Industry News

Bay Area entrepreneur Ravi Kapur has emerged in recent months as a buyer of low-power TV stations.

He’s grabbed another one — this time in the birthplace of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

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An AM/FM combo serving a community to the south of Cape Girardeau, Mo., is being sold.

The stations air a Country format and offer a simulcast to local listeners.

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Nearly six months ago, local media reported that a 25kw Class C3 FM serving a rural area to the north of the Twin Cities was being transferred to a new owner.

Now, paperwork at the FCC has finally been filed that confirms the plan.

Who’s the buyer? A longtime owner and operator of radio stations in Minnesota.

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RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION

Last night I had quite the dream. I was running a radio station, somewhere. There was lots of activity. I was at a desk, typing on a computer, using RCS Selector to put the final touches on a Top 40 radio station’s playlist.

If only it wasn’t a dream.

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He is a Michigan Law grad from Saskatchewan with experience at Brightstar Corp. and, most recently, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

How does the professional experience of Nathan Simington, the newest Commission on the Federal Communications Commission, give the agency a whole new perspective on how to consider its policies and rules?

“Well, I think my experiences in the private sector, particularly with cellular devices and long-term deals, gives me a somewhat unusual perspective at the Commission,” he says in an exclusive interview.

Get the full story on where Nathan Simington stands on bringing “light touch” regulatory policies and rule “modernization” to broadcast media ONLY by receiving your copy of the Spring 2021 RBR+TVBR Special Report — our latest magazine. It’s also the ONLY home of the much-anticipated Broadcast Television’s Best Leaders ranking of 2021. And, it arrives in subscriber e-mail inboxes Monday at 11am Eastern!

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO RBR+TVBR TO SECURE YOUR COPY TODAY!

 

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How one interprets research is key to understanding the root of any problem, or sniffing out all of the facts, when it comes to something that could greatly impact your employer — or your job.

That’s why RBR+TVBR had to put the sniff test to a report stating that, based on a poll of U.S. adults aged 18-29, local TV news leads compared to other sources.

Yes, that’s true. But, the real story is just how few Americans in this age group are tuning to local TV news — or any other news source, for that matter.

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More and more consumers are choosing streaming video packages and are opting out of pay-TV video bundles.

The finding from S&P Global Ratings affirms the belief that “cord-cutting” hasn’t ceased, despite pandemic-fueled reports of a resurgence in MVPD subscriber rolls.

And, S&P Global Ratings views more cord-cutting and fewer pay-TV bundles as a negative for the entire television sector’s credit quality.

It’s a new view on the impact of MVPD abandonment among U.S. video content consumers, leaving a strong broadband internet connection as the lone reason they’d be a customer to Comcast, Charter Spectrum, Cox or any other entity some still view as the “cable company.”

The report, “How The Decline In The U.S. Television Ecosystem Could Squeeze Credit Ratings,” updates S&P Global Ratings’ U.S. pay-TV video subscriber forecast, which it based on a rollup of our individual company forecasts.

S&P last updated its forecast in January 2020.

“Even though cord-cutting trended downward in the second half of last year compared to the first half, we estimate the rate of legacy pay-TV subscription losses was modestly worse in 2020 at about 7.9% versus 7.3% in 2019,” S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Naveen Sarma said. “We’ve updated our pay-TV video subscriber forecast and, in this report, discuss how any changes could affect our ratings on companies in the pay-TV ecosystem.”

The report notes that the ratings impact of the decline of pay-TV on the cable sector will be muted due the strength of its broadband service. Media companies will feel the heat on their TV operations, but it’s difficult to say which companies could face negative rating actions because many have diversified businesses.

Importantly, S&P notes that this report does not constitute a rating action.

To view the report in its entirety, please click here.

Nielsen Holdings plc has selected its newest member of the company’s board of directors. She took her seat on Wednesday (4/21), and will also serve on the board’s audit committee.

The news came as Nielsen revealed when it will share its first quarter 2021 financial results.

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Anyone who has installed and upgraded IP infrastructures in the broadcast plant knows that racking up and cabling equipment is the easy part of the job. The more tedious and time-consuming aspect is usually the administrative tasks that follow: initial setup and registration, device management and security. Proprietary and piecemeal tools exist, but locating end-to-end solutions can be elusive.

Lawo Home is new a cloud-based management platform for IP-based infrastructures. With it, according to the company, users can perform automatic plug-and-play discovery of IP audio and video devices. They are registered with their name, location, status and type. This applies not only to Lawo products but to third-party devices as well, using NMOS. Discovered devices are managed in a central inventory list, ready for access and configuration.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

Nothing changes but the changes in a media IP infrastructure, and the ability to save and recall multiple configurations is key to speeding up tasks. Home, according to Lawo, provides a centralized “mission control” for these processes, providing fast and unified access to device parameters for easy tweaking, irrespective of the end point being controlled.

The content flowing around the infrastructure is a media organization’s most valuable asset. Part of  any IP administration solution’s job is security, not only for those assets, but also for the infrastructure. And doing this job seamlessly in the background is key.

Lawo claims that Home makes a variety of strategies available. First and foremost is quarantining unknown devices when they come online. Only after being approved via an intuitive IEEE802.1X-based routine, can they begin exchanging signals with the Home network.

A second approach is an authentication strategy based on a centralized user management system, with dedicated user roles and groups. The LDAP-based service allows users to authenticate either locally — within HOME — or via their own corporate IT infrastructure, e.g. Microsoft Active Directory, according to Lawo.

Finally comes the arbitration of devices and individual streams based on pinpointed rights management. Home’s architecture, says Lawo, is prepared to manage services such as transport layer security, network segmentation and other IT security mechanisms such as Radius.

Info: https://lawo.com/

 

The post Lawo Home Facilitates Management of IP Broadcast Infrastructures appeared first on Radio World.

In a August 2017 webinar moderated by Radio INK editor-in-chief Ed Ryan, Veritone ‎Managing Director of Enterprise Radio Solutions Paul Cramer offered participants some eye-opening details on a new, “AI”-powered way to “aircheck” for an advertiser of an AM or FM station.

The webinar came on a day when Google’s Chrome browser was experimenting with a “mute” setting for autoplay video ads that start playing when one scrolls to the ad on a web page.

The timing was perhaps perfect, and still resonates today.

How many people do you know hit a “mute” button when a commercial comes on the radio station they are listening to?

The very idea is absurd, and gives the radio industry yet another weapon in its advertiser ammo box.Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)