ATLANTA—The Atlanta Dream and Gray Media have renewed their media rights deal for the 2025 WNBA season, which will tip off on the road against the Washington Mystics on May 16.

“Gray has been a fantastic partner in helping us increase visibility and support in the market by providing fans direct access to see our games,” said Dream president and chief operating officer Morgan Shaw Parker. “Demand for the Dream is at an all-time high, as evidenced by the full-season 20 game sell out last season, and broadcast numbers increasing 10 times from previous seasons. Having a partner who is committed to delivering consistent content to our fans across the Southeast region has been a catalyst for our continued growth and we are so excited about the 2025 season on Gray networks.”

As part of the deal, Dream non-national exclusive games will be available across the Atlanta market on WPCH Atlanta, also known as Peachtree TV, which is carried on all major cable and satellite pay TV providers including Xfinity TV, Spectrum TV, DirecTV and Dish Network. Peachtree TV is also available on YouTube TV and Hulu Live. In addition, multicast service Peachtree Sports Network will simulcast these games, as well as additional Dream-related programming, on Gray-owned television stations in Albany, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, and Savannah in Georgia.

“The Dream broadcasts on Peachtree TV and Peachtree Sports Network were a huge hit with basketball fans across the state,” WANF-WPCH vice president and general manager Erik Schrader said. “Fans got unprecedented access to the fastest growing professional sport in America, and we look forward to many more fantastic games this season.”

The new deal expands heavy investments Gray has made in sports in its home city, developing broadcast partnerships with the Atlanta Braves (MLB), Atlanta Hawks (NBA), College Park Skyhawks (G-League), Gwinnett Stripers (MiLB), Score Atlanta (high school football), the Atlanta Vibe (Pro Volleyball), Atlanta Gladiators (ECHL), Atlanta Hustle (Ultimate Disc League), Atlanta Motor Speedway, and Georgia Swarm (lacrosse).

Peachtree TV also provides additional sports content through its partnership with The CW Sports, featuring LIV Golf, ACC college football and basketball games, “Inside the NFL” and the NASCAR Xfinity Series beginning this year. Nationally, Gray has broadcast partnerships with the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury, as well as the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder and Milwaukee Bucks.

ATLANTA—Gray Media has laid out the election night coverage plans for Local News Live, its 24/7 news network.

Local News Live is planning to start streaming election night coverage at 7 p.m. (ET) Nov. 5 on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, iOS, and Android streaming devices. The Local News Live feed will also be carried on localnewslive.com and more than 500 Gray Media digital properties.

Earlier in October, Gray launched new streaming apps for Local News Live that will enhance coverage.

On election night, Debra Alfarone, Rasheeda Kabba, Graham Ulkins, and Camila Rueda will anchor team coverage from Local News Live studios in Washington, D.C., with access to reporters on the ground across 113 markets. Additionally, White House Correspondent Jon Decker will report from the campaign headquarters of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate and senior national correspondent Peter Zampa will report from the headquarters of former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate.

Local News Live will station reporters in all seven battleground states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. The results desk will provide viewers with real-time updates of the presidential contest and other major races.

The team will also provide extended coverage on the balance of power in Congress and the local impacts of the national political battle.

“Local News Live has the unique ability to tap into the expertise of Gray journalists across the U.S. to cover this historic election from the local perspective of communities and cities nationwide,” Gray Chief Operating Officer Sandy Breland said.

“The Local News Live and D.C, Bureau teams, combined with our reporting force in more than 100 markets, amount to the most complete coverage of national and regional races through a local lens,” Lisa Allen, general manager of Gray’s Washington operations, said.

The new Local News Live apps are available to download for free by searching “LNL” on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, iOS, and Android streaming devices.

BURBANK, Calif.—The CW Network and Gray Media have reached a comprehensive agreement to renew the affiliations of 38 Gray-owned television stations across the country.  Together, the 38 stations reach nearly 10% of the U.S. audience, serving more than 12 million television households.

Under terms of the agreement, the stations will remain the exclusive homes of Pac-12 college football, ACC college football and basketball, NASCAR Xfinity Series Racing, WWE NXT wrestling, and LIV Golf in their respective markets.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“I am excited about the idea that people really care about this… there seems to be a little less apathy. Maybe I’m hoping this election really does matter and I’m hopeful that we can also keep people focused on those down ticket races because that touches them even more than the presidential race does.”

Kim Saxon, news director at WANF in Atlanta, responsible for news programming at three local stations owned by Gray Television, along with the Atlanta News First streaming service, understands that the heightened interest during the 2024 election cycle represents an opportunity to have a big impact. Like any news pro during this season, she doesn’t intend to squander it.

“Everyone knows how important Atlanta and the state of Georgia were in the last presidential election, so the stakes are a little higher here,” Saxon said. In 2020, Georgia was the site of the historically controversial, tight presidential race and two U.S. Senate races that required runoff elections. “It’s really a needle we have to thread. If we cover the politics in the election, it can absolutely be a great way to build trust with viewers and give them information they need.”

Human Expertise
To get a sense of how local broadcasters are covering this year’s campaigns, TV Tech talked to news producers and network news management from around the country. Almost universally, the theme was consistent—trust the experts on the team to provide the most complete, unbiased information possible.

Despite the enormous growth of software-based workflows, increased newsroom automation and use of the cloud to increase compute and distribution capabilities, it’s the human expertise that remains in the spotlight.

“The expectation from our viewers is they want the information they want and they’ll make their own analysis,” said Michael Fabac, vice president of content and station promotion for the News-Press & Gazette (NPG) Co. and its 10 stations in the Midwest and western U.S. “Leading up to the election, we’ll use an analyst more for explanation of complex topics, less so for a debate between ‘Opinion A’ and ‘Opinion B.’”

The path to the White House runs through Scripps country, according to Christina Hartman, vice president and head of Scripps News, the company’s global news organization that combined Newsy with its local news organizations now covering a presidential election for the first time in 2024. “We not only have a significant geographic footprint, but a really meaningful presence from an expertise standpoint,” Hartman said. “We’re taking a real issues-based and people-based approach. Being present in these local markets with highly connected reporters means that we can bring to air the voices of real, connected authorities.”

This election cycle is sure to have heightened interest especially given this month’s shakeup that saw Vice President Kamala Harris replace President Biden as the potential Democratic candidate—along with broad uncertainty about the economy and the country’s standing on global issues. In fact, according to Insider Intelligence | eMarketer’s Forecast from January 2024 estimates that total spending this cycle will be up nearly 30% from 2020, eclipsing $12.3 billion nationally.

Multiplatform Coverage
One way local TV news outlets are looking to keep pace with demand for more and more insights—in local, state and federal races—is by increasing focus on their streaming platforms. Gray Television has stations in 113 markets, most of which have affiliated national networks that cover the federal races broadly.

“We have strong local news coverage in our 113 markets and we offer a 24/7 look at local news across the country via our Local News Live streaming platform,” said Lisa Allen, vice president of Gray’s Washington bureau. “On election night, you’re going to see what voters are thinking in Nevada, who’s on the ballot in Wisconsin, what people are thinking in Vermont. We’re using our national footprint to go back to the good old days focused on local reporters in every single pivotal market and swing state.”

Technology advancements will surely play a part in how news organizations look to keep audiences informed and win eyeballs, wherever—and on whatever device they’re watching. Notable is the work being done to get more thorough and reliable polling data to accurately and efficiently project winners.

As a reaction to the growth in mail-in and absentee ballots, Scripps News will partner with Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), which uses technology to lower the cost of collecting election data while also increasing the speed. DDHQ claims they were first to call both the 2016 and 2020 presidential races.

“The traditional method of race calling had relied on large teams of stringers positioned across the country,” Scripps’ Hartman explained. “I would never prioritize being first over being right, but we think it’s possible to be both.”

The Tools
Ensuring that even the smallest, local stations have access to breaking news of regional or national importance is also a growing priority for networks and station groups. No news outlet in the country wants viewers to have to hop to another station to hear about something big that’s blowing up social media. Cloud connectivity and digital communications ensure this type of content sharing is simple and instant, right? You might be surprised. Organizations we talked with have a wide range of solutions to this problem.

NPG standardized its stations on the Inception newsroom solution from Ross that simplifies the sharing of content through its Horizon interconnection system. Gray stations use BitCentral’s Oasis platform in its stations to facilitate simplified content sharing. Scripps and Gray have also supplemented vendor systems with homegrown solutions, specific to their unique needs, such as real-time alerts from each market’s coverage.

Still, sometimes doing things the old-fashioned way through word of mouth or email is the most effective.

Such tactics may not work so well when dealing with one of the biggest potential threats to election coverage: disinformation or misinformation created by Generative AI.

“The rising prevalence of deepfakes make it increasingly burdensome for both our newsrooms and users to identify and distinguish legitimate, copyrighted broadcast content, from the unvetted and potentially inaccurate content being generated by AI,” NAB President/CEO Curtis LeGeyt told Congress earlier this year.

Everyone agreed that specific workflows and policies were either developed or in development to ensure they’re eliminating the likelihood of so called “deepfakes” from making it on their air.

Scripps’ Hartman, who co-chairs her company’s AI governance committee said, “We stood up a disinformation desk to be really well-positioned to debunk disinformation—in other words we want to look at what appears to be intentional misinformation. And we have to very transparently illustrate how we know what we know. We’re looking for technology partners in deepfake detection.”

In a campaign and election cycle that’s so important to TV news professionals and the entire country, it seems that getting the best information on the air is a more complex puzzle than ever. l

CLEVELAND—Rock Entertainment Group (REG) and Gray Media, owner of WOIO and WUAB in Cleveland and WXIX in Cincinnati, have reached an agreement to launch “Rock Entertainment Sports Network.” 

The parties plan for the new network to start over-the-air broadcasts on Gray’s television stations in Cleveland and Cincinnati this August, with future over-the-air, multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), and streaming components to be announced as the network grows.

As part of their plans, the two companies said that the partnership will bring free, 24/7 access of local Ohio sports and entertainment programming to millions in Ohio. Gray and Rock Entertainment Group will also use the network to create, produce and air sports programming across the state, offering a wealth of sports content to viewers and fans.

REG is the umbrella entity that houses Dan Gilbert’s sports and entertainment properties under the ROCK Family of Companies. 

Rock Entertainment Sports Network will serve as the home for the American Hockey League 2015-2016 Calder Cup Champion Cleveland Monsters, the NBA G League Cleveland Charge, St. Edward High School Varsity Sports, starting with football this fall, and programming from the Frontier League Lake Erie Crushers. The network will be available on channel 22.1 through free over-the-air broadcasts and the parties intend for it to be available through major cable, satellite and virtual pay-TV platforms throughout Ohio.

“Our fans are the lifeblood of Rock Entertainment Group. We are constantly looking for ways to evolve the opportunities our fans have to engage with all sports across our region and state. From our dynamic college and professional teams to our semi-professional and high school sports, passion, pride and our commitment to delivering world class experiences via these sports is deeply ingrained in our culture,” said Nic Barlage, Rock Entertainment Group and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse CEO. “The establishment of Rock Entertainment Sports Network will offer fans in Ohio unparalleled access to all levels of competitive sports and provide our diverse array of sports teams an unprecedented platform to connect with fans of all interests.”

In addition to airing live coverage of the Cleveland Monsters, Cleveland Charge, St. Edward High School Varsity Football and Lake Erie Crushers programming, Rock Entertainment Sports Network plans to air live broadcasts of additional local college, high school and other professional teams.

“Gray is thrilled to partner with Rock Entertainment Group to bring live sports free over-the-air to viewers across Ohio,” said Matt Moran, senior managing vice president for Gray Media and Avon, Ohio resident. “This joint venture is a game changer for Ohio sports fans and will usher in a new era of free televised live sports in Ohio.”

“We are looking forward to working with Rock Entertainment Group to bring free, over-the-air sports to Ohio’s great fans,” said Sandy Breland, Gray’s Chief Operating Officer. “Our strong Ohio television stations and corporate teams are ready to bring this new sports television model to Ohio.”

Rock Entertainment Sports Network is scheduled to begin airing games in Cleveland and Cincinnati in August 2024 with plans to grow to additional markets in the following months.

TYSONS, Va.—Tegna Inc., the Seattle Kraken and Gray Media have announced that Gray’s KAUU in Anchorage and KYEX in Juneau will expand the Kraken broadcast network into Alaska. 

The deal follows the recent announcement that Tegna will broadcast all locally available Kraken games, approximately 70 regular season games each year, on KING 5 and KONG in Seattle, KGW in Portland and KREM and KSKN in Spokane. Additional broadcast partners in Washington and Oregon are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

“Our partnership with the Kraken is all about their passionate fans and delivering more games to more people in more homes,” said Brad Ramsey, senior vice president, media operations, Tegna. “We are thrilled with the early momentum we are seeing from advertisers and sponsors in Seattle, Portland, and Spokane, and grateful to our friends at Gray for helping us expand free over-the-air Kraken games beyond the continental United States.”

The 2024-25 Kraken season will kick off with Seattle’s home opener on Tuesday, October 8 against the St. Louis Blues at Climate Pledge Arena. The Kraken enter this season with new head coach, Dan Bylsma, and newly-named assistant coaches, Bob Woods and Jessica Campbell, who is the NHL’s first full-time female assistant coach behind the bench. Bylsma and Campbell join Seattle from their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate and two-time Western Conference Champions, the Coachella Valley Firebirds. Season highlights include the first matchup between Brandon Montour and the Florida Panthers, his former team and 2024 Stanley Cup Champions on December 10.

“We couldn’t be more excited or more proud to partner with Tegna and Gray Media to expand our broadcast reach into Anchorage and Juneau,” said Jeff Webster, chief commercial officer for the Seattle Kraken. “We’ve built an incredible relationship with the hockey community in Alaska over the years and it’s important that we continue to foster that connection. This partnership is another example of our commitment to making Kraken hockey accessible for our fans in Alaska and beyond.”

ATLANTA—Gray Television has unveiled comprehensive coverage plans for the 2024 Republican National Convention between Saturday, July 13 and Thursday, July 19 that include plans for Gray’s Washington DC Bureau and news teams from multiple Gray affiliates offer coverage from Milwaukee on the local impact of the presidential and vice presidential nomination process and the Republican party platform. 

Coverage will be available on Gray’s local affiliates and Local News Live, Gray’s national news network that provides live streaming coverage on more than 500 Gray station websites, connected TV apps, and mobile apps.

“Our DC Bureau and Local News Live offer a distinctly local take on the nation’s biggest events,” Gray’s COO Sandy Breland said. “We are committed to keeping the viewers in each of our 113 markets connected to their local delegates, candidates, and representatives throughout the 2024 election cycle.”

All Gray-owned Wisconsin news operations will send reporting teams to the convention at the Fiserv Forum, including WMTV in Madison, WBAY in Green Bay, WEAU in Eau Claire, WSAW in Wausau, and KBJR in Superior (Duluth). 

In addition, news crews from Gray affiliates WANF in Atlanta, Georgia, AZ Family in Phoenix, Arizona, WNDU in South Bend, Indiana, KFYR in Bismarck, North Dakota, and KVLY in Fargo, North Dakota will be on site to provide daily coverage.

“By combining the strength of our national team and local affiliates, Gray is uniquely positioned to provide a hyperlocal perspective on the convention for viewers across our footprint,” explained Lisa Allen, GM of Gray’s Washington Operations.

Gray also plans to deploy team coverage to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—In another sign that broadcasters are finally using NextGen TV broadcasts to offer viewers new features instead of simply simulcasting existing feeds, Gray Television has announced several key initiatives to advance the NextGen TV transition and bring more of the benefits of this new standard to viewers in Gray’s local communities. 

In the runup to the Kentucky Derby, Gray announced that its NBC affiliate WAVE(TV) in Louisville, Kentucky, became the first affiliate of a major network to broadcast all of its programming using High Dynamic Range (HDR) with Dolby Vision and immersive sound using Dolby Atmos. 

The “always on” feature ensures that all of WAVE(TV)’s local and network content, including more than 30 hours of Gray’s live, local coverage from Churchill Downs starting with WAVE(TV)’s local morning news at 5:00am on Monday April 29 through the late evening news at 11:00pm on Saturday May 4 and including the key horse races in between, will all be in HDR with immersive sound.

“With HDR and immersive sound, WAVE(TV)’s programming will pop. Viewers will immediately notice the enhanced contrast between the brightest and darkest colors on the screen,” said John O’Brien, WAVE(TV)’s general manager.

Gray also announced that in Las Vegas, Gray’s Fox affiliate KVVU(TV) was the first commercial television station to launch as a NextGen Virtual Broadband IP Channel in December 2023. Earlier this month, KVVU(TV) became the first Fox affiliate and first NextGen Virtual Channel to broadcast its entire programming schedule in HDR with Dolby Vision, again bringing the rich colors and vivid contrasts of HDR to viewers in Las Vegas.

“For many years, broadcasters have been promising to use NextGen TV to bring superior picture quality and immersive sound to viewers. Gray is proud to be among a handful of leading broadcasters who are now delivering on that promise. Our stations in Louisville and Las Vegas are just the beginning of Gray’s efforts to launch more of its NextGen TV stations with these innovative, consumer-pleasing features throughout the summer and into the fall,” said Pat LaPlatney, Gray’s president and co-CEO.

In addition to advanced picture and sound quality, Gray also is using NextGen to offer new interactive and streaming services for viewers. 

In Las Vegas and Kansas City, Gray’s stations are using NextGen TV and the RUN3 Platform as a portal to access Gray’s live 24/7 local news-focused national streaming service, Local News Live. With a simple click of the remote, viewers watching KVVU(TV) in Las Vegas or KCTV(TV) in Kansas City on a NextGen television set can access Local News Live. Gray’s stations in Las Vegas and Kansas City are the first to use NextGen as a portal to access a free, live streaming news service providing a new public service to viewers in Gray’s markets.

“With NextGen TV and the RUN3 Platform, Gray is able to bring Local News Live to the millions of viewers in Gray’s markets who have already purchased or will soon purchase a NextGen TV set,” said Sandy Breland, Gray’s COO.

“In the coming months Gray anticipates it will use NextGen TV and the RUN3 Platform to offer more innovative and interactive features for its viewers, including start-over, interactive gaming channels, and much more,” offered Rob Folliard, Gray’s senior vice president and currently the chairperson of NextGen TV consortium PearlTV. “With the strong penetration of NextGen TV capable television sets in the country, we expect consumers will increasingly recognize how NextGen TV will improve their experiences even more than our industry’s transition from analog to High Definition fifteen years ago.”

ATLANTA, Ga.—Gray Television has announced that it will launch the InvestigateTV+ en Español program on February 26, 2024, in 26 of Gray’s Telemundo markets. 

The program from Gray’s investigative team, which currently airs in English in 113 of Gray’s markets, will now reach an extended audience through its newly formatted show in Spanish and air Monday through Friday in early news windows across the country, Gray reported. 

“An essential part of Gray’s mission is investigative journalism, and it is our goal for everyone to see it. Whether a viewer speaks Spanish or English, we want to give viewers the opportunity to see, learn, and react from these stories,” said Lee Zurik, vice president of investigations.

InvestigateTV+ en Español is hosted by Luis Carlos Mendoza, an award-winning, long-time news anchor of Noticiero Telemundo 20 in Odessa-Midland, Texas. “Luis Carlos Mendoza brings an unsurpassable level of professionalism and heart for the community and is the perfect host for this news magazine,” said Susan Sim Oh, vice president of strategy and operations for the Telemundo Station Group.

Gray’s newsmagazine program InvestigateTV started in 2018 as a weekend series and in 2022 expanded to a daily weekday show titled InvestigateTV+. Gray’s national investigative unit draws upon a dedicated team of investigative journalists as well as scores of journalists working in Gray’s local markets with its leading local news stations. The unit has received countless awards, including most recently a prestigious duPont-Columbia Award in January 2024.

“Premium in-depth investigations and reports are essential yet are not widely available for the Hispanic community in the US. For Gray to be able to make this content in Spanish is both important and needed,” said Juan Toro, Executive Producer of InvestigateTV+ en Español.

In addition to the weekday InvestigateTV+ en Español series, Gray Telemundo stations will also air the weekend series of InvestigateTV en Español starting March 2.

In recent days, the new super sports streaming service from Disney/Fox/WBD has raised some old and potentially upsetting questions about the financial future of local broadcasting and the way deals with streaming services are negotiated. 

In the wake of the announcement, station group stocks fell on Wall Street as investors seemed to be betting that the ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery joint venture would accelerate the decline of the pay TV industry and that the new streaming service would reduce retransmission revenues for local broadcasters. 

Less obviously, but equally important, the launch of the new streaming service also raised the old and increasingly thorny issue of how companies negotiate fees for content from streaming services. 

Currently this is done by companies like Disney and Fox that own broadcast networks. Station groups say this reduces their revenue and the amount of fees they can charge vMVPDs and streamers for the content they air.  They want the FCC to change that, which currently seems unlikely. 

In response to the streaming service, both Gray Television and Scripps have stressed the importance of their stations being paid for offering content on the new service.  

In a statement released to investors, Gray Television laid out the issues fairly indirectly by saying it “welcomes any venture that expands the reach of local broadcasting stations, which in turn supports the ability of local stations to maintain trusted local news operations that benefit everyone.”

Gray also noted that it wants to get “additional resources” from the venture and stressed the important role that affiliates will play in the success of the venture. 

“The potential launch of a new live streaming service from Disney, Fox, and WBD that would include the live signals of the local affiliates of the ABC and Fox broadcast networks owned by local broadcasters such as Gray as well as those companies’ sports-focused cable channels could be a significant opportunity to expand the pay-TV ecosystem," Gray said. "Local affiliated stations not only carry nationally televised sports but also provide local sports coverage, local news and weather, local jobs and extensive community service. We believe that including ABC and Fox stations in a new virtual multichannel video programming service could offer benefits to viewers, their local communities, and local broadcasters.”

“Local affiliates and their audiences could also benefit if the venture provides additional resources and scale [italics added] that enables the venture to compete successfully and expand the sports programming available on the ABC and Fox broadcast networks and the affiliates of those networks,” Gray said. 

This is the kind of language stations have been using in their arguments with the FCC that vMVPDs should be reclassified as pay TV operators so the station groups–not the networks–can directly negotiate deals with companies like YouTube TV and Fubo. 

EW Scripps CEO Adam Symson laid out the issue more directly in an interview with CNBC. He stressed that he had received assurances from Disney that the affiliates would be included in the streaming service and that they would be paid. 

“Affiliates are going to be compensated for being carried along,” Symson told CNBC. 

How this will work out in a very complex joint venture that will involve three giants in the media and entertainment industry and includes streams for access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV, as well as ESPN+ is open to question, however. 

Another major question will be its longer term impact on the pay TV industry, which currently produces about half the revenue for local broadcasters. Disney and Fox executives this week both stressed that it wouldn’t accelerate cord cutting. But the industry has a long history of under-estimating the impact of new media. Stay tuned. 

ATLANTA—Gray Television has agreed to swap TV stations with Marquee Broadcasting to build a new TV  station in Salt Lake City.

In the agreement announced this week, Gray will sell its television stations in the Cheyenne-Scottsbluff and Casper television markets (DMAs 194 and 198, respectively) to Marquee in exchange for Marquee’s FCC permit authorizing the construction of new, unbuilt television station KCBU in the Salt Lake City market (DMA 27). 

Neither party will pay additional cash or consideration to fulfill the terms of this swap and the transactions are expected to close simultaneously in the second quarter of 2024 following receipt of regulatory and other approvals, Gray said. 

“Marquee is excited to acquire Gray’s leading stations in Wyoming and Western Nebraska. We are looking forward to building on the legacy there,” stated Marquee CEO Patricia Lane.

 Syncbak has announced the launch of an all-new streaming platform called “Zeam.” The new Zeam OTT offering features content from nearly 300 stations and 30 groups including Gray, the NAB, CBS, News Press & Gazette, Hearst and Morgan Murphy. At launch, Zeam will have station representation that covers nearly 80% of DMAs. 

Syncbak is backed by Gray, CBS, News Press & Gazette, Hearst and Morgan Murphy. 

To market the new platform Zeam also reported it is investing in a massive eight figure marketing campaign. The centerpiece will be a Super Bowl ad starring John Stamos.  The spot will air during the broadcast in around 100 markets and be customized with local callouts.

“As viewers and the industry continue to migrate to streaming, local television stations need to find a way to build a sustainable business that helps them not just survive but thrive in the streaming age,” said Jack Perry, the CEO and founder of Syncbak. “That’s why we are launching Zeam, which not only serves as a master connector between stations, advertisers and viewers, but will also redefine what a successful model for local OTT looks like by breaking down the biggest obstacles local stations face in streaming – cost and complexity.”

Zeam is designed to help local stations be able to drive meaningful streaming revenue by seamlessly distributing their content to a national audience, facilitate national and local ad sales through Syncbak’s proprietary advertising technology, and provide training to stations to best enable them to create Zeam exclusive content that can generate even more revenue opportunities. For advertisers, Zeam provides a seamless onramp for them to connect with viewers who matter to them. With more than 5 billion advertising unit avails, Zeam will boast one of the largest ad inventories and first-party data pools in streaming.

“Under Jack Perry’s leadership, Syncbak has a long-established reputation for being the champion of local content that the industry needs and deserves,” said Pat LaPlatney, co-CEO & president of Gray TV. “With the launch of Zeam, we are taking this to a whole new level, providing a platform that will benefit not just local station groups and advertisers, but also viewers themselves.” 

Accompanying the debut of Zeam is the launch of Zeam360, a mobile production studio in the form of a Zeam-branded van, which is also the first-ever, 24/7 livestream mobile channel. 

As part of the launch, Zeam360 is embarking on a barnstorming tour, stopping at nearly 30 local broadcast stations en route to the Super Bowl to help local broadcast stations learn about the possibilities of OTT while also creating compelling hyperlocal content for viewers. Zeam360 will continue on the road, visiting local broadcasters post-Super Bowl, as well. In addition, Zeam has established a new studio in Times Square to host local, independent creators and provide a platform for them to reach a broad base of viewers. The studio will also serve as a billboard to promote the power of local to thousands who pass through Times Square daily, Syncbak reported

Gray Television announced this week that it has inked a deal to broadcast 10 New Orleans Pelicans NBA games on its affiliates in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama during the 2023-2024 season, ending more than three decades of airing only on pay-TV. 

The first game scheduled is Friday January 12, 2024 as the Pelicans take on the Denver Nuggets at 8pm. The new distribution agreement with Gray will make Pelicans games available to more than three million households across three states, the station group—the second largest in the nation—said. 

Live games in the New Orleans market will be aired on WVUE-TV FOX 8 and Bounce through its free over the air broadcasts along with its carriage on all major cable and satellite pay TV systems including COX, Spectrum, Comcast, DirecTV and Dish Network. In addition, Gray will simulcast these games on Louisiana television stations in Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Lake Charles, Monroe, and Alexandria. The games will also be simulcast on Mississippi stations in Biloxi, Jackson, Hattiesburg and Meridian and in Mobile, Alabama. 

Gray says it will seek distribution arrangements for these Pelican games by television stations located in additional markets in Louisiana and Mississippi that are owned by other broadcasters.

“We know people in this region are passionate about their sports. We are thrilled to partner with the Pelicans and make these games available for all fans,” explained New Orleans resident and Pelicans fan Sandy Breland, who is also Gray’s Chief Operating Officer. “The Pelicans welcome the opportunity to partner with Gray Television in this 10-game deal that will provide over-the-air viewing access to Pelicans games for more than 3 million households and over seven million people across the Gulf South region,” said New Orleans Pelicans President Dennis Lauscha. 

Calling the Pelicans broadcasts will be Emmy award winning play-by-play announcer Joel Meyers, former NBA star and color analyst Antonio Daniels and sideline reporter Jennifer Hale.

Gray made a similar deal with Phoenix pro basketball teams last spring; the move back to broadcast represents the latest in a trend of professional sports teams seeking better deals and more viewers as lucrative sports contracts expire and pay-TV continues to be decimated by cord cutting.

Gray TV, the nation’s second largest TV station group is leveraging its size and know-how to ensure that its stations provide the most comprehensive and original local coverage while tapping into new production and distribution technologies to enhance its presence on an increasing array of digital platforms.

In the opening keynote to the 2023 Fall TV Tech Summit, Gray TV CTO David Burke discussed the  company’s media and technology strategies with TV Tech Content Director Tom Butts. Burke has been CTO for Gray for the past eight years, assuming the role after Raycom was acquired by Gray in 2018. With more than 10,000 employees, Gray stations are in 114 markets and is based in Atlanta.

Burke talked about the evolution of broadcasting in the digital age where broadcast is only one part of the equation when it comes to delivering news and entertainment to viewers. 

Referring to the early days when the station moved online, “we would take clips of a newscast and then put them up on a website,” Burke said. “Today we have fully formed 24/7 digital streams on about every platform you can imagine. So that of course requires care and feeding and an infrastructure that is very similar to our over the air linear.”

"We have a digital newsdesk at all of our TV stations so they can create purpose-built, digital-only content," he added. “We also have a news bureau called 'Local News Live' which creates network national-type stories that we feed in and stitch into our digital streams. So at the end of the day, what you end up with for the most part is a complete original digital screen that is very compelling and attractive to our viewers.”

Burke emphasized Gray’s commitment to ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV). The station group has deployed or participated in NextGen TV market launches in 27 markets, with eight of its markets serving as “lighthouse” hosts for local 3.0 signals, according to Burke.

“We as an industry must convert to NextGen TV just for the technical reasons alone—about better audio, better video, better spectrum efficiency, and IP capabilities,” he said. “We're on a 20 year-old technology with ATSC 1.0; it's not modular, and we can't continue to go through these huge upheavals of where we change our modulation and coding. That's just not something that we can continue to do in the future.”

Burke echoes broadcasters’ concerns over the future of ATSC 1.0 and efforts to negotiate an agreed-upon deadline to shut it down, thereby giving broadcasters the additional spectrum required to bring new features such as 4K to over the air broadcasting. 

“There's not enough spectrum for us to continue the transition to 3.0, and regulatory-wise, even if we were at full deployment of 3.0, we've got to have that FCC authorization and permission at some point to turn off our 1.0 signal,” Burke said.

With artificial intelligence becoming an ever-increasing presence in media, Burke is well aware of the implications of the technology and its potential advantages as well as its pitfalls. Gray has formed an internal committee to establish its AI policies which are listed on its station websites. Burke was keen to distinguish the flavors of AI, in particular, the current risks of using generative AI in news. 

“Gray is in the news content delivery business. We're journalists; and so integrity in fact checking and intellectual intellectual property rights, things like that are very key to our reputation and to our viewers," he said. “And so the challenge we have with generative AI is that as it goes and pulls data from various sources, it could lose context, it could lose intellectual property rights.”

“You can't just use AI as an answer to journalism," he added. "We can use it potentially as a research tool and to help us gather information, but by no means will we cross the line—journalism is truly about fact checking." 

When it comes to recruiting new engineering blood into the broadcast industry, particularly when competing with high-tech, Burke says it’s better to bring IT people to broadcast rather than the other way around.

“We have to go out of our way now to try to find those IT resources and bring them in and teach them broadcast engineering; that's an easier approach,” he said. Acknowledging the disparities in payscale, Burke noted that many IT professionals prefer a more diverse approach to their careers and that broadcast engineering can fit that desire. 

“One of the things that we try to promote within the broadcast industry is that when you come in and you work in engineering staff and TV station, you get your hands on all aspects of it,” he said. And most people with that type of mindset are very attracted to that type of work. They don't like to be pigeonholed.”

You can catch the entire conversation, along with the rest of the summit on-demand here. 

ATLANTA—Gray Television has announced the grand opening of its television and film studios, Assembly Studios, located at Assembly Atlanta in Doraville, Georgia. 

Gray Television, the site owner, assembled 135 acres for a new mixed use complex in 2021 that included 43 acres for Assembly Studio’s film and production studio space. Two years later, 19 sound stages are ready to support productions with full-service TV and film studios.

"We are excited to unveil Assembly Atlanta, a hub of creativity and innovation that will redefine storytelling in the entertainment industry," said Hilton H. Howell, Jr., Gray’s executive chairman and CEO. "We look forward to witnessing the impact of Assembly Studios on the community here in Doraville, Atlanta, and in all of Georgia."

Located within the Atlanta Perimeter, adjacent to Gray Television’s Third Rail Studios, the sound stages at Assembly Studios boast superior infrastructure, equipping filmmakers and content creators with the perfect canvas to bring their visions to life, the company said. 

Once home to the General Motors Assembly Plant, Assembly Atlanta is expected to generate more than 4,000 jobs, producing economic growth around the Metro Atlanta area and supporting Georgia’s film industry. 

In announcing the opening, Gray Television said that a recent report found that Georgia has the fastest-growing film industry in the nation, and Assembly Atlanta will add to the numbers. Spending from productions in a single year was more than $4 billion in the state, according to the Georgia Film Office.

For the project, Gray Television has partnered with Universal Production Services to lease and operate the facilities at Assembly Studios and otherwise support the television and film production needs for NBCUniversal Media, LLC (NBCU) and other users and tenants at Assembly Studios. 

Gray said that Assembly Studios is a full-service studio providing all essential production needs in one place, including Set Lighting & Grip, Costume, Transportation, Sign & Fabrication Shop, Paint Shop, an expendables store, plus other necessary amenities such as warehouse and mill buildings, dressing rooms, rehearsal halls, and office and event space. 

Assembly Studios also features the filmable facades. Exterior filming locations that mimic New York, New Orleans, Tribeca, and Europe are located steps away from the soundstages. Every part of the property is filmable, providing endless opportunities for productions.

SOUTH BEND, Ind.—Five major television stations have launched NextGen TV, aka ATSC 3.0, broadcasts in the South Bend-Elkhart television market.

The Thursday June 29 included  WSBT-TV (Sinclair-owned CBS and Fox affiliate), WNDU-TV (Gray Television’s NBC affiliate), WSJV (Gray Television’s H&I affiliate), WNIT (Michiana Public Broadcasting’s PBS affiliate), and WHME-TV (Family Broadcasting Corporation’s independent station). 

For the launch, WSJV, which is owned by Gray Television, has converted to ATSC 3.0 transmissions. WSJV 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 digital 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 five television stations.

BitPath will make its groundbreaking NavPath and BitPoint precise navigation and positioning services available at no charge to Indiana’s first responders.

TV Tech has been tracking the launch of NextGen TV broadcasts around the country. Our full list of markets that offer 3.0 signs is available here. 

Our full coverage of the technology can be accessed here.  

The Phoenix Suns NBA team has been blocked from entering into a new TV and streaming agreement with Gray Television because of a possible violation of its contract with its current broadcast outlet Diamond Sports Group, which filed for bankruptcy in March. 

U.S. Bankruptcy Christopher Lopez Wednesday ruled that the Suns’ new contract that would allow the Suns and Mercury WNBA games to be broadcast over Gray TV local stations as well as a direct to consumer streaming service powered by Kiswe was void because it had not allowed Diamond Sports Group to negotiate an extension to the contract, according to Reuters.

Gray Television last month announced a deal with Suns NBA and Mercury WNBA teams to bring every locally broadcast game to viewers for free in a statewide distribution model utilizing Gray’s Phoenix television stations KTVK (Arizona’s Family 3TV) and the newly launched KPHE (Arizona’s Family Sports & Entertainment Network). 

Up until the regular 2022-2023 season, Suns games were aired on Bally Sports Arizona, a division of Sinclair-owned Diamond Sports Group RSN, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March, citing $8 billion in debt. Immediately after the announcement, Diamond said that the deal violated its current agreement with the Suns.

While Diamond was not awarded any compensatory damages in yesterday's hearing, Lopez left the door open for compensation in a future hearing. 

Attorneys for the Suns told Lopez that their contract with Diamond had expired after the 2022-2023 season, but Lopez countered that the team had promoted the new contract with Gray as a confirmed deal. 

"The Suns are saying one thing outside the court and another thing inside it," he said. 

After the hearing Phoenix Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein said that it would work toward "a fair resolution that will be in the best interest of our fans, our community, and our players," according to Reuters.

According to NextTV, sources familiar with the teams’ negotiations, the Suns received approximately $25 million a season from Diamond but that the new deal with Gray TV which would involve over-the-air broadcasts and a direct-to-consumer streaming service with Kiswe Mobile, involved “significantly less money.” 

LAS VEGAS—In a move that will notably expand the availability of NextGen TV interactive applications to consumers, Verance has entered into agreements with Sinclair Broadcast Group, Gray Television, Graham Media Group, and Capitol Broadcasting Company to  implement the Verance Aspect audio watermark on stations across the station groups. 

Aspect is Verance’s high-performance implementation of the ATSC open watermarking standards.  The Verance Aspect watermark launches broadcast applications by carrying metadata and triggers  associated with NextGen Broadcast experiences through all distribution paths (including ATSC 1.0 over-the-air, ATSC 3.0 over-the-air, cable/satellite, and over-the-top services) to reach 100% of  connected televisions. Without the Verance Aspect watermark, approximately 80% of households are  unable to receive NextGen capabilities.  

As a result of the implementation, each  of the broadcaster’s NextGen Broadcast (ATSC 3.0) applications, which offer the opportunity to drive  new business models and revenue through interactive applications, can now reach up to five times the  number of homes by specifically enabling all homes that receive their television signals through the  NextGen TV’s HDMI connection via a cable/satellite set top box or media adapter.  

This announcement of major broadcaster agreements builds on the momentum that Verance  announced at NAB last April that LG Electronics was the first television manufacturer to implement  ATSC 3.0 watermark detection on NextGen TVs. Verance expects additional television manufacturers  to follow in LG’s footsteps. 

“Bringing Verance’s Aspect watermarking to all of our stations accelerates our NextGen Broadcast  applications strategy to better understand our viewers and to provide them with personalized  broadcast experiences,” said Mike Kralec, CTO, Sinclair Broadcast Group. “We believe that Verance’s  watermarking technology substantially enhances use of the NextGen Broadcast standard that we hope  that all the television manufacturers will adopt quickly.” 

A demonstration of the Verance Aspect watermark application will be on display at the NAB Show in  Las Vegas, April 16-19. As part of the ATSC Booth (#W3443), Sinclair will be showing how viewers can  have access to Broadcast App functionality by embedding the watermark in the audio signal that  launches the interactive experience on a NextGen TV for any pay TV or ATSC 1.0 over-the-air  viewer. The Broadcast App is then available to all NextGen T viewers who want to take advantage of  this new capability, regardless of how they receive the TV signal, gaining access to both broadcast and  broadband content. 

“NextGen TV is a game changer for broadcast television, and it is exciting to see interactive experiences  powered by Verance watermarking on Gray’s stations,” said David Burke, senior vice president and CTO of Gray Television. “With Verance watermarking, Gray can now proceed with confidence, knowing that  our applications can be received by the largest number of viewers across all of our signals and can help  Gray with our business objectives.” 

“Verance’s Aspect watermarking will enable Graham to reach our HDMI viewers with interactive  experiences,“ said Anthony Plosz, vice president and CTO, Graham Media Group. “This capability enables Graham  and other broadcasters to better understand and serve our audiences and to better support our  NextGen TV business opportunities.” 

“We are excited to rollout Verance’s Aspect watermarking across our stations to help drive the  distribution of our NextGen TV apps to a larger audience and to allow us to bring new NextGen  experiences to our viewers,“ said Peter Sockett, director of engineering and operations, Capitol Broadcasting Company. “This opportunity will help us to better scale the broadcaster application  opportunity.” 

“Sinclair, Gray, Graham, and Capitol are at the forefront of a broadcaster movement to establish a direct  connection with their viewers to drive engagement and revenue, and Verance is excited to have these  innovative broadcasters as partners. As interactive applications deploy across the United States with the  broader deployment of NextGen TV, we are excited for enhanced viewing experiences, such as sports  betting and dynamic advertising, that drive new revenue opportunities for broadcasters,” said Nil Shah, CEO of Verance.

ATLANTA—Gray Television says it has renewed with The Walt Disney Co., the network affiliations for all of Gray’s ABC affiliated television stations across 25 markets through the end of 2024.

“We are pleased to announce the further extension of our decades-long relationship with Disney for ABC station affiliations,” said Gray’s President and Co-CEO, Pat LaPlatney. “These agreements recognize our ABC affiliates’ commitment to public service and will help them continue to serve their communities.”

“We are excited to continue our strong and well-established collaboration with Gray Television,” said John Rouse, EVP, Affiliate Relations, The Walt Disney Company. “These stations are leaders in their communities, and we are proud to have ABC’s unrivaled network programming paired with Gray’s local programming and community commitment.”

Financial terms were not disclosed.

ONTARIO—The broadcast industry is facing a human resource crisis as experienced engineers retire and potential new hires are more attracted to IT with higher pay. At the same time, underutilized workforce segments including women, people of color, and veterans offer a wealth of talent to the industry that has yet to be fully tapped. 

These facts pose two key challenges to TV broadcasters large and small: How does the industry compete with IT to recruit new blood? And how can it attract a more diverse workforce that better reflects society? 

The ‘IT’ Factor
There appear to be two reasons that broadcasters have trouble competing with the IT industry for new talent. 

The first is money: IT pays more than TV. “Our number one, two and three problems are salary, salary, salary,” said Jim Ocon, president of Ocon Solutions (a product interface and integration company), and chairman of OConsortium (a group of independent companies focussing on cutting-edge media technology). “The challenge here is that broadcast TV engineers are not being paid at a par with what they can make in IT, at a time when our industry is becoming more IT-driven.”

According to the Society of Broadcast Engineers, which conducts an annual salary survey, the TV and Radio group has an average (all title and markets) of $89,630 with SBE Certification, and $93,242 with SBE Certification.

Those amounts are hard to compete with when IT companies can offer starting salaries as high as in the low six figures. 

“Compensation is obviously a powerful incentive when accepting a job,” said Andrea Cummis, CBT, SBE president. “It certainly is in the interest of the station owners to hire quality talent. Broadcasting is a technical industry. Qualified technical personnel ensure the facility and the operation will function at their maximum capability. Attracting and retaining qualified technical personnel is in the long-term interest of owners and operators.”

In a bid to address this problem, Gray Television recently boosted its minimum wage to $18 per hour company-wide on Oct. 1, 2022. Roughly 2,000 employees received a raise as a result of this new policy. Still, the best remedy to IT’s salary advantage is to match what they offer, or beat it.

The second reason is perception. Millennials and other prospective new hires see IT as “cool,” while broadcast TV— which they identify with their parents’ generation—is not.  Ocon advises broadcasters to seek out those who are passionate about broadcasting at the earliest possible age.

“It’s like teaching; you need to recruit people who will enter the profession for the love of the job,” he said. “To find them, broadcasters have to start early in middle and high schools, to educate students about what TV broadcasting is all about.”

Tapping Underutilized Talent
The push to increase diversity and inclusion in broadcasting is more than morally just: It is also fiscally sound.

 “As an industry we have been too reliant on new entrants coming automatically into our sector for a job, but now we need to heavily invest in reaching out and finding that diverse talent,” said Carrie Wootten, managing director of Rise, the global not-for-profit membership organization supporting gender diversity in the M&E tech sector. 

“There is a severe skills crisis, a lack of diverse talent and a lack of a pipeline of talent coming into the industry,” she added. “The world is full of talented, inspiring and brilliant people—we just have to go out and get them.”

Rise is doing what it can to make this happen, with the backing of industry partners such as Blackmagic Design, BT Sport, Clear-Com, ITV, Sky and Warner Bros. Discovery and Singular.live. The group’s “Rise Up Academy” holds hands-on practical workshops, master classes and summer schools to reach and encourage youth from lower socio-economic and ethnically diverse communities to learn about broadcasting as a career path.

“Our goal in 2022 was to reach 2,000 young people and we will achieve this,” said Wootten. “In 2023, we are looking to expand our program of work internationally, working in Sydney, Singapore and the U.S. to reach 5,000 young people.”

“We are actively involved in both the Rise Academy and Rise Mentoring scheme,” said Mike Ward, Singular.live’s head of marketing. “We run a ‘Singular For Good’ program that gives away Pro-equivalent accounts completely free to educational institutions or nonprofits. We also make a watermarked version of Singular available to anyone for free, along with all our tutorials and training content so that anyone can learn our platform as a way to start their career in our industry.”

The National Association of Broadcasters’ Leadership Foundation spearheads efforts to promote diversity and inclusion through a range of initiatives, including the Broadcast Leadership Training (BLT) program, a 10-month executive MBA-style program for senior level broadcasters—particularly women or people of color—whose career goals are to become group executives or station owners; and the six-month Media Sales Academy fellowship program that prepares senior level college students and recent graduates for internships and entry-level media sales positions at broadcast stations. The NABLF also offers the Emerson Coleman Fellowship to increase diversity within the broadcast industry, and the six-month, paid Technology Apprenticeship Program to train, inform and recruit a diverse technology workforce in broadcasting.

“Our mission is to provide overall leadership and guidance to the broadcasting industry,” said NABLF President and NAB Chief Diversity Officer Michelle Duke. “This means providing leadership management tools, skills, training and resources to all broadcasters so that they can realize the benefits of making their workforces more diverse and inclusive.”

On a corporate basis, broadcasters such as Gray and WLBT-TV in Jackson, Miss., are taking action to increase diversity and inclusion. Recently the two selected the first group of students who will participate in the Gray Media Training Center internship program. Funded at more than $1 million, the program will train Mississippi students at historically Black colleges and universities for careers in the evolving media environment.

Veterans are yet another underutilized pool of talent. Veterans-TV,  a non-profit, non-partisan organization provides hands-on TV production and post-production technical training to U.S. veterans and their families using the 53-foot “Denali Gold” OB Truck donated to VETV by NEP. 

Collectively, these efforts are really working to bring new blood into TV broadcasting. “But we need to do more, and do it collectively across the whole industry,” said Wootten. “I chaired a panel at IBC and every representative said that the skills crisis is now impacting their bottom line. [So] we need to collaborate and work quickly. Otherwise the future looks very bleak indeed.”  

ATLANTA—Gray Television is launching a new in-house division to provide news research and news consulting services for its stations, starting Jan. 1, 2023.

Historically, Gray has hired news consultants to provide these services for a handful of its markets each year but the company now says its size allows it to transition from outside vendors to an in-house team of experts. 

“The efficiencies resulting from this transition will enable more of our stations, regardless of market size, to benefit from the local market research and strategic advice that have often been available only to larger market news stations,” the company said in its annoucement.

Gray has hired veteran journalist and consultant Chris Archer to lead this effort in the new role of Vice President of Research and Consulting. Archer was previously with SmithGeiger for 12 years and prior to that, he served four years as news director at the Honolulu television stations then-owned by Raycom Media, during which time he launched the Hawaii News Now local newscasts.

Chris will be reunited with veteran news researcher Tony Calfo as Director of Research. Caifo has led research strategy for the last three years at Screen Engine/ASI. He previously held a key role designing and executing media research projects as Vice President, Research Strategies for SmithGeiger.

They will both start on Jan. 1.

“We are thrilled to welcome Chris and Tony to Gray. With their extensive experience and accomplishments, they are the right team to lead this important initiative,” said Gray Television Chief Operating Officer Bob Smith.

ATLANTA—Gray TV has promoted James Finch to vice president of News Services. For the past several years, Finch has managed the station group’s news vendor partnerships and assisted Gray's stations with content and resource sharing as Gray's director of News Services. In his new role, Finch will continue his vital work and additionally lead Gray's new in-house news training program and Gray’s regional content producers, the company said.

“James is committed to excellence in journalism. He is a natural teacher and in this new position will provide even greater support to our newsrooms,” said Gray Senior Vice President-Local Media Sandy Breland. 

Finch has more than 30 years in journalism, including experience as a corporate news coach, local news director, newscast producer, MMJ, and print writer. He is a graduate of the NAB Education Foundation’s Broadcast Leadership Training Program and a former fellow of the Carole Kneeland Project for Responsible Journalism.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The FCC has approved Gray Television’s acquisition of the Meredith TV stations and granted the transfer of the licenses to Gray. 

In making the ruling the FCC denied two objections to the acquisition: “We find that the informal objections are without merit and that grant of the Applications would serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity,” the Commission said. 

The FCC has received objections from Rick Mattoon and Mr. Antenna Las Vegas LLC.

The commission was ruling on Gray’s plan to “acquire Meredith’s entire broadcast television portfolio, which includes 16 full power television stations in 12 markets, for more than $2.8 billion. Gray has divested a top-four television station (WJRT Divestiture) in the Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, Michigan Nielson Designated Market Area (DMA). The Applicants represent that following the WJRT Divestiture there are no other DMAs in which Gray and Meredith both own television stations; the Transaction will not result in the creation of any new duopolies; and the Transaction is in compliance with the Commission’s Local Television Ownership Rule. After consummation of the proposed Transaction, Gray will have a national audience reach of just under 25 percent—below the Commission’s 39 percent cap," the Commission concluded. 

ATLANTA, Ga.—Gray Television, Inc. has reached an agreement to divest WJRT-TV, its ABC affiliate for the Flint-Saginaw, Michigan, television market, to Byron Allen’s Allen Media Broadcasting, LLC for $70 million dollars in cash.

Gray’s sale of WJRT-TV facilitates regulatory approvals for its pending acquisition of the Local Media Group division of Meredith Corporation by removing the only market overlap between the respective television station portfolios of Gray and Meredith, Gray noted in announcing the deal. 

The closing for the sale of WJRT-TV is expected to occur in the third or fourth quarter of 2021 prior to the closing of the Gray/Meredith transaction. 

WJRT-TV General Manager Pete Veto will remain with Gray after the closing of this sale in a new position that Gray will announce at a later date.

The deal is part of Allen Media’s efforts to expand its TV station holdings. 

“Over the past year-and-a-half, we've invested close to $1 billion to acquire best-in-class, top-tier, broadcast network affiliates and we plan to invest approximately ten billion dollars to acquire more ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX television stations over the next two years with the goal of being the largest broadcast television group in America,” Byron Allen, founder, chairman, and CEO of Allen Media Group. "All of our media assets will work in concert to amplify our free-streaming service, Local Now.”

Upon closing, Allen Media will own and operate twenty-four local television stations in twenty markets, as well as twelve television networks including The Weather Channel and the free-streaming service Local Now. 

On April 29, 2021, Gray and Allen Media Group announced that Allen Media Group would acquire ten television stations currently owned by Quincy Media, Inc. for $380 million upon Gray’s anticipated acquisition of Quincy in the third quarter.

“Having to divest WJRT-TV, which we have proudly owned for the past seven years, in order to facilitate our purchase of Meredith’s television stations is bittersweet,” said Gray’s executive chairman and CEO Hilton H. Howell. “The wonderful WJRT-TV staff has done an exemplary job serving the Flint-Saginaw community, and we are disappointed to lose them. Nevertheless, we are excited that Byron Allen and his team will follow us as the next dedicated stewards of this fine television station.”

Upon the closing of its acquisitions of Quincy Media, Inc. and the television stations of Meredith Corporation, Gray will become the nation’s second largest television broadcaster, with television stations serving 113 markets that reach approximately 36 percent of US television households. The pro forma portfolio includes 79 markets with the top-rated television station and 101 markets with the first and/or second highest rated television station according to Comscore’s audience measurement data. 

Wells Fargo Securities, LLC served as financial advisor to Gray.

WASHINGTON—The American Television Alliance (ATVA) has issued a statement applauding the FCC for proposing to fine Gray Television more than $500,000 for violating the commission’s local ownership rules.  

“We agree with the FCC that Gray’s manipulation of the local ownership rules was an egregious ‘evasion’ that warrants this fine,” stated ATVA spokesperson, Jessica Kendust. “We hope that today's action is only the beginning of a much closer look at these issues – including consideration of closing all of the other loopholes that broadcasters use to evade the rules.”

The FCC’s local ownership rules prohibit a single entity from owning more than one of the top-four rated stations in a single market, the ATVA said. 

According to the FCC, Gray purchased the assets of the CBS Anchorage affiliate and began carrying CBS programming on its second full power affiliate. The FCC called this an "evasion" of its local ownership rules, and it was right to do so, the ATVA asserted. 

“Gray’s attempt to cure its violation in Anchorage by then moving the CBS programming from its full power station to the low power station and another feed on its NBC station is just another workaround broadcasters employ to exploit the system,” stated Kendust. “We urge the FCC to close these additional loopholes.” 

WASHINGTON—The FCC has proposed fining Gray Television a half a million dollars for violating its rules against owning two full power stations in the same DMA that are among the top four rated stations in the market. 

FCC concluded that the ownership and operation of the KTUU-TV NBC-affiliated station and the KYES-TV CBS-affiliated station by Gray from July 31, 2020 until March 3, 2021 violated its rules.

The action stems from a deal between Gray and Denali Media, when Gray acquired most of the non-license assets of KTVA(TV) on July 31, 2020, the FCC reported. 

“Gray began broadcasting the same program schedule on [Gray-owned] KYES-TV that had previously appeared on [Denali Media’s] CBS station KTVA(TV).  Gray also owns KTUU-TV, Anchorage, Alaska, an NBC affiliate, and at the time of closing KTUU-TV and KTVA(TV) were ranked numbers one and two, respectively, in the Anchorage market, under the audience share prong of the Local Television Ownership Rule. Therefore, Gray was operating two top four full power stations in the same market,” the FCC noted. 

In September of 2020, Denali filed a request for KTVA(TV) to go dark and the station remains off the air today.   

“Gray neither contacted Commission staff about the permissibility of the transaction with the licensee of KTVA(TV) nor filed a request for waiver of section 73.3555 prior to consummation,” the FCC reported. “Gray has informed the Commission that, effective March 3, 2021, it has modified its operations by moving the CBS programming formerly broadcast on full power KYES-TV to the primary channel of its current low power translator station, K22HN-D, and airing a simulcast of the CBS programming carried by K22HN-D on a digital sub channel of its full power station KTUU-TV.”

“The Commission previously has placed licensees `on notice’ that efforts to evade the Top-Four Prohibition through engaging in such a change of affiliation would be subject to `divestiture or enforcement action,’” the FCC also noted. “Accordingly, we find that the continued ownership and operation of the KTUU-TV NBC-affiliated station and the KYES-TV CBS-affiliated station from July 31, 2020, until March 3, 2021, apparently violated Note 11 to section 73.3555 of the Rules and take appropriate enforcement action.” 

UPDATED 9:45 a.m.

ATLANTA—Gray Television has announced that it is acquiring Meredith Corp.’s all outstanding shares of Meredith Corporation, which includes all of its broadcast stations, for $2.7 billion.

Gray TV is acquiring Meredith's Local Media Group, consisting of 17 TV stations in 12 markets. Meredith will maintain ownership of its National Media Group, which includes a portfolio of magazines as well as digital and marketing assets.

The TV stations that will be transferring over to Gray TV include:

• WGCL (CBS)/WPCH (Independent), Atlanta
• KPHO (CBS)/KTVK (Independent), Phoenix
• KPTV (FOX)/KPDX (MyNetwork), Portland, Ore.
• KMOV (CBS), St. Louis
• WSMV (NBC), Nashville, Tenn.
• WFSB (CBS), Hartford-New Haven, Conn.
• KCTV (CBS)/KSMO (MyNetwork), Kansas City, Mo.
• WHNS (FOX), Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C.
• KVVU (FOX), Las Vegas
• WALA (FOX), Mobile, Ala.
• WNEM (CBS), Flint-Saginaw, Mich.
• WGGB (ABC & FOX)/WSHM-LD (CBS), Springfield, Mass.

Gray TV currently operates in one of these markets, Flint-Saginaw, Mich. This will require Gray TV to divest the market's ABC affiliate, WJRT-TV, to an independent third party by the closing of the acquisition. Gray TV estimates that the deal will close in the fourth quarter 2021.

With the deal, Gray TV says that it will become the second largest TV broadcaster in the country, serving 113 markets and reaching approximately 36% of U.S. TV households.

"We are very excited to acquire Meredith’s excellent television stations, and we look forward to welcoming its employees into the Gray family. Moreover, Gray’s Board and shareholders are deeply appreciative of the tireless efforts of our team led by Kevin Latek and Jim Ryan on this transaction and our other recently announced significant transactions. Building on our successes throughout 2020 and just the first few months of 2021, Gray Television clearly has an even stronger and brighter future than ever," said Hilton H. Howell, executive chairman and CEO of Gray TV.  

Gray TV has made other recent acquisitions, purchasing Quincy Media in February, and more recently divesting some of the Quincy Media stations to Allen Media.

ATLANTA—Gray Television and Byron Allen’s Allen Media Broadcasting have struck a deal for a group of TV stations at a price tag of $380 million. The stations, owned by Quincy Media and representing seven markets, are being divested by Gray TV as part of its acquisition of Quincy Media.

In February, Gray TV acquired Quincy Media for $925 million. To get regulatory approval for the deal, Gray agreed to sell Quincy-owned stations in markets where Gray TV already operates.

The stations being acquired by Allen Media Broadcasting are KVOA (NBC) in Tucson, Ariz.; WKOW (ABC) in Madison, Wis.; WSIL/KPOB (ABC) in Paducah, Ky.-Harrisburg, Ill.; KWWL (NBC) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; WXOW/WQOW (ABC) in La Crosse-Eau Claire, Wis.; WAOW/WMOW (ABC) in Wausau-Rhinelander, Wis.; and WREX (NBC) in Rockford, Ill.

Gray’s acquisition of Quincy and the sale of the stations to Allen Media Broadcasting will close simultaneously, which Gray expects to happen in the third quarter of 2021.

For Allen Media Broadcasting, this acquisition is part of a larger strategy that has the company planning to invest nearly $10 billion to acquire more ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox TV stations over the next two years, per Byron Allen. He says the goal is to become the largest broadcast television group in America.

These stations, along with all of Allen Media Broadcasting’s media assets, are set to be part of its recently launched streaming service, Local Now. 

WASHINGTON—The FCC did not agree with Gray TV that Frontier Communications failed to negotiate in good faith, as well as meet other notification requirements, in the two sides’ recent retransmission dispute.

On Dec. 18, 2020, Frontier removed three Gray TV stations from its systems as the previous transmission consent agreement expired. A few days later on Dec. 22, Gray TV filed a good faith negotiation complaint against Frontier; it also claimed that Frontier violated customer notice requirements regarding service disruptions.

When it comes to good faith negotiations, the FCC specifically looks at whether a negotiating entity refused to negotiate regarding retransmission consent, but failure in itself is not an indicator of failing to negotiate in good faith. Also, a negotiating entity must designate a representative to have the authority to make binding representations on retransmission consent. In addition, proposals that are deemed “sufficiently outrageous” based on circumstances could point to a failure to negotiate in good faith.

In regards to customer notification, the FCC requires cable operators to notify subscribers of changes in service at least 30 days in advance of the change, “unless the change results from circumstances outside of the cable operator’s control,” which can include failed negotiations during the last 30 days of a contract.

Frontier filed a response with the FCC in January, saying that the two sides disagreed over the value of Gray’s stations. It also refuted claims by Gray that it had decided a month prior that it was going to drop the stations, evidenced by the removal of the stations from its channel lineup.

The FCC provided details in its decision that say Frontier and Gray did negotiate prior to the previous retransmission consent agreement expired, exchanging at least eight drafts of the renewal agreement. In regards to the channels being removed from the lineup, Frontier says that it did not remove them until it was clear the an agreement would not be reached, but in its haste to notify customers it failed to update the date on the channel lineup card.

Ultimately, the FCC sided with Frontier.

“[W]e agree with Frontier that it complied with the obligation to negotiate retransmission consent in good faith, including its per se obligation to negotiate retransmission consent, its per obligation to designate a representative with authority to make a binding representations on retransmission consent and compliance with the totality of the circumstances test. We also find that Frontier fulfilled its customer notice obligations,” the FCC said.

The full decision is available online. 

DORAVILLE, Ga.—Gray Television has just acquired a 127-acre piece of land that it plans to convert into a mixed-use “Studio City” property on the outskirts of Atlanta.

Reported by WSB-TV in Atlanta, the Doraville Downtown Development Authority voted to transfer the property where a General Motors Plant is to be converted into a mixed-use property that will feature 10 TV and movie studios, offices, retail spaces, apartments, townhomes and a hotel.

Gray TV is expected to use some of the studios for its own productions, but they will also rent out space to other studios. It is estimated that filming can begin taking place at these new studios in 2022.

Construction is eyeing a summer start, with the first phase including a few of the studios, residences and a pavilion with green space.

A video with renderings of the space is available on Vimeo.

The full story is available on WSB-TV’s website. 

DALLAS—Gray Television is hitching its wagon to Dallas-based esports and entertainment company Envy Gaming Inc. As part of a $40 million investment round, Gray TV is putting up $28.5 million. As part of the deal, Gray TV will name two directors to the Envy Gaming board of directors.

Founded in 2007, Envy Gaming features a network of content creators, competitive gamers and esports teams with a reach across multiple platforms. In the last year, musician Post Malone also became part of the ownership group of Envy Gaming and the company opened a 21,000-square-foot training facility and live production and content studio in Dallas.

Though not specifically outlined, as a partner Gray TV is expected to help continue growing Envy Gaming. Gray TV owns more than 500 separate programming streams, including roughly 160 affiliates of the big four broadcast networks, that reach approximately 24% of U.S. households. Gray TV also owns video program production, marketing and digital businesses Raycom Sports, Tupelo Honey and RTM Studios.

“Esports and gaming is the fastest-growing area across all of media and entertainment,” said Adam Rymer, CEO of Envy Gaming. “Building global communities through content and engagement, similar to what the world has seen in the music, film and TV industries, is an endeavor we’re incredibly excited to work on with Gray as our partner.”

“We’re excited to lead this investment in Envy Gaming, an organization known for breaking ground and pushing the limits of what the future holds for gaming and entertainment,” said Hilton H. Howell Jr., Gray TV’s executive chairman and CEO.

ATLANTA—Gray Television has come to terms on a deal to acquire Quincy Media Inc. for $925 million in cash. With the deal, Gray TV will add a total of 11 TV stations, and will own TV stations serving 102 U.S. TV markets reaching 25.4% of U.S. TV households, it said.

QMI is a family-owned media company based in Quincy, Ill. It owns and operates TV stations and digital platforms in 16 markets, primarily in the Midwest. Gray TV will acquiring the following TV stations from QMI:

• WPTA (ABC/NBC) and WISE (CW), Fort Wayne, Ind. 
• WEEK (NBC/ABC/CW), Peoria, Ill. 
• WREX (NBC/CW), Rockford, Ill. 
• KBJR (NBC/CBS) and KDLH (CW), Duluth, Minn. 
• KTIV (NBC/CW), Sioux City, Iowa 
• KTTC (NBC/CW), Rochester-Mason City, Minnesota-Iowa 
• WBNG (CBS/CW), Binghamton, N.Y. 
• WVVA (NBC/CW), Bluefield-Beckley, WVa. 
• WGEM (NBC/Fox/CW), Quincy, Ill. 

To meet to regulatory approvals, Gray will divest QMI stations in these markets: 

• Tucson, Ariz. 
• Madison, Wis. 
• Paducah-Harrisburg, Kentucky-Illinois 
• Cedar Rapids, Iowa 
• La Crosse-Eau Claire, Wis. 
• Wausau-Stevens Point, Wis. 

In addition to these stations, Gray TV will acquire Quincy’s Heroes & Icons affiliate WSJV in South Bend, Ind., and WGEM (AM)/-FM in Quincy, Ill. Gray will not acquire QMI’s newspaper operations, which will be divested prior to the deal closing.

“We are honored and humbled to be selected by Quincy’s shareholders to acquire this terrific company,” said Hilton H. Howell Jr., Gray’s executive chairman and CEO. “We are very excited to welcome their dedicated journalists, account executives and technologists to the Gray family. With the addition of these professionals and their stations, Gray will become a stronger company with an even larger platform of high quality television stations to better serve the public interest first.”

“Many of our shareholders, board members and employees are descendants of two families who have been in the company for 95 years and in the media business for over 100 years. The focus has always been on serving our communities with the best in news, public service and community involvement. It is a legacy of which we are very proud,” said Ralph M. Oakley, president/CEO of QMI. “While this is the end of a long and successful chapter, it also represents a wonderful new chapter for the communities we serve and our employees with the acquisition of the stations by Gray. They are great operators and people and our philosophies very much mirror one another.” 

Gray expects the deal to close in the second or third quarter of 2021.

WASHINGTON—After Gray Television’s WWSB-TV was pulled from Frontier Communications channel lineups on Dec. 18, Gray TV made an official complaint that Frontier has not negotiated in good faith on a new retransmission agreement. However, as detailed in a response to the allegations, Frontier tells the FCC that the issue in negotiations is the gap in perceived value of the Gray TV station.

Gray’s allegations specifically argue that Frontier failed to negotiate in good faith and failed to notify customers “as soon as possible” once Frontier knew it would no longer have Gray TV’s consent to retransmit WWSB. However, according to Frontier’s filing to the commission, it participated in 25 days of negotiations and made three offers to have WWSB return to its lineup.

“The simple fact is that Frontier and Gray disagree over the value of Grays’ stations,” the filing reads. “... Gray now cries foul because Frontier did not agree with the financial terms that Gray wanted to force on Frontier and its customers.” Frontier argues that just because the two sides differed on terms is not a lack of good faith.

According to Frontier, Gray's claim that Frontier had known for a month that it would not extend its retransmission agreement and, per Fronter, that it removed Gray’s stations from its online channel guides several weeks before the deal expired or even negotiations began is inaccurate. Frontier says that it did not update its customer-facing channel guide until shortly after the agreement had expired, adhering FCC requirements.

Back in September, the FCC updated its notification rules in regard to carriage disruptions, which gave cable ops providers more flexibility.

“This retransmission consent negotiation was no different than the hundreds of other negotiations across the cable television industry,” Frontier said. “Gray’s complaint is simply an attempt by a broadcaster to add additional leverage to the retransmission consent process – either accept our last offer or we will claim that all your offers we rejected were fake and you never meant to reach agreement. Ultimately, the parties could not reach an agreement on the value of the stations but that does not render the negotiations a façade on Frontier’s end. The Commission should deny the Complaint.”

The full Frontier response is available online. 

ATLANTA—Gray Television has been selected for Google’s GNI Innovation Challenge for 2021. Gray TV will receive $200,000 in funding for a multiplatform journalism project that will focus on the health disparities in the Mississippi Delta and Appalachia regions of the U.S.

Journalists from more than 25 Gray TV stations, the D.C. News Bureau and Gray’s National Investigative unit will work on “Bridging the Great Health Divide—Mississippi Delta and Appalachia” starting in early 2021.

“We’re proud to launch this initiative and give a voice to these underrepresented populations that have long lagged in basic health care,” said Hilton H. Howell Jr., Gray TV chairman and CEO. “We also aim to provide resources to help people make better informed decisions on health-related issues.”

Gray TV’s project is one of 30 that GNI is funding in 2021, including three projects from TV broadcasters.

The goal of the GNI Innovation Challenge is to help support quality local journalism in a digital age. For more information, visit the GNI Innovation Challenge webpage. 

ATLANTA—Gray TV is now offering NextGen TV, as it announced its first station to use the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard, WNXG in Tallahassee, Fla., launched on Dec. 2.

WNXG is a low-power TV station serving Tallahassee. It now simulcasts five programming services that Gray broadcasts in the market on its ATSC 1.0 full-power TV stations, WCTV and WFXU: CBS, Me/My, Circle, Ion and Justice.

Gray says that the ability to stream four HD (CBS, Me/MY, Circle and Ion) and one SD (Justice) stream exceeds the current technical capability of the ATSC 1.0 standard.

“We constructed this low power station with the NextGen TV transmission standard using off-the-shelf components and our own internal engineering and IT professionals in order to gain valuable first-hand knowledge about this exciting new technology,” said David Burke, Gray TV’s chief technology officer. “Over the coming months, we will be putting WNXG through numerous experiments to test the capabilities and versatility of the NextGen TV standard to further understand how we might implement better services for our local viewers and advertisers.”

Gray TV expects to transition more of its TV stations to NextGen TV in 2021.

NextGen TV, powered by ATSC 3.0, has already deployed in markets across the country, including Las Vegas, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City and more. The goal, according to ATSC, is to reach more than 60 markets (including the top 40 markets) by mid 2021. 

ATLANTA—Gray Television has thrown its support behind the FCC in its case for reinstating its proposed media ownership rule updates, filing an amicus brief with the Supreme Court for the commission’s case where it seeks to overturn the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

In 2017, the FCC voted on deregulation efforts that would eliminate newspaper-broadcast and the radio-TV cross-ownership rules; allow dual station ownership in markets with fewer than eight independent voices on a case-by-case basis; eliminate attribution of joint sales agreement as ownership; and create a diversity incubator program, as well as other diversity mechanism.

This was ultimately denied by the Third Circuit and sent back to the FCC on the grounds that it “did not adequately consider the effect its sweeping rule change will have on ownership of broadcast media by women and racial minorities.”

Gray TV argues that the FCC was in full compliance with its obligations under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. According to Gray, the law requires the FCC to, first and foremost, consider the effects of marketplace “competition” when modernizing its rules. The Third Circuit ruling, Gray TV writes, “is incorrect because it requires the agency to elevate other policy considerations over the effects of ‘competition.’”

In terms of competition, Gray TV specifically points to the impact low-cost digital media sources have on local news and journalism. The denial of these updated rules subsequently harms small and mid-sized communities who rely on local news.

“Over the last 15 years, the FCC has attempted repeatedly to update its regulations in light of today’s competitive media marketplace, as directed to do so by statute,” Gray TV says. “The FCC, however, has been stymied consistently by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which effectively has frozen the regulatory landscape as it existed in 1941 when the FCC first adopted a ‘one-to-market’ rule and when the media marketplace was enormously different than it is today.”

Gray TV joins the NAB in filing amicus briefs in support of the FCC in its case before the Supreme Court. According to Gray TV, a decision on the case is expected by June 2021. 

Gray Television’s total non-political (core) ad revenue last month was about $82 million; during the same month, political ads generated $175 in advertising, said Pat LaPlatney, president & co-CEO of Gray Television Inc. Overall, at Gray TV stations in 95 markets—even through a longer-than-ever political process which began in early 2019—53% of total political revenue came between Oct. 1 and Nov. 3 (Election Day), LaPlatney explained during the monthly webcast of the Media Institute, a Washington think tank, on Monday (Nov. 23).

His summary confirmed earlier reports on the extraordinary reliance on broadcast political advertising this year, even with the impact of early voting in many states.

“Gray Television has never seen spending start earlier than we did for the 2020 cycle,” he added, citing ad buys in Maine for Senator Susan Collins’ reelection effort “a full year before the general election.” He also pointed to the first order (“albeit a small one”) from Democratic primary hopeful Tom Steyer in February 2019.

In remarks that large shared research data from Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), which monitors political advertising, LaPlatney summarized the trends of the political arena.

He also confirmed that “sports events were a heavy focus, with many [political] advertisers triple spotting during college and NFL football games.”  He noted that many campaign advertisers ran two spots within a half-hour local newscast and many waived the separation requirements to keep their commercials from being run adjacent to rivals’ political messages.

He pointed out that “the Bloomberg Effect” shattered records and created “unprecedented spending levels” during a six- or seven-week period, reaching levels that most political advertisers barely hit during the entire cycle.

From this year’s experience, LaPlatney said he believes broadcast TV will continue to play a major role in campaign advertising—even with the growing presence of digital platforms.  He also cited the continuing TV commercials in the pending Georgia races for U.S. Senate seats. 

“Campaigns turned much more to broadcast television,” he said.  ““You’ll see the pie continue to grow. Digital will grow; the broadcast share will be similar to where it ended up this cycle—at about 50%” in the next presidential election year.

“These records will be broken in 2024,” he predicted, but he admitted, “It's hard for me to put that into context.”   

In response to questions about the role of NextGen TV (also known as ATSC 3.0), LaPlatney said he expects it to have “a significant effect,” citing the IP-based format for its ability to provide better targeting and click-to-donate options.

“There will be markets where ATSC 3.0 will matter,” he said—and it will increase during the next four year.

LaPlatney said that Gray TV is “fully committed” to the 3.0 rollout, but because many of its stations are in smaller markets, it may be a while before the service debuts throughout its footprint. He said that its stations in Charlotte, N.C., and Cleveland will launch NextGen TV transmissions in 2021 and he’s looking forward to “the competitive advantages we never had before.”

CHANTILLY, Va.—As local news continues to try and compete against digital competitors, a new study provides support to the claim that allowing stations in a market to merge will increase their local news output.

Gray Television backed the BIA Advisory Services study that reviewed the number of hours of local news provided by Gray TV in 93 of its local TV markets in 2014 and 2020, comparing markets where Gray acquired another TV station to ones where it did not.

This study is based around the suggestion that many TV broadcasters have made in recent years for the FCC to eliminate or relax longstanding federal regulations that prohibit common ownership of more than one TV station in a local market, which broadcasters believe could promote greater local news production.

BIA found that in markets where Gray TV acquired a second TV station or an additional major network affiliation, Gray increased its weekly local news production far greater than in markets without any in-market consolidation.

Per BIA’s findings, in markets with a consolidation event, the average increase of weekly local news production was 7.5 hours, with the average weekly news output increasing 27.8%. In markets without consolidation, local news increased at 6.2 hours per week, an average increase of 17.5%.

Consolidation events had significant impact in mid-sized markets (DMAs 51-100) and small markets (101-120). In these markets with consolidation, local news output increased by 7.4 hours per week (27.9%); mid-size or small markets without a consolidation increased 5.2 hours per week (18.2%). This growth was even larger in markets ranked 151-210, where those with consolidation saw a weekly increase of 10.1 hours (37%), compared to 3.8 hours in these markets without a consolidation event.

Large markets saw significant gains in local news output regardless of a consolidation (12.8 additional hours per week).

According to the BIA study, in seven of Gray’s mid-sized and small markets, Gray has consolidated English-language and Spanish-language stations. In four of those markets, Gray shares the resources and equipment from its English-language station to provide news in Spanish for its Spanish-language station.

“Gray’s experience in 93 of the 210 television markets demonstrates that relaxation of the FCC’s ownership rules—especially in mid-size and small markets—is likely to lead to more efficient television combinations that will increase the hours of local news available to consumers and provide more of the positive social benefits associated with local television news,” BIA concluded.

The full BIA report is available online.

ATLANTA—Gray Television stations around the country raised more than $12.5 million in March and April to help their local communities as they grapple with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the broadcaster announced.

Telethons, on-air and online fundraisers, concerts and other events—some ongoing for weeks—highlight the station group’s efforts. Hard-strapped local food banks and other local charities dealing with funding curtailment from normal sources during the outbreak have benefited from the stations’ efforts, Gray said.

“Local broadcast stations are important local institutions employing talented residents who put community service first, through news, information and support for local organizations and businesses,” said Gray Executive Chairman and CEO Hilton H. Howell. “We are therefore especially proud that our own stations and staff were able to distinguish themselves so well during the last several weeks by their truly exemplary donations of their time, resources and creativity to support their local communities through this challenging period.”

For example, WAGM in Presque Isle, Maine, worked with the United Way of Aroostook on a one-day telethon March 12 benefiting Catholic Charities Food Bank, which supports 24 food pantries in Aroostook County. The telethon raised $28,000, the company said.

In Madison, Wisc., WMTV launched a campaign in mid-March to raise donations for Second Harvest Foodbank in Southern Wisconsin. Proceeds were used to create care boxes for residents hit by the pandemic. As of the end of April, the campaign directly raised $1.5 million and helped the food bank attract $1 million in outside gifts and grants, according to the broadcast group. 

On April 18, more than 50 Gray stations aired “Singing for Their Supper,” an hour-long telethon to assist food banks in the markets of participating stations. Country music stars and singer-songwriters turned in virtual performances. Donations from viewers and performers raised more than $1 million, Gray said.

Some Gray stations worked with local advertisers and other local broadcasters to meet the needs of their local communities.

The station group also has helped local businesses facing the hardship brought on by stay-at-home orders and self-quarantines. In April the group’s stations launched interactive online directories of local businesses to help people find out which were remaining open and their new hours. 

PLUS: Pai Praises Broadcdasters Efforts During Coronavirus

Users of the directories have the ability to place orders online for pickup and delivery, secure coupons and apply for jobs. By the end of April, more than 14,500 local businesses had signed up for the directories at no charge across Gray’s market, the broadcaster said.

More information is available on the Gray Television website. 

ALTANTA—Gray Television is reclaiming a TV tradition dating back to the days when television stations signed off air in the wee hours of the morning by playing the National Anthem against a montage of landscapes, skylines, national landmarks, ordinary people, waving flags and other patriotic imagery (as seen here).

Valley News Live (KVLY-TV, the Gray-owned NBC affiliate serving Fargo, N.D.,) is reporting that Gray Media Group Executive Chairman and CEO Hilton Howell announced the decision to begin airing the anthem daily in 94 local markets around the country during last week’s annual meeting of Gray Television news directors.

The tradition of airing the anthem at the close and at the beginning of each broadcast day gradually faded away as television stations launched 24-hour operations in the 1980s and ‘90s.

An article by the station on its website quotes Valley News Live GM/News Director Ike Walker as saying: “We love this country and being able to work with our sister stations across the United States to bring this tradition back to the local airwaves is something we are extremely proud of.”

This week the station began airing a rendition of the National Anthem every morning during its Valley News Live. Nine-year-old Reina Ozbay, a classically trained soprano from South Florida, performs the anthem.

ATLANTA—Gray Television did not say Tuesday morning which of its 64 TV stations would be affected when it announced expected auction proceeds of $90.824 million. The company did say, however, that operations would not be materially affected, which means the company may be working out channel-sharing arrangements.

“The actions necessary to receive the proceeds will not lead to job losses and otherwise are not expected to produce any material change in operations or results for Gray or for any individual market in which we operate. We will announce the affected station(s) at a later date,” the company said in a press release Tuesday morning, the day after the Federal Communications Commission waived the prohibition on auction-related communications among broadcasters.

Gray has 64 call letter TV licenses in Designated Market Areas ranging from No. 61 Knoxville, Tenn. to No. 161 Paris, Texas. It has duopolies in several markets, including No. 63 Lexington, Ky.; No. 75 Springfield, Mo.; No. 105 Lincoln, Neb.; No. 111, Augusta, Ga.; No. 192 Twin Falls, Idaho; No. 197, Scottsbluff, Neb.-Cheyenne, Wyo.; and triopolies in two: No. 209 North Platte, Neb.; and Minot-Bismarck-Dickinson-Williston, N.D.

Bidding in the fourth-stage reverse auction—where broadcasters provisionally accepted $10 billion for 84 MHz of spectrum—concluded Jan. 13. Bidding in the fourth-stage forward auction—where wireless providers bid to buy that spectrum—began Jan. 18, and quickly met the closing criteria of the auction with $18.2 billion in bids, making the fourth stage the final one.

Auction proceeds as of round 40 of the final-stage reverse auction, which is still in progress, were $19.5 billion. Broadcasters will split more than $10 billion of that amount, plus another $2 billion will be put toward a TV station relation fund and the administrative cost of the auction, leaving roughly $7.5 billion for the U.S. Treasury, about half of the amount Congress estimated to be put toward unemployment in the 2012 Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act. (See “Obama Signs Spectrum Auction Authority Bill” Feb. 23, 2012)

See more TV Technology coverage at our spectrum auction silo.

ATLANTA—Gray Television is extending its reach, announcing that it has come to terms with Withers Broadcasting Company to acquire WDTV (CBS) and WVFX (Fox/CW) in Clarksburg, W.VA. The proposed deal is said to be for $26.5 million in cash.

Over the last several years, Withers has operated WDT V and WVFX as a legal duopoly under an FCC Failing Station Waiver. Gray is expected to continue that arrangement. The Clarksburg-Weston market that WDTV and WVFX cover is the 169th largest DMA.

Gray Television currently holds a number of television stations in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The transaction is subject to receipt of regulatory and other approvals. Gray expects to finalized the acquisition between June and a time after the conclusion of the FCC spectrum auction, subject to contingencies and possible price adjustments, according to the press release.

ATLANTA – Gray Television has announced that is has made four new transactions for TV stations across the country. Gray has also closed the deals on three previously acquired stations.

Gray has closed deals to acquire WFXS in Wausau-Rhinelander, Wis., and KVTV in Laredo, Texas. As of today, both stations have stopped operating with other local stations owned by Gray taking over the broadcast streams. Gray also sold KBGF in Great Falls, Mont., and KTVH in Helena, Mont., to Cordillera Communications, LLC. In a recommendation from Cordillera, Gray has also donated KMTF in Helena to Montana State University so the school can operate a full power PBS affiliated TV station. These deals are subject to receipt of regulatory and other approvals, but are expected to close in the third quart of 2015, according to Gray.

The three deals that closed were for Gray’s previously announced acquisitions of CBS affiliate KOSA in Odessa-Midland, Texas; CBS and CW affiliated KMVT in Twin Falls, Idaho; and CBS and FOX affiliate WAGM in Presque Isle, Maine.

Gray Television owns and operates TV stations and digital assets across the country. It is headquartered in Atlanta.