Harry Jessell

The FCC has held tight to anachronistic structural regulations, dealing a massive blow to broadcasters in dire need of regulatory relief. Localism will be one of the casualties.

TVNewsCheck Editor at Large Harry Jessell and Editor Michael Depp look back over an eventful year in broadcast business news and ahead to the steepest challenges it will confront in 2024. A full transcript of the conversation is included. [Ed. note: Jessell erroneously noted Nexstar stock took a 32% hit, when it actually lost 32 points. Since this episode was recorded, its stock rebounded to 155 yesterday.]

Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch undermined trust in American democracy with their reckless propagation of Trump’s Big Lie, but Fox’s O&Os shouldn’t be in the FCC’s crosshairs to pay for it, as a watchdog group would have it.

Fargo, N.D.-based Forum Communications has learned the hard way just how much this FCC hates broadcast deals of any size.

Serial media entrepreneur Jeff Smulyan’s forthcoming memoir, Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down: The Ups, Downs and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur, is a frank account of the moves that went “spectacularly right” and “painfully” wrong in his years navigating the TV and radio businesses.

TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp and Harry Jessell discuss the uncertainty lingering at the FCC, where Acting Chair Jessica Rosenworcel may be facing contention for the permanent job and a fifth commissioner has yet to be appointed.

TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp talks with Hadassa Gerber, TVB’s chief research officer, about its latest media comparisons research study and with Harry Jessell, TVN‘s editor-at-large, about a broadcast investment alternative to paying dividends along with the clarifying picture about sports rights negotiations. Read Jessell’s column on dividends here.

Collectively, the five independent publicly traded TV station groups paid out more than $250 million in dividends last year. Those dollars and another $700 million in stock buybacks make investors happy, but they signal that the groups are more concerned with their short-term stock prices than in innnovation (ATSC 3.0) and the future viability of their principal offering (local news). Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

Soo Kim took a shot across the bow at Tegna’s management in conceding his loss in a proxy fight last week. But beyond his Tegna stake, he’s backing other broadcast ventures in which a larger strategy is harder to see. Bonus news and commentary: The pandemic could hurt retrans revenue as well as ad revenue; group stock prices can’t get much worse; Nexstar offers a hard plan to soften AE woes; and TV and radio take another step toward full newsgathing equality.

The site’s former special projects editor takes over as Harry Jessell moves into semi-retirement, continuing to write and advise the editorial team.

Perry Sook (center), CEO of Nexstar Media Group, holds the Station Group of the Year Award for 2019 presented by TVNewsCheck on Wednesday during TVN’s TV2020 conference in New York. Sook is flanked by Kathy Haley, TVN publisher, and Harry Jessell, TVN editor. Nexstar was chosen in recognition of its ascendancy to the top of the broadcasting charts by nearly all measures. (Photo: Wendy Moger-Bross)