, Carr added: “These are voluntary commitments that they put in the FCC record. When people put commitments into the record, it goes into the mix as things that the FCC takes into account as it looks at the public interest benefits of this … in terms of a final FCC decision, and how that decision characterizes those things.”

In response to another question about some of his comments on a recent Fox News Channel interview about their being consequences for biased news coverage, Carr added: “President [Donald] Trump … ran against this idea that a handful of national programmers that are backed by a lot of executives based in Hollywood in New York, get to control and dictate to the American people what the narrative is, what they can say, what they can think. And most government officials, they just accepted the narrative that these gatekeepers would lay down. And President Trump ran directly at it. He smashed the facade that they have a gatekeeper position.

“The consequences of that are still being felt,” he continued. “[T]hat's why you see a lot of consequences that are flowing from the undermining of that from President Trump, smashing that facade of their positions. I think those consequences aren't finished, and they can continue to flow.”

In remarks at the press conference, Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez once again attacked the agency’s push to regulate news content at broadcasters, complaining about “the unprecedented way in which this once-independent agency has used its vast power to pressure Paramount to reach a private settlement and to further erode press freedom. Just recently, we learned that Skydance, or New Paramount, as some call it, will cowardly capitulate to adopt never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial content. This is in direct violation of the First Amendment and the law.

“The company also said it will comply with this agency's ideological demands that undermine efforts to combat discrimination and expand equal opportunity. Turns out, it is quite easy to sell out your principles for pure profit.”

Gomez added: “I believe the public has a right to know how the government's First Amendment violations drove Paramount capitulation” and once again called for “our leadership to bring this transaction up for a vote by the full commission. We should be clear whether this commission stands on the side of the First Amendment and freedom of expression or in support of this administration's campaign of censorship and control.”

In terms of DEI, the Skydance letter to the FCC said: “I write to confirm the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that were in place at Paramount and to confirm our commitments moving forward. Skydance, for its part, does not have DEI programs in place today and will not establish such initiatives.”

It also noted, “Paramount also eliminated or modified DEI programs across the company to ensure that they are consistent with the company's commitment to equal opportunity and governing law.”

A second letter stressed that “we ‘recognize the importance of unbiased journalism and are fully committed to presenting a diverse array of viewpoints on television.’ We further reaffirm that, after consummation of the proposed transaction, New Paramount's new management will ensure that the company's array of news and entertainment programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum, consistent with the varying perspectives of the viewing audience. Skydance recognizes that, as a broadcast licensee, it will be charged with operating in the public interest, and the company intends to undertake a comprehensive review of CBS and to make any necessary changes to ensure compliance with that standard. In all respects, Skydance will ensure that CBS's reporting is fair, unbiased and fact-based.

“Moreover, Skydance reaffirms its commitment to localism as a core component of the public interest standard,” the letter noted. “Indeed, the CBS affiliate network's over 200 local broadcast stations provide service throughout the country and are a trusted voice in local markets big and small. The value of these stations in their local communities cannot be overstated and Skydance will work closely with its affiliated broadcast stations to ensure a productive partnership, including by considering technological improvements, investments in local news resources and other measures that bolster local broadcasting.

“To promote transparency and increased accountability, Skydance also will commit, for a period of at least two years, to have in place an ombudsman who reports to the President of New Paramount, who will receive and evaluate any complaints of bias or other concerns involving CBS,” the letter continued. “New Paramount's executive leadership will carefully consider any such complaints in overseeing CBS's news programming. In evaluating Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal, the Commission found such a mechanism effective in preventing editorial bias in the operation of the NBC broadcast network.”

The two letters can be found here.

WASHINGTON—In a meeting with Federal Communications Commission staffers, representatives of the CBS Television Network Affiliates Association and their lawyers urged the regulator to impose conditions on the pending Paramount Global-Skydance merger to strengthen local stations and “address issues related to CBS control over affiliate finances and ‘virtual MVPD’ negotiations, exclusivity of programming, and affiliation renewal practices.”

Representatives of the affiliates and their lawyers met with David Brown, Jeremy Miller, Chris Robbins, and Emily Harrison of the FCC Media Bureau on July 8.

A letter summarizing the meeting said the affiliates raised issues that have become increasingly contentious between station owners and broadcast networks in recent years, namely network affiliate fees and retransmission consent negotiations with vMVPDs like Hulu and YouTube TV.

In recent years, the NAB and station groups have been lobbying the FCC and Congress on the issue of how vMVPDs are classified. Unlike traditional cable operators, those retrans negotiations are handled by the owners of major broadcast networks, such as Paramount, The Walt Disney Co. (owner of ABC) and NBCUniversal. Station group owners believe that if they handled the negotiations with vMVPDs, they could boost retrans fees.

The owners of the broadcast networks and vMVPDs have opposed the change, saying it would raise pay TV bills for consumers.

The importance of the issue for affiliates is seen in the attendance of senior executives from station groups that own CBS affiliates. In addition to lawyers from Cooley LLP, Co Media Group CEO Dan York, chairman of the affiliates association; Sinclair president and CEO Chris Ripley, its secretary; and Gray Media Presient and Co-CEO Pat LaPlatney all attended the meeting at FCC headquarters in Washington.

According to the letter, the affiliate representatives at the meeting “advocated that conditions associated with any merger approval order should be designed to strengthen local stations’ capacity to continue serving their communities with local news and information programming, and address issues related to CBS control over affiliate finances and ‘virtual MVPD' negotiations, exclusivity of programming and affiliation renewal practices. The Affiliates Association representatives asked the Media Bureau participants to consider these issues as they continue processing the proposed merger.”

The letter did not provide more specifics and did not address whether the FCC has the authority to impose such conditions on a pending merger as part of the transfer of the CBS-owned stations to new owners.

NEW YORK—Paramount Global has agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit by President Donald Trump, ending a long-running legal saga that could clear the way for Federal Communications Commission approval of the Paramount-Skydance Media merger.

Trump filed the suit last year, asking for $10 billion in damages, an amount he later raised to $20 million. The lawsuit claimed that CBS’s “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with his 2024 election foe, former Vice President Kamala Harris, in a “deceitful” manner designed to influence the election.

CBS News’ actions represented “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to (a) confuse, deceive, and mislead the public, and (b) attempt to tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party as the heated 2024 Presidential Election” said the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division.

A number of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, and legal scholars had argued the suit was frivolous and that CBS would prevail in court.

In settling the suit, Paramount said it would pay Trump’s legal fees and that the remaining money would go to Trump’s presidential library. Paramount also said that settlement did not involve an apology.

Critics have said that Trump was using the FCC’s investigation of the merger and a “news distortion” complaint as a way to put additional pressure on Paramount to settle the lawsuit. The FCC has denied there is any connection between the suit and themerger approval process. But it has said that the news distortion complaint about how the Harris interview was edited would play a role in the merger review.

DALLAS—CBS Stations has expanded its use of an in-house developed augmented reality and virtual reality solution for news and weather with the launch of a new AR/VR studio at CBS Texas.

The launch makes CBS Texas the first station in the region to introduce this technology. It is the eighth market where CBS Stations has launched the solution since it was first developed at its Bay Area operations.

CBS Texas debuted the AR/VR system on-air Monday, June 23, during the CBS News Texas 5 p.m. newscast, led by First Alert chief meteorologist McKenna King, who guided viewers through the first immersive weather segment using the new platform.

The AR/VR-enabled studio, measuring approximately 20,384 cubic feet, transforms storytelling by offering a dynamic, visually rich experience that brings weather to life. From hyperrealistic weather simulations to immersive storytelling environments, the technology enhances both presentation and viewer comprehension of complex topics, the station group said.

“The launch in Texas further underscores our commitment to investing in the future of local journalism,” said Jennifer Mitchell, president of CBS Stations and CBS News and Stations Digital. “Through the expansion of our technological capabilities, we continue to deepen how we serve our communities, elevate the viewer experience and shape the future of broadcast journalism.”

“Over the past year, we’ve evolved every part of our newsroom – from refreshing our newscasts, updating our brand and building a multiplatform coverage strategy,” said Raquel Amparo, president and general manager of CBS Texas. “This technology is the next chapter and allows us to enhance meaningful content for everyone we serve.”

The launch follows successful implementations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, Denver and Miami.

LOS ANGELES—CBS Los Angeles (KCBS-KCAL) launched a new AR/VR technology studio on June 11 during the 9 a.m. newscast with meteorologist Paul Deanno.

As previously reported, CBS Stations initially developed AR/VR technology at KPIX San Francisco, and has been rolling out the system to other stations in the group, where they have been used for weather, sports, news, March Madness and election coverage. The L.A. launch is the seventh and the most advanced of its kind within the CBS Stations Group.

Located in a newly built state-of-the-art KCAL News studio, the new studio is the largest technology-driven facility in the CBS Stations Group, spanning 68 feet by 50 feet, totaling 3,400 square feet. It is the first and only fully AR/VR-enabled news studio in Southern California. The nearest comparable facility is at CBS Bay Area/KPIX.

“CBS Los Angeles is proud to be the first in Southern California to bring this level of immersive storytelling to our viewers,” said Tim Wieland, regional president and general manager of CBS Los Angeles. “This new AR/VR studio redefines how we deliver weather and sports – making complex information more accessible, engaging and visually compelling. It’s a game-changer for our market and a testament to our commitment to innovation.”

Stations in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami and Denver are similarly leveraging AR/VR to enhance weather coverage, providing audiences with a more engaging and informative understanding of the conditions impacting their communities, the station group said.

Jennifer Mitchell, president of CBS Stations, who has overseen the rollout of AR/VR studios across the network, said: “We began this journey two years ago with KPIX in the Bay Area, driven by a vision to invest in local journalism and deliver the news in ways that resonate with today’s audiences. Bringing this technology to the nation’s second-largest media market was a natural next step. This is about standing apart through innovation, and continuing to lead with purpose, creativity and cutting-edge storytelling.”

ATLANTA—CBS said WUPA Atlanta will become its new network outlet in that city. The station, which broadcasts on Channel 69, will begin broadcasting CBS programming on Aug. 16.

CBS News & Stations has owned WUPA, currently branded on-air as Atlanta 69, since 1994. Currently an independent, WUPA was an affiliate of The CW from 2006 to 2024.

Effective Aug. 16, WUPA will rebrand as CBS Atlanta and plans to launch a streaming CBS News Atlanta channel, covering the latest regional weather, traffic, local and breaking news.

Gray Media’s WANF had been the CBS affiliate since 1994. Gray said WANF will become an independent station focued on its local news operation.

CBS owns and operates 27 stations in 17 of the country’s biggest markets. It operates a streaming service, CBS News 24/7, which includes streaming news feeds from many of its owned stations.

“Launching our first owned CBS station in Atlanta is a milestone moment for us,” said Jennifer Mitchell, president of CBS Stations and CBS News and Stations Digital. “This expansion allows us to bring the full strength of CBS’ award-winning news, sports and entertainment programming directly to one of the most vibrant and influential markets in the country. With WUPA and the launch of the CBS News Atlanta streaming channel, we’re not just delivering content—we’re investing in the community, local journalism and ensuring Atlanta viewers receive the same trusted, high-quality journalism that defines CBS in every market we serve.”

WUPA’s live linear feed will also be available on Paramount+.

In a separate announcement, Gray Media said WANF would leverage its local news operation and the resources of its Atlanta-based parent company to better serve the local community with on-air and online content.

“As residents of Atlanta along with our families, this company’s leadership and our corporate colleagues have been keenly focused on improving what we watch every day on WANF and its sister station, WPCH Peachtree TV,” said Gray’s executive chairman Hilton Howell. “We are excited to now take WANF in a new direction that puts full control of the station’s offerings in local hands and that allows us to expand our investment in local news, weather and sports by, for and about the people who, like us, live in Greater Atlanta.”

Gray said that it plans to make additional financial and other resource investments in WANF to enable it to transition successfully to a strong independent local television station.

Gray said it expects that WANF will join the ranks of other successful local independent news stations. Former network affiliates like Gray-owned KTVK Phoenix, WJXT Jacksonville, and WHDH Boston are all high-rated independent stations that have flourished with a strong local news presence, the company said.

“Since acquiring WANF and WPCH in December 2021, Gray has invested tens of millions of dollars to reinvigorate the stations and expand their capabilities,“ Gray Co-CEO Pat LaPlatney said. “Three years ago, WANF adopted its current call sign to emphasize its new commitment to delivering Atlanta News First. This is not just a slogan, it’s the philosophy for the entire organization. The next chapter as an independent station allows WANF to deliver on that commitment more fully, and our experience and our research make us optimistic that viewers and advertisers will increasingly turn to WANF as a result.”

WASHINGTON—Two Senate Democrats have sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission arguing that the regulator needs to be extremely transparent in its review of the Paramount Global-Skydance merger given the appearance that the process might involve “bribery” and unfair regulatory pressure by the Trump administration on Paramount’s CBS News.

The letter was sent by Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), ranking member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Telecommunications and Media Subcommittee, to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.

Citing reports that Paramount is considering settling what the senators called “a frivolous lawsuit” brought by President Donald Trump, Markey and Luján said the FCC should only approve the merger by an affirmative vote of the full commission.

As previously reported, President Donald Trump has sued Paramount for $20 billion in damages relating to how CBS News edited a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The FCC is also investigating CBS over “news distortion” regarding how the interview, which took place during the 2024 presidential campaign between Trump and Harris, was edited, and Carr has said that issue will be an important part of its review of the merger.

The fact that the FCC is investigating the Paramount and CBS as the president is suing the company has been attacked by critics, including several former FCC commissioners, They have complained that the FCC is helping the White House censor media critics of the administration. The pressure of the FCC investigation might also produce a financial windfall for Trump if Paramount settles the suit.

Disney’s ABC, which is also being investigated by the FCC, has already settled a separate suit by Trump.

Carr has repeatedly denied those allegations, saying the FCC investigations have no relationship to the Trump lawsuits and that he hasn’t even read the Trump lawsuit. Even though other agencies have already approved the merger, Carr has also stressed that the FCC has not delayed ruling on the merger to increase pressure on Paramount.

In the May 13 letter, the senators wrote: “In late October, then-candidate Trump sued CBS for $10 billion—later raising this outrageous amount to $20 billion—for supposedly deceptively editing an interview of then-Vice President Kamala Harris on its programs ‘60 Minutes’ and ‘Face the Nation.’ As the transcript of the interview showed, the excerpts that CBS aired were a quintessential example of editorial decision-making. Trump’s claim that such conduct constituted ‘voter interference’ and violated Texas’ consumer protection law is both false and a clear attempt to intimidate the news media. CBS has rightfully moved to dismiss the case.

“Despite the obviously frivolous nature of the lawsuit, Paramount is reportedly considering settling the case to ‘increase the odds that the Trump administration does not block or delay’ its merger with Skydance,” the letter continues. “In fact, Paramount executives and directors are reportedly concerned that such a settlement could open them up to accusations of bribery. Paramount would not be the first to settle a lawsuit brought by the President in the past few months. In the weeks following the inauguration, ABC ($16 million), Meta ($25 million), and X ($10 million) all settled cases brought by Trump. With Paramount on the hook to pay Skydance a $400 million breakup fee if the FCC blocks the deal, the company has strong financial incentives to facilitate FCC approval of the merger.

“For those reasons, this transaction has signs of a deal between a company eager for approval of a multibillion-dollar merger and a president willing to exploit his position to intimidate the media and secure a multimillion-dollar payout,” the letter concludes. “The unique position of this merger necessitates the utmost transparency at the FCC. A matter of this significance deserves the scrutiny of the entire commission. We urge you to only approve this merger through a full commission vote.”

More TV Tech coverage of the FCC can be found here.

The conservative group Center for American Rights has filed another “news distortion” complaint with the Federal Communications Commission. The newest complaint, filed April 21, alleges ABC, NBC and CBS offered “false or misleading information” during their coverage of the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, which the group alleged “is a failure of their responsibilities under the public interest standard.”

The filing, which the group called an “informal consumer complaint,” came shortly after FCC Chair Brendan Carr escalated his complaints regarding NBC's owner, Comcast with an April 16 social media post blasting Comcast’s cable news channel MSNBC for inaccurate coverage of the controversy surrounding the deportation of the Salvadoran immigrant.

In that post, which racked up more than 1 million views, Carr weighed in on the dispute over the deportation of the El Salvadoran immigrant by writing: “Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law abiding U.S. citizen, just a regular ‘Maryland man.’ ”

Critics interpreted the post as a threat that the FCC chair, who has already openly criticized Comcast’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, might open an investigation into the broadcast station licenses owned by Comcast’s NBCUniversal.

The Center for American Rights (CAR) had previously filed complaints against stations owned by ABC, CBS and NBC for “news distortion” of their coverage of Donald Trump during the presidential race. Those complaints were dismissed by the FCC and then reinstated by Carr.

In the newest complaint, CAR argued: “Going back decades, this Commission has insisted that a licensee may not ‘distort or suppress the basic factual information upon which any truly fair and free discussion of public issues must necessarily depend.’ … Yet that is precisely the situation regarding the deportation of illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia. NBC, ABC, and CBS have all done a grave disservice to the basic facts of the controversy by consistently referring to him as a ‘Maryland father’ and in some instances even presenting false information, like calling him a ‘legal resident.’ The actual facts—that he is an illegal alien and that an immigration judge has found he is a member of a violent gang—are not reported or are treated as unconfirmed rumors. The story is slanted in a way that distorts, misrepresents, or simply incorrectly reports the basic facts.”

It is not clear from the complaint what sort of penalty CAR wants the FCC to impose on the networks or even what entity should be penalized.

The FCC does license broadcast stations and regulate the broadcast networks, but it does not license the networks. CAR’s other “news distortion” complaints were made against specific FCC-licensed broadcast stations owned by the networks. The newest filing does not mention any specific stations.

In the filing, CAR outlines various conditions that would allow the FCC to remove licenses and lays down legal arguments supporting the idea the regulator could remove a license for “news distortion” and failure to offer news coverage and information that meets the “public interest” standard.

While the complaint focuses on the network news operations, it does not mention the fact that the FCC does not license the networks. Instead, it urges the FCC to act to restore the public’s faith in traditional media and broadcast news by investigating operations that violate the “public interest” standard.

“When the American people no longer trust broadcast news media’s good faith, this Commission needs to exercise more vigorous enforcement of the public-interest standard,” the complaint noted.

“The integrity of news broadcasting is crucial to an informed, responsible electorate and the Commission has stressed the continuing duty of licensees to take adequate measures to insure such integrity,” the complaint concluded. “NBC, ABC and CBS have not acted with journalistic integrity in their reporting on Mr. Abrego Garcia. Quite the opposite, in fact. Their extreme and evident bias on this story is just one more reason [why] ‘[m]ore Americans trust gas station sushi than the legacy national media.’ @BrendanCarrFCC (Feb. 26, 13 2025). That sort of self-evident news distortion, providing ‘false or misleading information concerning the basic facts' of the story, is a failure of their responsibilities under the public-interest standard.”

The NAB has in the past argued that these arguments for denying broadcast station licenses are “unconstitutional” on First Amendment grounds and go far beyond the legitimate powers of the FCC. In addition, former FCC commissioners have accused the FCC of acting as the `White House’s personal censor’ by investigating news organizations providing critical coverage of the administration.

The full CAR complaint is available here.

The procedural show on broadcast television isn’t a new concept, but, according to the team at CBS, audiences are craving the long-term investment in characters that a limited series on streaming services can’t compete with. This was the focus of the panel “ ‘Fire Country’ and the Boom of Broadcast Procedurals (Again!)” at NAB Show on Sunday.

Broadcast procedurals like “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “NCIS” have long focused on the satisfying formula of problem, investigation and solution, typically in a 42-minute fashion. But in the age of streaming giants pulling audiences away from linear television, procedural producers, like “Fire Country” co-creators and executive producers and panelists Joan Rater and Tony Phelan, have found that investing in character development is the best way to keep audiences drawn to shows.

“Everybody can relate to redemption stories and the need for second chances,” said Rater of her show, “Fire Country,” where a convicted felon fights fires to reduce his prison sentence in his small hometown — a notable break from the norm of big-city dramas.

“[The show] is aspirational in terms of family and community and that, I think, has really resonated with people,” Phelan added. Both creators agreed that, now more than ever, writing characters that audiences tune in to see every week, for upwards of 20 episodes a season, is the main focus of building out these shows.

The actual procedure of the procedural isn’t why audiences resonate with CBS shows. Rather, Bryan Seabury, executive vice president, head of content strategy and drama development at CBS Studios, asks himself if the show is built “to go the distance.”

“Other shows … they’re limited, they’re designed in a different way,” Seabury said. “Here, the questions we ask in a pilot are much more open-ended and hopefully, you’re planting seeds that go for seasons.”

Week after week, audiences can identify with these characters as they invite them into their homes, and in some ways, become part of the family, as Phelan put it. The writers can push the bounds of storytelling by allowing characters to grow, experience setbacks and change over a more authentic timeline, rather than in eight episodes, according to Rater.

Though differentiating themselves from streaming services, the CBS panelists couldn’t ignore platforms like Netflix, which offer viewers binge-able content at a clip. However, Yelena Chak, executive vice president, scripted development at CBS Entertainment, found that Netflix can be used as a promotional tool.

“The people who found it on Netflix, they watched the first season there, which then drove them to Paramount+ to watch season two, which then in turn drove them back to CBS broadcast network for season three,” Chak said. “So it brought people right back to our ecosystem.”

Seabury also noted that this era of television gives executives the ability to see ratings and viewership not only on premiere night but on delayed viewing, on the network’s streaming platform and then later, on a third-party streaming service like Netflix, which improves overall results. Case-in-point: In the month that season one of “Fire Country” was released on Netflix, 3 billion minutes of the show were viewed between Netflix and Paramount+.

The long-term strategy doesn’t stop there. In the coming months, the “Fire Country” spinoff “Sheriff Country,” which also focuses on the character development of a small-town sheriff dealing with personal and professional dilemmas, will premiere on CBS. The spinoff will not only serve as a marketing vehicle for the original show by way of crossover episodes, but panelists agreed that this spinoff is a testament to the deep character development of procedurals that keep audiences engaged with whatever universe is being created.

Copyright 2025 NAB

Protect Democracy has submitted comments to the FCC on behalf of a bipartisan group of former FCC chairs and commissioners that strongly criticizes the FCC’s ongoing investigation of “news distortion” by CBS News in its handling of a "60 Minutes" interview with then vice president Kamala Harris.

The filing which was signed by former FCC Chairs Alfred Sikes (R) and Tom Wheeler (D) and former Commissioners Rachelle Chong (R), Gloria Tristani (D), and Ervin Duggan (D) accuses the FCC of abandoning its traditional role as an independent agency and defender of free speech so that it can act as “the White House’s personal censor” to threaten broadcasters to who offer coverage that displeases President Donald Trump.

“By reopening this complaint, the Commission is signaling to broadcasters that it will indeed act at the behest of the White House by closely scrutinizing the content of news coverage and threatening the regulatory licenses of broadcasters whose news outlets produce coverage that does not pass muster in the President’s view.” the filing said. “We recommend the Commission reverse course, closing this proceeding without further action and reaffirming its long-held commitment to acting as an independent agency rather than the White House’s personal censor.”

The investigation stems from a complaint filed by the conservative group Center for American Rights (CAR) that accused CBS of news distortion in the way it edited an interview with then vice president Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election.

President Donald Trump has also filed a $20 billion suit against Paramount Global and the FCC has said it is considering the news bias complaint as part of its approval process of the Paramount-Skydance merger.

Taken together these FCC investigations could put pressure on Paramount to settle the lawsuit, producing a lucrative payoff for the lawsuit’s plaintiffs.

Trump and Paramount have agreed to appoint a mediator to handle the suit.

Late last year, Disney agreed to settle a libel suit filed by Trump against ABC by paying $1 million to cover legal fees and $15 million toward Trump’s future presidential library.

Separately CAR filed a complaint against ABC’s WPVI in Philadelphia for “news distortion” in its live fact checking of the Presidential Debate.

Former FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel dismissed the three complaints filed by CAR along with separate complaints filed against the Fox-owned station WTXF in Philadelphia on first amendment grounds. Shortly after being named FCC chair, Brendan Carr reinstated all the CAR complaints against Paramount Global’s WCBS-TV New York, Disney’s WPVI Philadelphia and NBCUniversal’s WNBC New York.

“These actions strongly suggest that the FCC is wielding its authority in an effort to chill CBS news coverage of the Administration and extract concessions from CBS in only tangentially related contexts,” the FCC chairs and commissioners noted in the filing by Project Democracy. “President Trump has filed a lawsuit against CBS seeking $20 billion in damages allegedly caused by the editing of the “60 Minutes” interview. A motion to dismiss rooted in the First Amendment is pending, but the Commission’s actions here have resulted in the disclosure of the relevant transcript long before the plaintiffs would otherwise be entitled to it. A finding by the Commission that CBS had engaged in news distortion would strengthen the President’s litigation case, and the very pendency of the proceeding pressures CBS to hand the White House a victory by settling that case.”

"Moreover, CBS’s parent company Paramount is currently seeking FCC approval of its merger with Skydance,” the filing noted. “The Commission seems poised to use the instant proceeding as additional leverage in the merger review process, either to impose conditions on the transaction desired by the White House or simply to place additional pressure on CBS to modify its coverage of President Trump and his allies. Indeed, the public notice establishing the docket in this proceeding goes so far as to note that the allegations in this matter were incorporated by CAR in a separate complaint seeking to condition the merger, making this relationship explicit.”

In the newest filing, the FCC chairs and commissioners also cited extensive legal precedents showing that the FCC does not have the authority to censor news content and argued that its authority to investigate “news distortion” is extremely limited.

“From our many combined years of experience as Commissioners, we cannot stay silent,” they wrote. “The Commission on which we served, regardless of the party of its Chair or the policy agenda of the President, was an independent agency. It contains a bipartisan group of five commissioners due to the sensitive nature of regulating broadcasters, and the critical role they play in free press and free speech, the bedrock foundations of our democracy. It was dedicated to ensuring that the broadcast spectrum helped to create the marketplace of ideas that undergirds political debate and ensures the richness of American culture. We have taken great pride in the Commission’s historic bipartisan commitment to that position.”

“To remain true to its mission, the Commission must close this proceeding without further action,” they concluded. “To do otherwise would suggest that the Commission has been transformed into a tool of White House-driven speech suppression.”

The complete filing is available here.

News and sports programming, which are the biggest drivers for broadcast revenue and audiences, were also the central topic of the first panel at the TV Tech Summit, where executives at stations and networks discussed newer technologies that are helping them engage viewers and streamline operations.

When asked about the future of technologies for news and sports, panelists were particularly bullish on advances in virtual sets, remote production, standardized interoperable solutions, hybrid cloud archives and infrastructures that help streamline the delivery to multiple platforms.

During the panel, “New Tech for the Next Generation of News and Sports” Tim Hinson vice president, technology, at ABC13 KTRK in Houston Texas at the ABC Owned Television Stations, stressed that a key tech priority at the station group has been to standardize and centralize technologies. This, he said, has helped them improve quality and more efficiently produce massive amount of local news each week.

That effort, he added, also produced a number of important benefits during the L.A. wildfires.

“Over the past few years, we've been really focusing on technology and operations, centralization and standardization,” he said, adding that he wasn’t “necessarily referring to just a people or a hub, for example, even though we do some of that. Really what we're talking about is centralization of technology [in terms of] reducing costs and also workflow optimization. And we're also hyper focused on making sure our common systems and workflows are standardized across the group, especially from a technology perspective, because that really, really promotes the sharing of data, content and personnel.”

Covering Wildfires with Better Tech

During the wildfires, he explained, “a lot of our other stations sent reporters, photographers and other support staff to L.A. to help out with the coverage….Because of our standardization efforts mentioned earlier, people were able to jump right in and begin working…We were able to easily provide live shots to any station around the country from any bonded cell packing unit with just a touch of a button.”

They were also able to get them working without having to “learn the station systems first…They were just able to go straight out in the field and start contributing right away,” he said.

Hinson and the other panelists also stressed the importance of engaging viewers with new ways of telling stories that can help them stand out from a crowded news and sports landscape.

One example of that is virtual sets or augmented reality technologies.

Jason Wormser, senior vice president, CW Sports noted that their production partner NASCAR Productions has recently unveiled a new virtual set in Studio 43, their state-of-the-art production facility that NASCAR uses to produce the CW NASCAR coverage.

“They’ve invested in a 57 foot LED wall,” he said. “They are using AR camera tracking technology with a [ARRI] Alexa 35 studio camera system…We really think this is kind of the next stage, the next step of these virtual systems" that will provide enormous flexibility and quality for the studio production.”

During the panel, Scott Warren, president and general manager, CBS Bay Area (KPIX/KPIX+) discussed a ground-breaking case study of how the CBS-owned stations were able to deploy virtual sets, which until relatively recently, required the kind of large budgets and engineering staff that only large networks could afford.

Warren said the project began in 2023 as part of a push to find better ways to tell stories and provide better, more engaging weather coverage. “We wanted to make an immersive experience, because weather is more than two dimensional,” he explained. “It's more than a person in front of a map, it's cloud stacks, it's elevation, it's wind, it's rain, it’s precipitation…We felt like we could tell the weather story in a better way in an immersive environment, and that's where this all started.”

In the development process of the system, they worked with Myreze, a branding and virtual production company from Norway. Other vendors included Zero Density’s virtual solution, rendering from the Unreal Engine, camera tracking from stYpe and Baron Weather for integrated weather data.

The Secret Sauce for Immersive Local News

A key component, however, was their inhouse tech talent, Warren stressed. “We had to challenge them [all the vendors], as well as ourselves, because we couldn't add bodies…We really had to do it with the existing team…We had to do something different and bring all of this in house and have it hook up into an automated control room with just one director.”

"And…that was the where the secret sauce comes in, [the station’s inhouse tech talent],” he added. “Our coders and our engineers have worked feverishly to pull all the pieces and parts [together] and to get inside all of the third party vendors’ engines and reconfigure things to make it work.”

The result, he said, is “TV in a box. We've created a system that does work with just one director driving the whole thing, and one operator, and that's it.”

The system is so streamlined they’ve been able to since install it at other CBS owned stations in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Colorado and Miami. It has also been expanded for additional types of coverage, including breaking news and sports, with the CBS stations using it for their March Madness Coverage.

In San Francisco, they’ve become so comfortable with the solution that they’ve discarded all the hard sets.

The system is particularly appealing for breaking news. “The magic of the weather system is that everything is in real time and real time data,” Warren said. “The big challenge at the very beginning of building this was, how do we bring all that weather data from the National Weather Service and other partners into our system at every single elevation in the atmosphere, to show every different kind of condition, pressure, wind, precipitation and temperature, all the things that factor into what makes weather. How do we bring that digital information into the system in real time and create the visual representations of what that is doing?”

The resulting system “does exactly that,” he explained. “It builds graphics in real time.”

This has also been important for breaking news like wildfires. “We're able to watch fires and fire lines develop with these virtual maps,” he said, adding that it has also been a great tool for covering “earthquakes...We're able to locate and show the magnitude as it ripples out across an area, and all of this is driven by the meteorologists in real time who have an iPad.”

The Remote Production Game

During the panel, CW’s Wormser also highlighted the growing importance of remote production tech advances in cutting the costs of sports production.

“Our system is a little bit different than everybody else's, because we are using third parties,” that are producing events for us,” Wormser explained, using remote production technologies. “With REMI, with COVID…it just accelerated so many things in our business [so that remote production]...is kind of the next step” in sports production.

Wormser noted that remote productions have given them more flexibility in the way they’ve produced events, while reducing costs and freeing up money to improve the productions.

“It just saves so much, and it also gives you flexibility in the future of trying new things, trying different ideas, spending more time on pre-produced or post-produced elements,” he said. “It gives you a little bit more flexibility at a lower cost.”

“All the networks are doing it,” he added. “ESPN has been doing it with basketball. Fox has been doing this for years…It goes back into the early 2000s basically, they were bringing games in from across the world, and they were voicing and doing all the graphics in their studios in Los Angeles, and calling him off the monitor because they don't have the money to go around the world. So it's only going to get better. The technology is unbelievable, and will enable networks to put the money into rights and yet still have high quality, innovative production and content for the viewers.”

The TV Tech Summit had a full separate panel on remote productions discussing those developments in more detail.

The full TV Tech Summit, including this panel and keynotes, can be viewed on demand here.

DETROIT—Waymark has announced that CBS’s owned stations across the country will now offer their local advertising partners Waymark’s AI-powered ad creation technology. The solution allows advertisers who might not otherwise be able to afford to create ads a cost effective way to market their products on local stations.

“We are looking forward to leveraging Waymark’s cutting-edge AI to create commercials for our local small and mid-sized clients,” said Robert Breen, co-head, advertising sales and operations, CBS Stations. “Their platform makes high-quality video production fast, easy, and accessible—perfect for driving results in today’s competitive market and paving the way for our clients to have another avenue to grow their business.”

CBS, which owns and operates 27 stations in major markets across the U.S., including New York (WCBS-TV), Los Angeles (KCBS-TV), and Chicago (WBBM-TV), is the latest leading broadcast station group to join forces with Waymark. Waymark also had deals with such media companies as Spectrum Reach, Fox TV Stations, E.W. Scripps, Sinclair, Inc., Cox Media, Gray Media, Beasley Media Group, Nine Entertainment (Australia), and UK publisher National World plc.

“We have been working closely with CBS stations, testing our technology in a few markets, and after seeing great success, we’re excited to roll out our video advertising platform across all stations nationally,” says Hayden Gilmer, Waymark’s vice president of revenue.

Last year, Waymark teamed with Paramount+ and Pluto TV to launch the new Paramount Ads Manager, a self-service buying platform that put the power of television advertising into the hands of businesses of all sizes. Paramount Ads Manager provides full autonomy, accelerated access to Paramount’s premium content, asset creation tools, real-time measurement, and optimization.

“We’re thrilled to expand on our relationship with Paramount Global, following the successful rollout last year of the Paramount Ads Manager platform across Paramount+ and Pluto TV,” said Waymark CEO Alex Persky-Stern. “Our AI video technology combined with the Paramount Ads Manager is putting the power of video advertising into the hands of local businesses across the country.”

Earlier this month, the company launched Waymark 2, a next generation platform that allows the company’s partners like CBS to create one-click, high-quality videos easier and faster than ever before. With the rollout of this new technology suite, Waymark’s media partners and digital clients are experiencing a more personalized, friendly AI experience that features ultra-fast speed and generates richer video, descriptions, and voice-over capabilities. For the first time, users will be able to keep what they like and let AI regenerate the rest with Waymark 2, the company reported.

To showcase the transformative power of Waymark 2, the company is hosting a webinar at https://waymark.com/marketing/waymark-2-webinar.

Attorneys for President Trump and Paramount are seeking a mediator to resolve Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit against CBS, according to the New York Times.

The Times, citing several sources, said Paramount had no comment but quotes Trump’s lawyer Ed Paltzik, “President Trump will pursue this vital matter to its just and rightful conclusion.”

Trump filed the lawsuit against CBS just prior to the 2024 election, accusing the network of editing an interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris to show bias against him. The lawsuit was amended to add the network’s parent company as a separate defendant.

Brendan Carr, Trump’s new FCC chairman has also accused CBS of “distortion,” and said as early as last November that the lawsuit would be a part of the commission’s review of the merger. The FCC released the full transcript of the interview earlier this month and has asked for public comment.

Attorneys for Trump and Paramount are currently negotiating but CBS staffers are opposed to issuing an apology to Trump, according to the Times.

TYSONS, Va.—Tegna Inc. has announced that news veteran Adrienne Roark has been named chief content officer reporting to CEO Mike Steib, effective March 31.

With more than three decades of experience in news leadership, local TV station management and innovative content development, Roark joins Tegna from CBS News and Stations, where she oversaw daily editorial content, managed CBS-owned stations in New York and Boston, launched weather across the network and led the group’s data journalism team. Earlier, she oversaw the network’s owned and operated stations in the East and Central U.S.

Variety reported that "her departure is just the latest in a parade of executives [from CBS News]...in recent years." More details are available here.

“Throughout her impressive career, Adrienne has delivered exceptional journalism at scale while staying deeply committed to local communities,” said Mike Steib, Tegna’s CEO. “She brings sharp editorial and operational expertise, a history of rapid innovation across TV and digital, and the kind of high-intensity, high-velocity leadership that fits perfectly with our team.”

Earlier, Roark held numerous leadership roles across the country, including general manager roles at KPTV/DPDX and KOIN-TV in Portland and vice president and news director at KTVT-TV and KTXA-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth. Roark’s experience also includes news leadership positions at WFOR-TV in Miami, WESH-TV in Orlando, WDSU-TV in New Orleans, WTVJ-TV in Miami, Tegna’s WKYC-TV in Cleveland, WCMH-TV and Tegna’s WBNS-TV in Columbus.

“I’m thrilled to join Tegna and look forward to working with the talented team to continue innovating and delivering high-quality, audience-driven stories for the tens of millions of community members who come to our platforms daily for their local news,” Roark said.

Roark serves on the National Advisory Board of Poynter, the Broadcasters Foundation of America's Board of Directors, and the Carole Kneeland Project Board of Directors.

She is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a bachelor's degree in communications.

A carriage dispute between YouTube TV and Paramount could come to a head today (Feb. 13), with the virtual pay TV provider threatening to pull all of the programmer’s channels—including local CBS stations.

On Wednesday, virtual multichannel video programming distributor YouTube TV said in a blog post that despite what it called “good faith” negotiations with Paramount, two sides had not yet reached a carriage deal.

Overnight, YouTube TV sent a notice to subscribers, warning of the potential action.

“With YouTube TV, our goal is to offer you the content you love, delivered the way you want it,” the company said. “To make this happen, we enter into agreements with network partners to make their content available on YouTube TV. As such, we’ve been negotiating with Paramount to reach a fair agreement that allows us to keep their channels, including CBS, on YouTube TV without compromising the value of our service. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we’ve been unable to reach an agreement.

“On February 13, 2025, all Paramount channels will likely become unavailable on YouTube TV,” the statement continued. “If this happens, this will impact previous Library recordings from these channels, Paramount content in the Entertainment Plus package, and add-on services like Paramount+ with Showtime and BET+. Should Paramount content become unavailable, we will continue to update our Help Center with the latest.”

YouTube TV offered some respite to subscribers, promising refunds if the channels are pulled.

“It’s our goal to restore Paramount content to YouTube TV, but if we do not come to an agreement and their content is unavailable for an extended period of time, we'll offer our YouTube TV subscribers an $8 credit,“ YouTube TV said. “You can still watch Paramount shows and movies by signing up for their streaming service, Paramount+, starting at $7.99/month.”

Paramount’s cable channels include BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, CBS Sports Network, Paramount Network, CMT, Nick Jr., Smithsonian Channel, TV Land and VH1.

All CBS local affiliates could be dropped, as well as another 10 other stations that are part of the CBS News and Stations division, including:

• Atlanta (WUPA)
• Boston (WSBK)
• Dallas-Fort Worth (KTXA)
• New York (WLNY)
• Philadelphia (WPSG)
• Pittsburgh (WPCW)
• Sacramento (KMAX)
• San Francisco (KPYX)
• Seattle (KSTW)
• Tampa Bay (WTOG)

Paramount said negotiations have been unfair.

“YouTube TV is attempting to pressure Paramount to agree to one-sided terms, and these nonmarket demands may lead to an avoidable loss of Paramount’s networks on YouTube TV, in addition to the removal of Paramount+ and BET+ from YouTube’s Primetime Channels, on February 13,” a Paramount spokesperson said.

Paramount has launched a website (keepparamount.com) to keep subscribers informed.

Paramount is amid a merger with movie studio Skydance, an $8 billion deal announced last summer. YouTube TV, which launched in 2017 with a monthly subscription of $35, has since more than doubled its fee, currently at $83 per month.

NEW YORK—Paramount Global and Nielsen have inked a new, multiyear deal that will provide measurement for all of the company’s platforms, including national and local broadcast, all cable networks,and streaming on Paramount+ and Pluto TV.

In addition, Paramount has licensed new Nielsen services as part of this agreement, including Advanced Audiences, Big Data + Panel, Ad-Supported Streaming Platform Ratings, Nielsen One Ads for Connected Television and national out-of-home expansion to inform advertising, programming and licensing strategies.

“Paramount and Nielsen are committed to addressing Television’s multiplatform future to the benefit of all of our stakeholders,” George Cheeks, president and CEO of CBS and co-CEO, Paramount Global, said. “[Nielsen CEO] Karthik [Rao] and his team continue to meet the needs of our marketplace across all our platforms, and we are incredibly pleased to reinforce and reinvigorate our deal with our longtime partner.”

Along with the new agreement, Nielsen also released new viewing data for Paramount.

In terms of sports, the data showed that CBS’s broadcast of the AFC Championship Game on Jan.26 averaged 57.7 million viewers, setting the all-time record for the AFC and the largest overall NFL conference championship in 15 years. CBS coverage of the 2024 NFL regular season included three of the top five NFL games in October; the highest rated game (27.5 million viewers) in the November interval; and two of the top five in a hotly contested December.

As the broadcast season swung into action this fall, the data also showed that CBS was once again establishing itself as a leader in broadcast dramas, building on its track record to develop new franchises. “Tracker” came back for its second season and took the crown as the top drama program in October (11.3 million average viewers), November (11.6 million) and December (10.8 million).

The reimagined “Matlock” came in a close second to “Tracker” in all three months and was joined by “FBI,” “Elsbeth,” “NCIS,” and the farewell season of “Blue Bloods” in the top 10 every month this fall. The total viewing time by Americans of CBS dramas across the fourth quarter of 2024 topped 50 trillion viewing minutes, which approaches 100,000 years of viewing, more than any other broadcast network.

Paramount+ also experienced major success in 2024 with original series “Lioness,” “Tulsa King” and one of the most talked about shows of the season, “Landman,” which has given the platform its first billion-minute (in a week) performer. The three titles have all appeared in the Nielsen Streaming Top 10 simultaneously in multiple weeks this fall, another first for the platform. Paramount also earned wins for its multi-platform strategy. In 2024, the most-watched new dramas across broadcast and streaming combined were Tracker, with 26.07 billion minutes viewed (CBS, Paramount+, Hulu) and “Elsbeth,” with 14.94 billion minutes viewed (CBS, Paramount+).

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Federal Communications Commission investigation into CBS and an interview conducted by "60 Minutes" with vice president Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential race has significantly escalated with news that the FCC sent a letter to CBS News demanding video, transcripts and other information about the interview.

The complaint against CBS, which was filed by the conservative group Center for American Rights, was dropped by former FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel, who called it a violation of the broadcaster’s First Amendment rights. It was, however, quickly reinstated along by current FCC chair Brendan Carr as part of his new regulatory agenda.

President Donald Trump has sued CBS over how the Harris interview was edited. Carr has repeatedly said that the bias complaint against CBS is going to be part of the FCC’s review of the Paramount Global-Skydance merger. The FCC could derail the merger if it refuses to transfer ownership of the CBS-owned broadcast local stations.

In response to the letter, a CBS News spokesman has told The New York Times, “We are working to comply with that inquiry as we are legally compelled to do.”

According to the Times, the FCC asked for “the full, unedited transcript and camera feeds.”

The move drew a heated rebuke from FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, who said the investigation is part of a trend to “weaponize our broadcast licensing authority,” and “set a dangerous precedent that threatens to undermine trust in the agency’s role as an impartial regulator.”

“During these last two weeks, the FCC has shown a concerning pattern of implementing the will of the Administration on issues that go far beyond our core responsibilities,” Gomez wrote in a statement. “These actions disregard long-standing norms and ignore the mandate granted by Congress to the FCC to act as an independent agency. They also set a dangerous precedent that threatens to undermine trust in the agency’s role as an impartial regulator. This latest action to weaponize our broadcast licensing authority is no different. It revives a complaint that had been previously dismissed by FCC experts due to lack of evidence and because it fell far short of the high standard needed for agency action.”

Gomez concluded: “Let’s be clear. This is a retaliatory move by the government against broadcasters whose content or coverage is perceived to be unfavorable. It is designed to instill fear in broadcast stations and influence a network’s editorial decisions. The Communications Act clearly prohibits the Commission from censoring broadcasters and the First Amendment protects journalistic decisions against government intimidation. We must respect the rule of law, uphold the Constitution, and safeguard public trust in our oversight of broadcasters.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Federal Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau said Paramount Global is being fined $244,952 for violations of emergency alerting rules and the company has entered into a consent degree detailing how it will work to avoid future violations.

The fine and decree follow an FCC investigation into allegations that various operations owned by Paramount improperly transmitted Emergency Alert System (EAS) codes, the EAS attention signal or recordings or simulations during two TV programs and one radio program.

In the consent decree, Paramount admitted violations involving the syndicated “Entertainment Tonight” broadcast on Oct. 25, 2023 and the CBS News Radio “On the Hour” newscast on June 6, 2024. It also admitted certain facts regarding an episode of “Young Sheldon” broadcast by the CBS Television Network on May 18, 2023.

The FCC has rules against broadcasting emergency alert tones outside of emergency alerts because their regular use in programming might desensitize viewers and listeners, causing them to ignore actual emergency alerts.

The FCC issued several significant fines regarding a variety of EAS rules in 2024, against such companies as ESPN and Charter Communications.

The investigation into CBS News Radio began after Paramount emailed the FCC on June 7 indicating that a news story concerning an event at Universal Studios “may have improperly transmitted or caused to be transmitted an EAS tone or simulation thereof,” the FCC said. The company said a top-of-the-hour newcast airing on 400 CBS News Radio affiliates at 4 p.m. (ET) on June 6 contained about three seconds of the EAS attention signal. Most affiliates carried the newscast, the FCC said.

The investigation into the daily syndicated entertainment newsmagazine “ET” was also prompted by an email from Paramount. “A brief excerpt of the broadcast EAS tones, lasting approximately one second, appears to have been aired during the October 24, 2023 episode of the program Entertainment Tonight,” the company reported.

The FCC also said it became aware the May 18, 2023, episode of the sitcom “Young Sheldon” airing on the CBS Television Network “might have included an improper use of EAS Tones,” prompting an investigation. The EAS tones occurred during a scene in an episode titled ”A Tornado, a 10-Hour Flight and a Darn Fine Ring,” in which some of the show’s characters are driving in a car in severe weather and become aware of an impending tornado, the FCC said.

The full order and consent degree can be found here.

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK—TCL’s streaming service TCLtv+ has struck a content deal with Paramount Streaming that will add 23 CBS FAST channels to its lineup.

The agreement includes streaming channels from 14 local stations as well as channels featuring such news shows as “60 Minutes” and “48 Hours,” and entertainment-news programs like “Entertainment Tonight” and newsmagazine show “Inside Edition.”

The launches boost TCLtv+’s programming offering to more than 350 FAST channels and growing.

“CBS Networks boasts an unrivaled lineup of iconic series that have informed and entertained audiences around the world,” Catherine Zhang, vice president of content service and partnerships, TCL, said. “We are excited to expand our relationship with CBS to include even more notable and distinguished titles, as well as a deep offering of live local and national news, a top performing category on our platform.”

The streaming service is available on all TCL TVs in U.S. and Canada. The new CBS content will first be available to U.S. audiences on TCL Google TV and Fire TV.

The content deal expands the Paramount Global-owned networks already available on the service. Those include BET x Tyler Perry Comedy, BET x Tyler Perry Drama, CW Gold, CW Forever, National Lampoon and Miramax Movie Channel.

The CBS Owned Stations’ 14 streaming channels include CBS News New York, CBS News Los Angeles, CBS News Texas, CBS News Miami, CBS News Chicago, CBS News Baltimore, CBS News Philadelphia, CBS News Pittsburgh, CBS News Boston, CBS News Bay Area, CBS News Sacramento, CBS News Detroit, CBS News Minnesota and CBS News Colorado.

In between helpings of turkey and other Thanksgiving Day fare, viewers will see companies dishing up hefty portions of ads on sports programming, with the national TV ad spend expected to hit $624 million over the four-day holiday weekend, according to new data from Guideline.

New insights from Guideline show sports programming will account for at least 84% of all broadcast dollars over the holiday weekend with NFL games accounting for 69% of all ad spending and 80% of the spending on sports.

“Thanksgiving weekend highlights the unmatched value of sports in video advertising,” Guideline Head of Product Strategy Alberto Leyes said. “With the NFL driving nearly 70% of national TV, advertisers see this holiday as a prime opportunity for massive reach and engagement despite double-digit growth in unit rates. From record NFL audiences to rising demand for college football, sports remain the go-to choice for connecting with viewers at scale.”

Guideline captures actual agency investment from all holding companies and most large independents, representing spend committed by contributing agency partners for yet-to-run inventory.

Ads during the NFL Thanksgiving Day games on Thursday (Nov. 28) have the highest 30-second unit rate at $1.45 million, up 16% year over year.

With the NFL setting a record of 34.1 million viewers for last year’s Thanksgiving games, Guideline reported that sports are once again expected to dominate broadcast ad spending with $570 million in spending from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1.

That accounts for 84% of all broadcast dollars and includes streaming service Prime Video’s Black Friday NFL game. Factoring in sports content on cable during those dates, the figure tallies $624 million.

Guideline also reported that the share of spending on sports programming during the Thursday-Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend is up from 81% in 2023 and up from 73% in 2019, the year prior to the pandemic.

The NFL Thanksgiving Thursday games (on NBC, Fox, CBS) have the highest 30-seond unit rate at $1.45 million, up 16% year over year. NFL Thanksgiving weekend games (NBC, Fox, CBS and Prime Video) cost $576,000 for a 30-second spot, up 11% YoY.

The Guideline data also indicated that college football also sees a boost during the holiday weekend, as 30-second units for college football Saturday games (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC) cost $133,000, up 12% year over year.

Disney has signed a new deal with the Recording Academy to move the Grammy Awards from CBS to ABC starting in 2027.

The move leaves CBS with only one of the four major entertainment awards shows—the Tony Awards—and gives ABC the Oscars and now the Grammys (the Emmy Awards rotate yearly among the four major commercial networks).

CBS has been home to the Grammys for 54 years.

Financial terms of the 10-year deal, which also calls for the telecast to stream live on Hulu, were not disclosed. The deal also calls for the Recording Academy to produce multiple Grammy-branded specials and additional new programming for audiences around the world across Disney’s platforms, Disney said.

Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden and Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. announced the deal on Thursday.

“As The Walt Disney Co. combines forces with the Recording Academy to open this exciting new chapter in the history of the Grammys, we do so with pride and gratitude,” Walden said. “Live events have never been more important to our culture and industry, and we just acquired one of the crown jewels, adding to our portfolio of world-class programming across all genres.”

Said Mason: “We are completely thrilled to be bringing the Grammys and other new music programming to the Disney ecosystem. We are grateful to our long-standing partners at CBS and now honored to be joining with Disney, an iconic company where creators have always been at the forefront. This partnership represents another important milestone in the Academy’s transformation and growth, and strengthens our ability to fulfill our mission of uplifting and serving music people around the world.”

CBS has responded to attacks against what critics have labeled the network’s “news distortion” in editing its interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

Critics—led by former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president—contend that the Oct. 14 interview was “deceptively edited” and have called for a release of the transcript. Trump himself called on the FCC to revoke CBS’s broadcast license on his Truth Social social-media platform last week:

“ ‘60 Minutes’ is a major part of the News Organization of CBS, which has just created th Greatest Fraud in Broadcast History,” Trump wrote. “CBS should lose its license, and it should be bid out to the Highest Bidder, as should all other Broadcast Licenses, because they are just as corrupt as CBS — and maybe even WORSE!”

That prompted this response from CBS:

“Former President Donald Trump is accusing ‘60 Minutes’ of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false.

“‘60 Minutes’ gave an excerpt of our interview to ‘Face the Nation’ that used a longer section of her answer than that on ‘60 Minutes.’ Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point. The portion of her answer on ‘60 Minutes’ was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide-ranging, 21-minute-long segment.

“Remember, Mr. Trump pulled out of his interview with ‘60 Minutes’ and the vice president participated.

“Our long-standing invitation to former President Trump remains open. If he would like to discuss the issues facing the nation and the Harris interview, we would be happy to have him on ‘60 Minutes.’”

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel also responded to Trump’s criticism, saying the regulator “does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage. While repeated attacks against broadcast stations by the former President may now be familiar, these threats against free speech are serious and should not be ignored. As I’ve said before, the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy.”

This is the third time Rosenworcel has responded to threats against broadcasters during the 2024 campaign season. In September, in response to Trump’s call for ABC to lose its broadcast license over Trump’s accusations that the network’s broadcast of his Sept. 10 debate with Harris was “rigged,” Rosenworcel said, “the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy,” adding, “the FCC does not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage.”

Rosenworcel also had to step in after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration sent a “cease and desist” letter to TV stations in the state that aired campaign ads supporting an amendment that would enshrine the right to an abortion in Florida, calling the ads both “false” and “dangerous.”

“The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment,” Rosenworcel said. “Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”

NEW YORK—An estimated 43.15 million viewers watched the CBS News Vice Presidential Debate across 15 networks on Tuesday, according to Nielsen. The first and only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election was held at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York and featured the Republican nominee, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and the Democratic nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

The debate aired live from approximately 9:00 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. ET on Tuesday evening. A full list of reported networks can be referenced in the viewership table below.

The bulk of viewers—just over 38 million—watched on the four commercial broadcast networks and three biggest cable networks, CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, according to “The Hollywood Reporter.”

While these preliminary numbers only cover the broadcasts, Fox News Media claimed the highest number of viewers of the simulcast event. Unlike Nielsen, though, Fox News included viewers across all platforms—including its Fox Business Network and its streaming platforms—with 10.4 million viewers estimated to have watched, it said.

Ratings were down 25.5% from the 2020 debate between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, now the vice president, and then-Vice President Mike Pence, which drew just under 58 million.

ATLANTA—Local Now, a free streaming platform from The Allen Media Group, has expanded its offerings of CBS programming with the addition of three recently launched ad-supported television (FAST) channels: “60 Minutes,” “48 Hours” and “Entertainment Tonight.”

The FAST channel dedicated to 60 Minutes provides access to new and classic segments of the iconic newsmagazine’s library. The CBS Entertainment Tonight (ET) FAST channel covers the latest news in movies, TV and celebrities, while the 48 Hours FAST channel features over 500 episodes of the award-winning true crime series and will include blocks of episodes with themes including: Crimes of Passion, Serial and Spree Killings, Criminal Blunders, Evil in the Family, Love Gone Wrong, Wrongful Convictions, Women Who Kill, Houses of Horror, Money Kills, Missing People, Cold Cases, Survival Stories and Hollywood Mysteries.

“Through the addition of these three excellent CBS FAST channels, Local Now continues to expand its foothold in delivering the best FREE streaming entertainment and news content available,” said Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group. “Local Now is growing exponentially, and content partnerships like CBS play a crucial role in the platform's success.”

“Partnering with Local Now introduces our award-winning news, entertainment, and true crime programming to new audiences. Our best-in-class franchises 60 Minutes, 48 Hours and Entertainment Tonight have built dedicated followings, and we're excited to offer streaming viewers the chance to engage with our journalism and entertainment content on these thoughtfully curated FAST channels,” said Wendy McMahon, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures.

Local Now provides localized news, weather, sports, traffic, and entertainment, produced by various leading news organizations, in more than 225 markets across the U.S. It offers more than 500 free streaming channels, including a Local Now channel in every DMA in the country, as well as more than 20,000 movies, TV shows, and documentaries. The Local Now app is available on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Xfinity, Vizio, Samsung, Android and IOS devices.

IRVING, Texas and NEW YORK—Nexstar Media Group, Inc. and Paramount Global have announced that Nexstar and its operating partner, Mission Broadcasting, Inc. have reached comprehensive multi-year agreements to renew CBS Television Network affiliations in 42 markets across the country. The deal covers 40 stations owned by Nexstar and two stations owned by Mission; together, the 42 stations reach 15% of the U.S. audience, serving nearly 19 million television households. 

In addition, Nexstar and Paramount announced that two Paramount-owned independent stations in Miami, Florida, and Detroit, Michigan, both top-20 markets, will become affiliates of The CW Network on September 1. 

WBFS-TV in Miami and WKBD-TV in Detroit will begin carrying the network's news, primetime entertainment, live sports, and special event programming at that time.

The CW Network is controlled by Nexstar, which has a 75% ownership stake. 

Financial terms were not disclosed.

NEW YORK—CBS Sports and the English Football League (EFL) have announced an exclusive, multi-year, multi-platform rights agreement that will see CBS Sports offer the widest distribution of EFL matches ever in the United States. 

As part of the deal, CBS Sports will air at least 250 EFL matches each season across the Championship, League One, League Two, Carabao Cup and Bristol Street Motors Trophy beginning in August and continuing through the end of the 2027/28 season. Matches will air on Paramount+ with select matches airing on CBS Sports Network and CBS Sports Golazo Network.

With 1,891 scheduled matches (fixtures) each season, the EFL is home to some of the most respected, popular and successful football competitions in the world. At the end of the 2023/24 season, the EFL ranked as the highest-attended League body in Europe with 21.5 million fans welcomed through the turnstiles for a Championship, League One or League Two fixture.

“The exciting action and prestige of the EFL, as the oldest league in the world, adds tremendous value to CBS Sports’ premium soccer portfolio,” said Dan Weinberg, executive vice president, programming, CBS Sports. “With the EFL’s compelling storylines and growing popularity coupled with our first-class coverage, we look forward to further elevating this league in the U.S. CBS Sports continues to be the premier destination for European football fans in this country with Paramount+ and CBS Sports Golazo Network as must-haves with their wide array of soccer properties and robust year-round match coverage.”

“Appetite for football in the North American markets has been growing year on year, and this partnership with CBS Sports and their leadership in covering the sport marks a significant milestone,” said Trevor Birch, CEO at the EFL. “The EFL is already broadcast to a global audience of 400 million across 182 territories, beaming into more than 250 million homes outside of the UK. We believe that American fans will embrace the excitement, tradition, and competitiveness that is embodied by our EFL competitions. This is an exciting time for the League and our Clubs, and we look forward to sharing our matches with viewers across the United States.”

NEW YORK—As declines in linear TV viewing make the ongoing popularity of live sports, particularly football, central to financial success of the TV industry, the NFL has released details of its 2024 regular season that will play a major role in the success of broadcasters, networks and streaming companies in the last four months of 2024. 

The league schedule includes specific details on the specific regular season games that will be aired or streamed by CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN, ABC, Prime Video, Peacock, Netflix and The NFL Network during the 18-week, 272-game regular-season schedule for 2024, which kicks off on Thursday night, September 5, in Kansas City and concludes with 16 division games in Week 18 – two on Saturday, January 4, and 14 on Sunday, January 5. 

For the 2024 NFL regular-season schedule by week, click here.

For the 2024 NFL preseason schedule, click here. 

More specifically, the NFL released these details about the schedule, which it described as follows: 

The 2024 NFL schedule, powered by AWS, will feature each team playing 17 regular-season games and three preseason games for the fourth consecutive year. The 17th game will feature teams from opposing conferences that finished in the same standing within their respective divisions the previous season. The NFC will be the home conference for the 17th game in 2024. For how opponents were determined for the 2024 season, click here. 

The NFL uses the power of Amazon Web Services (AWS) to power its schedule-making process. There are approximately a quadrillion possible schedule combinations each NFL season and over 26,000 factors to take into consideration such as stadium availability, travel requirements, primetime games, competitive fairness and division rivalries. The NFL uses AWS to run high performance computing workloads to find the best possible schedule each year. For more information, click here. 

The NFL's 105th season begins with the league's annual primetime kickoff game, as the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs host the Baltimore Ravens at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday, September 5 (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC) in a rematch of last season's AFC Championship Game. 

The two most recent winners of the Most Valuable Player award, Baltimore's Lamar Jackson (2023) and Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes (2022), are scheduled to face off for the sixth time in their careers, including the postseason. Should both players start as expected, Jackson (two-time MVP) and Mahomes (two-time MVP) would become the seventh different pair of quarterbacks to meet in a regular-season game after both players had won multiple MVP awards. 

The NFL's primetime kickoff game – which has been an annual tradition since 2002 – will feature a rematch of one of the previous season's conference championship games for only the third time and first since 2010, when New Orleans defeated Minnesota in a rematch of the NFC Championship. The other instance was 2004, when New England defeated Indianapolis in a rematch of the AFC Championship.

On Friday, September 6 (8:15 p.m. ET, Peacock), the Green Bay Packers will meet the Philadelphia Eagles at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Brazil, the first-ever regular season NFL game to be played in South America. It will mark the first time the NFL has played a game on Friday of their opening weekend in over 50 years, when the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams met on September 18, 1970.

Week 1 continues on CBS at 4:05 PM ET, with two head coaches making their Week 1 debut with their club as Antonio Pierce and the Las Vegas Raiders visit Jim Harbaugh and the Los Angeles Chargers in an AFC West showdown, while Super Bowl-winning head coach Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos travel to Seattle to face the Seahawks, where Mike Macdonald will make his NFL head coaching debut. On FOX at 4:25 PM ET, the Dallas Cowboys visit the Cleveland Browns in a matchup of two 2023 playoff teams and the Washington Commanders, under new head coach Dan Quinn, travel to take on the reigning NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

Later that day, NBC's Sunday Night Football begins with Mathew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams visiting Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions (8:20 p.m. ET), in a rematch of last season's NFC Wild Card round, in which the Lions earned their first playoff victory since 1991. NBC will televise one game each Sunday night in Weeks 1-17. Additionally, NBC will feature Miami at Green Bay (8:20 p.m. ET) on Thanksgiving night as well as Houston at Kansas City (1 p.m. ET) on Saturday in Week 16. 

Kickoff Weekend concludes on Monday, September 9, with ESPN/ABC's Monday Night Football, featuring Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets visiting Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers (8:15 p.m. ET). YouTube TV is the presenting sponsor of Kickoff Weekend, inclusive of the entire Thursday through Monday slate. 

ESPN will televise one game each Monday night in Weeks 1-17 and will be simulcast on ABC in Weeks 1, 8, 14 and 17. In Weeks 3 and 4, there will be two Monday night games with broadcasts at 7:30 p.m. ET and 8:15 p.m. ET. In Week 7, there will be two Monday night games, with Baltimore at Tampa Bay on ESPN at 8:15 p.m. ET and the Los Angeles Chargers at Arizona on ESPN+ at 9 p.m. ET. In Week 15, the two Monday night games begin 30 minutes apart, with Chicago at Minnesota at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Atlanta at Las Vegas at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. 

Additionally, ESPN/ABC will air two games with playoff implications on the Saturday of Week 18, January 4, at 4:30 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET. These games will be selected following the conclusion of Week 17. There will be no Monday night game on the final regular-season weekend (Week 18) to provide more flexibility for the scheduling of the opening weekend of the NFL playoffs. 

Thursday Night Football will air exclusively on Prime Video, kicking off its slate in Week 2 with an AFC East matchup as the Miami Dolphins host the Buffalo Bills (8:15 p.m. ET). Prime Video will broadcast 15 Thursday Night Football games between Weeks 2-17 (excluding Thanksgiving night) and exclusively stream the second-ever NFL Black Friday game when the Kansas City Chiefs host the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 13 (3 p.m. ET). 

The first-ever NFL games streamed on Netflix will be played on Christmas, Wednesday, December 25, in Week 17, as the Kansas City Chiefs visit the Pittsburgh Steelers (1 p.m. ET) and the Baltimore Ravens travel to face the Houston Texans (4:30 p.m. ET). Additionally, Netflix will stream at least one holiday game in 2025 and 2026. 

NFL Network will exclusively televise seven games – four international games and three games in Week 17 on Saturday, December 28. 

The NFL schedule features five international regular-season games – three in the UK, one in Germany and one in Brazil, marking the first-ever regular-season NFL game to be played in South America. As part of the league's expansion of the regular season to 17 games, it was determined that, beginning with the 2022 season, teams from the conference whose teams were eligible for a ninth regular-season home game would be among the designated group to play a neutral-site international game each year. 

The international slate begins in Week 1 in Brazil with Green Bay and Philadelphia (8:15 p.m. ET, Peacock) and follows with games in three consecutive weeks, beginning in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in Week 5 with the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings (Sunday, 9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network). In Week 6, Jacksonville meets Chicago (Sunday, 9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network) at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before the London action shifts to Wembley Stadium in Week 7, when the Jaguars will meet the New England Patriots (Sunday, 9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network). The Jaguars are scheduled to play two regular-season games outside of the United States for the second-consecutive season. 

As part of the league's commitment to playing regular-season games in Germany, the NFL will conclude the international slate of games in Munich in Week 10 as the New York Giants meet the Carolina Panthers (Sunday, 9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network). It will mark the league's second game in Munich at Allianz Arena – Home of FC Bayern Munich and the fourth international regular-season game to be played in Germany. 

The Madden Thanksgiving Celebration will feature a tripleheader on Thursday, November 28. The first game will feature a pair of NFC North foes, as the Bears travel to Detroit to face the Lions (12:30 p.m. ET, CBS). The late afternoon game will match two NFC East rivals, as the New York Giants visit the Dallas Cowboys (4:30 p.m. ET, FOX). The Thanksgiving Day festivities end with the Miami Dolphins traveling to Green Bay to face the Packers on NBC (8:20 p.m. ET). 

The regular season will conclude with Week 18 on Saturday, January 4, and Sunday, January 5. For the 15th consecutive year, all 16 games scheduled for the final week of the season are division contests, enhancing the potential for more games with playoff ramifications. 

The NFL's 32 teams will each play 17 games over 18 weeks. Byes will begin in Week 5 and end in Week 14. 

Additional 2024 schedule notes:

• Fourteen games will be Super Bowl rematches and nine 2024 games are rematches from the 2023 playoffs, including Super Bowl LVIII (Kansas City at San Francisco in Week 7), both Championship Games (Baltimore at Kansas City in Week 1; Detroit at San Francisco in Week 17) and all four Divisional playoff games (Tampa Bay at Detroit in Week 2; Kansas City at Buffalo in Week 11; San Francisco at Green Bay in Week 12; Baltimore at Houston in Week 17).
• The top-two picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels, are scheduled to meet in Week 8 when the Chicago Bears visit the Washington Commanders (1 p.m. ET, CBS). Should both players start, it would mark the sixth game in NFL history between rookie starting quarterbacks selected with the first and second overall picks in the NFL Draft. Williams and the Bears are also slated to play against No. 3 overall pick Drake Maye and the New England Patriots in Week 10 (1 p.m. ET, FOX) and No. 4 overall pick Marvin Harrison and the Arizona Cardinals in Week 9 (4:05 p.m. ET, CBS). 

The NFL will continue to use “flexible scheduling" this season to ensure exciting and meaningful games are available for viewing by the largest number of fans. For up-to-date information about “flexible scheduling" for the 2024 season, please visit https://www.nfl.com/schedules/flexible-scheduling-procedures. 

As in prior seasons, for Week 18, the final weekend of the season, the scheduling of the Saturday, Sunday afternoon, and the Sunday night games is not assigned. In Week 18, two games will be played on Saturday (4:30 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET) with the remainder to be played on Sunday afternoon (1 p.m. ET and 4:25 p.m. ET) and one matchup to be played on Sunday night (8:20 p.m. ET). Specific dates, start times, and networks for Week 18 matchups will be determined and announced following the conclusion of Week 17. 

Introduced in 2020 and continuing for a fifth-consecutive year, a total of 14 teams – seven each in the American and National Football Conferences – will make the postseason. The No. 1 seed in each conference will receive a bye in the Wild Card round. The remaining division champions in each conference with the best records will be seeded 2, 3, and 4, followed by the next three teams per conference with the best records seeded 5, 6, and 7. 

Since 1990 – a streak of 34 consecutive seasons – at least four new teams have qualified for the playoffs that missed the postseason the year before, including seven of the 14 playoff teams in 2022. 

AFC and NFC Wild Card games will feature the 2 seed hosting the 7 seed, the 3 seed hosting the 6 seed and the 4 seed hosting the 5 seed. 

Super Wild Card Weekend presented by Verizon for the 2024 season will feature six games, starting on Saturday, January 11.  

Wild Card winners join the top seeds in each conference in the Divisional Playoffs, presented by Intuit TurboTax, on Saturday and Sunday, January 18-19. The AFC and NFC Championship Games, presented by Intuit TurboTax, will be played on Sunday, January 26. The winners meet two weeks later on Sunday, February 9, in Super Bowl LIX at New Orleans' Caesars Superdome (FOX), marking the 11th time the league's final game will be played in New Orleans. 

The NFL is the only sports league that presents all regular-season and postseason games on free, over-the-air television in local markets. All postseason games are distributed nationally. 

Westwood One will broadcast on radio all NFL primetime games, the three Thanksgiving Day games and the entire NFL playoffs. SiriusXM subscribers will have access to every live NFL game, as well as exclusive 24/7 talk channel coverage on SXM NFL Radio. All live and local prime time games will be available to stream on mobile devices with NFL+. 

NEW YORK—CBS has declared that it will finish the 2023-24 season as "America's Most-Watched Network" in primetime for the 16th consecutive season. 

CBS reported that it is currently averaging 5.59 million viewers, +580,000 ahead of second place NBC (5.01m), +1.30 million viewers ahead of third place ABC (4.29m) and +2.24 million viewers ahead of fourth place FOX (3.35m). All numbers are according to Nielsen live plus 7-day ratings through April 21.

The primetime win for the 2023-24 season, also breaks broadcast television's longest winning streak on record, also previously held by CBS, from 1955-1970, and marks CBS' 21st win in the last 22 years, the broadcaster reported.

The network is also poised to win the season in the key demos including A25-54, A18-49 and A18-34, CBS predicted. 

In the 2023-24 season, CBS also noted that it currently has 13 of the top 20 broadcast series. The Network launched three new series (“Tracker”, “Elsbeth” and “NCIS: Sydney”), all of which are the top new series of the season. CBS is also home to television's four most-watched entertainment programs, the top four comedies and remains the #1 broadcast network in primetime among African American viewers.

The network also reported that viewers have watched more than 456 billion minutes of CBS entertainment, news and sports programming across the Network, Paramount+, Pluto TV and the CBS app from Jan. 1-April 21, 2024. This is +30% higher than the total time spent with Netflix originals and +231% higher than with originals on all other streaming competitors combined, CBS reported. 

The 456 billion minutes watched of CBS programming is up +5.8% from the same time period last year.

"Minutes watched give us an apples-to-apples comparison to measure viewership across broadcast networks and digital platforms. CBS continues to aggregate a mass multiplatform audience with the Network programming up nearly +6% compared to this time last year, which speaks to how the popularity of our programming continues to resonate with viewers," said Radha Subramanyam, chief research and analytics officer at CBS.

An extensive new analysis of the news segments in the broadcast evening news programs of ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS has found that broadcasters devoted most of their economic coverage to the stock market (40% of all economic coverage) and inflation (22%) during Q1 2024 while devoting very little time to many other important economic issues like wage growth, national economic growth, economic inequality, unions, national debt, taxes, corporate profits and social security. 

The study, which did not cover cable news, found that broadcast evening news by commercial broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC “offered relatively sparse coverage of the state of the American economy in the first three months of the year — the flagship news programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC only registered a combined 88 segments featuring significant discussions of economic policy or macroeconomic conditions over the period from January through March.”

In contrast, viewers of “PBS’ NewsHour were offered a far more detailed perspective of the economy, with that program alone providing 122 qualifying economic news segments during the same period" the researchers said. 

The researchers noted that the NewsHour benefitted from its hour-long format versus its commercial broadcast competitors, which each air 30-minute evening news programs and leave less time for news reporting. But unlike its broadcast competitors, PBS does not air its flagship news program on weekends.

The study also found that “[a]ll four major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS) covered positive economic news sparingly during the first quarter of the year — job creation was covered in 28 segments, or just 13%; continued wage growth was covered in 12 segments, or 6%; and the nation’s economic growth was covered in just 8, or 4%, of all segments. Corporate profits, which reports have shown were growing faster than the rate of inflation in recent years, were mentioned in just 4 of all 210 qualifying segments, or 2%, and were never mentioned in tandem with inflation.”

The study also chided the networks for sparce coverage of "government spending and, in particular, repeated Republican threats to shut down the federal government" by noting that “a regular viewer of any of the three major [commercial] broadcast outlets (ABC, CBS, and NBC) would be forgiven for not realizing that the federal government was on the verge of partial shutdown twice during the first quarter of the year alone. Coverage of government spending — inclusive of budget proposals, continuing resolutions, and major legislation affecting federal spending — only drew coverage in 15 segments across those three networks in the first quarter of 2024.”

In addition, “none of the corporate broadcast networks discussed the national debt and federal budget deficit during their coverage” and they also failed to note that “the annual federal budget deficit has decreased under President Joe Biden in each of the past two full fiscal years, after spiking under former President Donald Trump in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The full study, with a detailed breakdown of the economic coverage by network, is available here. 

To analyze the content of the newscasts, Media Matters said that it searched transcripts in the SnapStream and Kinetiq video databases for all original episodes of ABC's World News Tonight, CBS' Evening News and Weekend News, NBC's Nightly News, and PBS' NewsHour, including any weekend editions, for any of the terms “debt,” “deficit,” “growth,” “inequality,” “inflation,” “jobs,” “tax,” “revenue,” “supply side,” “trickle down,” “GDP,” “GNP,” “income,” “labor,” “union,” “trade,” “tariff,” “Social Security,” “Medicare,” “Medicaid,” “Affordable Care Act,” or “retirement” or any variations of any of the terms “economy,” “spend,” “wage,” “wealth,” “unemployment,” “product,” “employ,” “Obama care,” or “health care” from January 1, 2024, through the first quarter of the year ending March 31, 2024.

LOS ANGELES—Allen Media Group (AMG) has announced its broadcast television station division—Allen Media Broadcasting—has closed a new multi-year deal with CBS to retain its affiliation in five U.S. markets. 

Allen Media Broadcasting owns five CBS-affiliated stations in Rochester, Minn. (KIMT), Chico, Calif. (KHSL), Terre Haute, Ind. (WTHI), West Lafayette, Ind. (WLFI), and Evansville, Ind. (WEVV). 

Allen Media Group now owns/operates 28 ABC-CBS-FOX-NBC network affiliated broadcast television stations in 21 U.S. markets.

"We are delighted to continue our relationship with CBS network,” said Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group. “CBS has been an outstanding partner to our five affiliate stations by delivering phenomenal programming across all genres—including entertainment, news, and highly-coveted sports to our viewers. We look forward to extending our partnership with CBS."

NEW YORK—Another viewing record has come out of the NFL Divisional Playoff games this year, with CBS Sports reporting that the NFL ON CBS presentation of the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills game on Jan. 21 was the most-watched NFL Divisional Playoff Game ever and the first to surpass 50 million viewers, averaging 50.393 million viewers. 

That was up +10% vs. last year's comparable window (Cowboys-49ers, 45.659 million). The previous record was 48.522 million viewers for Cowboys-Packers on Jan. 15, 2017.

ESPN previously reported that its ESPN’s NFL Divisional Playoff presentation of the Houston Texans versus the Baltimore Ravens on January 20 pulled in a record 31.8 million viewers, making it ESPN's most watched NFL game ever. 

CBS also noted that Kansas City's 27-24 victory is the most-watched program on any network since Super Bowl LVII (Feb. 12, 2023) and that Sunday's game peaked with more than 56 million viewers (56.250).

The game also boosted Paramount+ to its most-streamed live event ever.

The NFL ON CBS' record-setting Divisional Playoff Game follows CBS Sports' most-watched regular season since the NFL returned to CBS in 1998 and the most-streamed NFL season ever on Paramount+.

CBS Sports is reporting massive audiences on Thanksgiving weekend as its NFL on CBS Week 12 coverage totaled nearly 90 million viewers in combined average viewership (88.953 million).

The network also reported that Commanders-Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day was the second-most watched regular season game in NFL history.

Dallas’ 45-10 win over Washington averaged 41.760 million viewers, making it the most-watched program on any network since Super Bowl LVII and the second-most watched regular season game in NFL history. 

Led by the Eagles’ 37-34 overtime victory over Buffalo, CBS Sports scored its most-watched National Game Window in 16 years (Patriots at Colts, 11/4/07, 33.819 million), averaging 30.901 million viewers and up +32% vs. last year’s comparable window.

The regional game window, led by Steelers-Bengals as the high-coverage game, averaged 16.292 million viewers, up +19% vs. last year’s comparable window, CBS said. 

It was CBS Sports’ most-watched Regional Game in November since 2016. In Week 12, Paramount+ delivered triple-digit year-over-year growth in minutes and double-digit increases in households and average minute audience (AMA), the network said. 

Those numbers also helped boost CBS Sports to its most-watched NFL season since 1998, averaging 19.670 million viewers through Week 12, up +7% vs. last year.

The NFL ON CBS National Game Window at 4:25 PM, ET is averaging 24.691 million viewers this season, more than any sports, entertainment or news series on any network, CBS claimed. 

In addition, Paramount+ has seen its most-streamed NFL season ever and has recorded double-digit year-over-year growth in all 12 weeks, CBS said.

NEW YORK—Paramount Global’s CBS research department has issued projections showing that CBS will finish the 2022-2023 season as "America's Most-Watched Network" in primetime for the 15th consecutive season. 

This ties broadcast television's longest winning streak on record, also held by CBS from 1955-1970, and will be CBS' 20th win in the last 21 years.

The Network has also been #1 in daytime for 37 straight years, #1 in late night for six consecutive years and is #1 among African American viewers, the network reported. 

CBS also reported that its winning season featured the #1 broadcast series/drama (“NCIS”), the top broadcast new series/drama (“Fire Country”), top comedy (“Young Sheldon”), top news program (“60 Minutes”) and 14 of the top 20 primetime series.

The Network is currently averaging 5.97 million viewers, +582,000 ahead of second place NBC (versus 5.39m), third place ABC (4.09m) and FOX (4.63m). All numbers are according to Nielsen most current ratings through Sunday, April 30.

In addition, CBS reported that it is the #1 broadcast network in primetime among African American viewers with eight of the top 10 most-watched series, two of the top three dramas and the top two comedies.

SAN FRANCISCO—The leading television stations serving the San Francisco Bay Area have begun offering NextGen TV, aka ATSC 3.0, broadcasts, bringing the new digital broadcast technology to the center of the U.S. tech world. 

The launch includes KGO-TV (the ABC-owned ABC affiliate), KPIX-TV (the CBS-owned CBS affiliate), KNTV (the NBCU-owned NBC affiliate), KTVU (the Fox Television Stations-owned Fox affiliate), KDTV-DT (the TelevisaUnivision-owned Univision affiliate), and KRON-TV (the Nexstar-owned MyNet affiliate). 

The Bay Area joins a growing list of more than 70 markets where NextGen TV is already available, including such technology hubs as Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Portland, Raleigh-Durham, Seattle, and Washington D.C.

“Once again, broadcasters have launched ATSC 3.0 while preserving every free over-the-air service and without any disruption to cable and satellite viewers,” said John Hane, president of BitPath. “Stations have far exceeded the FCC’s requirements to protect viewers who rely on older digital TVs, while bringing improved television service to those with new ATSC 3.0 sets. In addition, the advanced digital broadcasting services we’ll be launching on ATSC 3.0 will help keep local broadcasting strong, while providing new, high value services to people, businesses, and public agencies – all without any compromises to television service. And we’ve committed to make our groundbreaking NavPath precise navigation service available for free to all Bay Area first responders. This is a win-win-win for viewers, stations, and the entire Bay Area.”

For the launch, KRON-TV, which is owned by Nexstar, has converted to ATSC 3.0 transmissions. KRON-TV will broadcast its own programming, as well as the programming of the other participating stations, in NextGen TV format. All programming of all participating stations will continue to be available in the existing DTV format, which can be received on all modern television sets. BitPath, which is developing new data broadcasting services, led the planning process and coordinated efforts across the six television stations. 

TV Tech has been tracking the launch of NextGen TV market by market since the first stations began deploying ATSC 3.0. Our complete coverage of NextGen TV can be found here; the complete list of the markets where stations have launched 3.0 broadcasts is here. 

NEW YORK—In a notable example of the growing tensions between national broadcast networks and local station groups, a number of major station groups have removed their CBS affiliates from the streaming pay TV service, FuboTV. 

Paramount Global had negotiated a carriage deal with FuboTV that includes carriage of the local stations. But the CBS Affiliate Board refused to back the deal and Sinclair Broadcast Group, Nexstar Media, Gray Television, E.W. Scripps Co., Tegna, Hearst Television and Cox Media Group have since removed their CBS affiliates from FuboTV.

Traditionally negotiations with streaming services like FuboTV have been handled at the local level but the growing importance of streaming media has pushed stations to be more aggressive in this area and heightened ongoing tensions between the networks and their affiliates. 

Paramount Global is providing the national CBS network feed without the local content from stations to FuboTV. 

“FuboTV’s affiliation agreement with Paramount Global includes our right to carry CBS-owned and operated local stations and affiliated stations upon their election to opt into it,” FuboTV noted in a statement to its subscribers. “Unfortunately, some CBS affiliates have decided not to opt into our current agreement. CBS has provided a national feed in those affected markets, allowing our customers to continue watching their favorite CBS programming.” 

FuboTV said that Paramount Global national networks such as CBS Sports Network, CBS News, SHOWTIME, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, and Paramount Network, among others, are not affected by the dispute, which only impacts local CBS affiliates in select areas. 

Sister publication B+C reported that “in a note to stations last week, the CBS affiliate board said it `remains adamantly opposed to Paramount’s insistence on controlling the retransmission rights of independently-owned local CBS affiliates on vMVPD platforms like Fubo.’”

B+C also reported that the CBS affiliate board, which did not endorse Paramount’s FuboTV deal,  told stations “Paramount negotiates on behalf of 100% of all local stations in conjunction with Paramount’s other over two dozen cable networks. Once Paramount reaches an agreement conferring unknown value on its own cable channels and other assets, it presents a take-it-or-leave-it' offer to 'opt in' to a vMVPD distribution agreement with no changes.”

More on the controversy can be found here.  

NEW YORK—CBS Sports is reporting record setting viewing across platforms for the regular season of the "NFL on CBS", with viewers consuming 105.2 billion minutes watching the NFL on CBS during the regular season.

Overall, CBS Sports averaged 18.487 million viewers and scored its most-watched NFL regular season in seven years. 

Paramount+, featuring live "NFL On CBS" local market games, scored its most-streamed NFL regular-season ever and recorded double-digit growth in households, minutes and Average Minute Audience (AMA), CBS Sports said. 

CBS Sports also reported that, led by the strength of the 4:25 PM slot, the "NFL on CBS" national game averaged 23.495 million viewers for its 10 Sunday afternoon windows, which is more than any sports, entertainment or news series in primetime on any network.

The company also reported that CBS Sports’ Week 18 national game window, with Patriots-Bills as the high-coverage game, averaged 22.728 million viewers, up +35% versus last year and the Network’s most-watched final week game window in 11 years. It also marked the most-watched NFL game window on any network in Week 18.

Paramount+ delivered its most-streamed final regular-season weekend ever and scored double-digit year-over-year growth in households, minutes and Average Minute Audience (AMA) versus Week 18 last year, CBS Sports reported. 

“The NFL Today”, CBS Sports’ pregame show, registered its most-watched regular season in six years, averaging 3.345 million viewers for its regular 12:00 PM shows and up +8% versus last year. That +8% increase for “The NFL Today” is the largest year-over-year increase for any NFL pregame show on any network this year, CBS Sports said. 

Paramount+ had its most-streamed season ever for “The NFL Today” with double-digit year-over-year growth.

 NEW YORK—After months of mixed messages and speculation about NBC and other broadcast networks handing the 10 p.m. hour back to stations, new reporting suggests that NBC has decided to keep programming the 10 p.m. hour at least through the 2023-2024 season. 

“Susan Rovner, Chairman, Entertainment Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, relayed the message during recent agency presentations, stressing that the network will not be getting out of the 10 PM hour” during next year’s season according to a report in Deadline. 

As previously reported in TV Tech NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell confirmed in October that NBC had explored the idea of handing the 10 p.m. prime time slot back to affiliates so it could reinvent the money in streaming content. 

“If we are being prudent operators, which we try to be in allocating a bunch of resources to one part of the business, you have to look at the allocation of resources to others,” Shell said in an interview with CNBC. “I don't think we're ready to make a decision on 10 o'clock or anything else but we are looking to reallocate resources.”

Shell stressed however that “given the numbers, whatever the numbers are right now, we have a lot of great shows at 10 o'clock. We make a lot of money at 10 o'clock....There's no question…as linear declines. You're gonna have to make some trade offs and we'll be looking at that [and] our investors will want us to look at that.”

Executives at some station groups, such as Hearst Television, have said they expect the networks to eventually hand back the 10 p.m. hour, which would open up opportunities for them to program the time slot.  

In response, CBS said it was firmly committed to the time slot. 

In the meantime Deadline is reporting that NBC is looking for more procedural dramas to fill the time slot. 

NEW YORK—Paramount Global and former CBS chief Leslie Moonves have agreed to pay a $30.5 million fine for concealing sexual assault allegations against Moonves, misleading investors about those allegations, and insider trading,  according to New York Attorney Letitia James, who initiated an investigation following multiple allegations that surfaced in 2018 that led to Moonves resignation from Viacom/CBS (which has since been rebranded as Paramount Global).

CBS will have to pay $28 million, $22 million of which will go back to CBS shareholders and $6 million to strengthening mechanisms for reporting and investigating complaints of sexual harassment and assault. In addition, every single stock trade made by a senior executive of CBS must be specifically approved by the company’s chief legal officer. Moonves is being fined $2.5 million which will also go to CBS shareholders. In total, CBS shareholders will receive $24.5 million. Additionally, for the next five years, Moonves may not serve as an officer or director of any public company doing business in New York without written approval by the Office of Attorney General.

In the investigation, the Attorney General found that CBS and its senior leadership knew about multiple allegations of sexual assault made against Moonves and intentionally concealed those allegations from regulators, shareholders, and the public for months. The investigation also revealed that another senior executive at CBS — one of the few people who knew about the allegations — sold millions of dollars of CBS stock in the weeks before the allegations became public.

These actions constituted insider trading and violated New York’s investor protection laws, James said.

“CBS and Leslie Moonves’ attempts to silence victims, lie to the public, and mislead investors can only be described as reprehensible,” she said. “As a publicly traded company, CBS failed its most basic duty to be honest and transparent with the public and investors. After trying to bury the truth to protect their fortunes, today CBS and Leslie Moonves are paying millions of dollars for their wrongdoing. Today’s action should send a strong message to companies across New York that profiting off injustice will not be tolerated and those who violate the law will be held accountable.”

The Attorney General says that when CBS and Moonves became aware of several sexual allegations against Moonves, they both attempted to keep the accusations hidden, working with the Los Angeles Police Dept.—which had opened an investigation after receiving a complaint about sexual assault from Moonves—to interfere in the investigations by sharing confidential information with Moonves and other CBS executives. 

“Over the course of several months, the LAPD captain continued to secretly provide Mr. Moonves and CBS executives with status updates on the LAPD’s investigation,” the Attorney General said. “The LAPD captain made it clear that he was willing to intervene on Mr. Moonves’ behalf and Mr. Moonves solicited his assistance.” 

“When the allegations finally became public and Mr. Moonves resigned from CBS, the LAPD captain sent a text to the executive saying, ‘We worked so hard to try to avoid this day. I am so completely sad,’” James added. 

Regarding the insider trading accusations, James said Chief Communications Officer Gil Schwartz—who was one of the few people with information about the allegations and the LAPD police report—sold more than 106,000 shares of CBS stock six weeks before the first article alleging Moonves' sexual assault accusations became public, earning him nearly $9 million. The stock dropped 10.9% from the day before the news broke to the trading day after.

The agreement also requires CBS to survey its employees annually about the work climate within CBS, submit its sexual harassment training to OAG for review, enhance its outreach and recruitment efforts to hire more women at all levels of management, and financially commit to fund human resources reforms within CBS, James said.