Industry News

The Walt Disney Company announced late Thursday that it would raise its monthly subscription fee for Disney+, its OTT service, to $7.99 per month as of March 2021.

It then tripled its subscriber projections for 2024.

Investors responded in resounding fashion, with DIS soaring by nearly 14% in the final hour of trading Friday on the NYSE.

As of 3:21pm Eastern, Disney shares were trading at $175.37, up roughly 13.3%.  A $179.39 session high was logged in midday trading, as volume soared past 78.2 million shares with 40 minutes left in the trading day.

Average volume for Disney is 9.68 million shares.

The growth for DIS is exceptional, as shares were at $112.64 six months ago and were at $93.53 on March 11.

With today’s activity, Disney stock will finish at an all-time high.

With just under three weeks remaining in 2020 and so many counting down to a new year, now is the time to finalize the broadcast, online and social coverage of New Year’s Eve events being delivered from Times Square in New York.

While the public will not be allowed to partake in the Midtown Manhattan festivities this year due to the ongoing pandemic, there will be a televised ceremony. And, live feeds at no charge are again available.

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RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION

In the Jacobson household, mornings begin with a few rituals. Among them is a morning meditation, which is also the case for Streamline Publishing Chairman Eric Rhoads.

On Dec. 11, Mrs. Jacobson deviated from the regular selection of morning meditations saved on the iPhone by trying out a selection from a new app downloaded Thursday evening — Ten Percent Happier. How did she learn about the app? Entertainer Sara Bareilles shared it on her Instagram feed.

Welcome to the new paradigm of advertising for the 2020s. Is this bad news for radio?

Not at all, and here’s why.

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Travel east of Atlanta, and you’ll reach Morgan County, and the small town of Madison, its county seat.

Here, a Class D AM offering religious programming is being spun.

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On December 2, the nation’s No. 1 broadcast TV station owner saw its broadcast TV stations and its recently acquired WGN America cable network blocked from Dish subscribers, as negotiations reached a stalemate over a new retransmission consent deal.

As of Friday afternoon (12/11), a resolution was not expected soon. That said, Nexstar Media Group has gained new clearance for WGN America.

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The suburban Detroit-based mobile strategy and development company led by COO Bob Kernen is releasing what it says is the first app designed for radio with voice activation.

According to jacapps, consumers can now open station apps with just a voice command. In an environment where users have on average 32 apps on their phone, this technological advance makes it easier for listeners to find their favorite apps.

“From Echo and Google Home to our cars and even our TV remotes, more and more devices are controlled with our voices,” said Kernen, “It just made sense to enable users to open our clients’ apps using Siri and Google Assistant.”

Lisa Waters, Digital Media Director for Local Media San Diego, participated in beta testing of V5 for one of her stations, KFBG-FM 100.7, formerly KFMB-FM.

“As soon as you fire-up the updated app, you get an immediate sense of the station personality because of the inclusion of more spot-graphics from our radio station’s website,” she says. “I asked Siri to ‘PLAY BIG FM’ when I was driving the other day, and it opened the app and started playing the stream though my car speakers flawlessly. It’s one of those features that you don’t know you need until you have it.”

The platform continues to support connected car platforms including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and push notifications.

The platform also continues to have a complete location guide and directory option, which can help radio stations support and generate revenue from local businesses.

— RBR+TVBR West Coast Bureau, in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

The Society of Broadcast Engineers threw a surprise party Thursday for departing Executive Director John Poray.

“You taught us how to be an organization,” veteran engineer Fred Baumgartner told Poray during a Zoom meeting attended by more than 75 people.

The group included numerous past presidents of the society, current and past board members and committee leaders, representatives from state broadcast associations, and friends and Poray family members.

[Related: “SBE’s Poray to Retire in 2020”]

Poray was SBE’s first full-time executive director and has been with the society since 1992.

He began his career with the Boy Scouts of America’s Central Ohio Council and went on to work for Kiwanis International, The Apartment Association of Indiana and The Columbus Apartment Association.

Among those on the call were two engineers who interviewed Poray for the job 28 years ago, Rick Farquhar and Fred Baumgartner.

Poray told the online gathering that when he joined, he figured he might stay in the job for four or five years.

“I’ve never been with a group that enjoys their work so much,” Poray said. “You like what you do, it’s part of you. That really rubs off.”

Poray noted that he is not an engineer but that he shared interests of many SBE members, having DXed as a boy and collected QSL cards.

Society veterans on the call praised Poray for his administrative abilities, good ideas and efforts to provide stability and growth for the organizations.

One said that when he became an SBE officer, his predecessor told him, “It’s an easy job. Just do what John tells you and you’ll be fine.”

New Executive Director James Ragsdale comes on board in January.

The post SBE Gives John Poray a Big Sendoff appeared first on Radio World.

The next NAB Show isn’t until October thanks to the pandemic effect; but the association says exhibit hall reservations are off to “a significant head start.”

The National Association of Broadcasters said it has approximately 540 companies that have committed to the show in October in Las Vegas, including vendors from 31 countries. Organizers are promoting the event as “the time to restart, rebuild and reconnect.”

Among brands familiar in radio that NAB said have committed to the show are Audio-Technica U.S., Comrex, Nautel, Rohde & Schwarz, Wheatstone and WideOrbit.

NAB also highlighted AT&T, Inc.; Adobe Systems; Amazon Web Services; Blackmagic Design; Dolby Laboratories; Grass Valley; Ikegami; Limelight Networks; Panasonic; Planar; Pixel Power; Ross Video; Sony Electronics, Inc.; Telestream; Verizon Business and Verizon Media; and Vizrt.

It quoted Executive Vice President of Conventions and Business Operations Chris Brown saying, “Together with our partners, we are on a path to building a critical event that will reunite the industry and create a much-needed forum for building momentum going into 2022.”

It said initial applications account for about 330,000 square feet of space.

The show will co-locate with the Audio Engineering Society fall convention, the Radio Show and NAB’s Sales and Management Television Exchange. The Society of Broadcast Engineers also will coordinate its annual national conference with that schedule.

The post NAB Show Cites Early Exhibit Hall Sales appeared first on Radio World.

Starting this week, viewers in the nation’s 14th largest TV market — Detroit — get a taste of the future as five local TV stations have banded together to launch NEXTGEN TV in Detroit.

This market is vitally important for ATSC 3.0’s data capabilities, as automotive executives and production facilities can learn first-hand of how the connected car can benefit.

Are companies such as Ford and General Motors aware of what NEXTGEN TV can provide? Yes, says Anne Schelle, the Managing Director of Pearl TV, who speaks exclusively with Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson in this InFOCUS Podcast, presented by DOT.FM.
Listen to “RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast: Anne Schelle” on Spreaker.

It’s presently airing an all-Christmas format, but with country music artists.

Soon, it will be devoting all of its musical choices to Jesus Christ and his teachings.

A Class B1 FM serving Canton, Illinois, with coverage of much of Peoria, has just become the latest acquisition for Educational Media Foundation.

The parent of the KLOVE and Air1 noncomm Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) networks is agreeing to purchase WCDD-FM 107.9 in Canton, Ill.

The seller is Illiana Communications, which is earning $170,000 from the divestment. An $8,500 deposit has been made by EMF.

The deal does not include the tower for WCDD. As such, EMF will lease it from Illiana. Terms call for monthly rent of $500, starting on the first anniversary of the lease, enacted at closing. The monthly rent is payable for the following 47 months. When that agreement ends, a new one is exercisable at a 10% increase in value.

The transaction does include the following:

Entering the Peoria area is likely one of many objectives for EMF as it seeks national coverage. The closest station airing KLOVE to Canton, Ill., is WLKU-FM 98.9 in the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa.