Business

Byron Allen’s company adds Janice Arouh, Mark DeVitre, Eric Gould, Sydnie Karras, Chris Malone and Andy Temple, bringing the board to nine.

Attorney General Letitia James’ office said an investigation into complaints from customers found that SiriusXM forced subscribers to wait in an automated system before often lengthy interactions with agents who were trained in ways to avoid accepting a request to cancel service. “Having to endure a lengthy and frustrating process to cancel a subscription is a stressful burden no one looks forward to, and when companies make it hard to cancel subscriptions, it’s illegal,” the attorney general said in a statement.

The agreement, which was contained in a court filing made Wednesday, is subject to court approval. Diamond Sports has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of Texas since it filed for protection in March. The company said in a financial filing last year that it had debt of $8.67 billion.

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global have held talks about a potential merger of the two media companies. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav met with Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish in a lunch meeting Tuesday in New York where they discussed a possible merger, sources said. Zaslav also has talked with Shari Redstone, whose National Amusements Inc. owns a controlling stake in Paramount Global, about a potential combination of the companies.

Wall Street slammed the brakes Wednesday for a rare slowdown following a record-setting rally.

New Jersey lawmakers are considering a bill that would prohibit social media companies from allowing minors under 18 to have social media accounts without parental permission. The measure, which advanced Monday in New Jersey’s Assembly Health Committee, also would require social platforms to verify all users’ ages. Lawmakers in Utah and Arkansas recently passed similar laws, but those measures are currently facing court challenges.

Digital pros on the buy side of programmatic advertising view the potential for ads being delivered alongside risky content or misinformation as the biggest media challenge in the year ahead, according to the latest annual U.S. Industry Pulse survey from Integral Ad Science/IAS and YouGov. Adjacency concerns were cited by 28% of brand, agency and ad-tech executives, although that was closely followed by decreased access to consumer data/cookies (27%), challenges in assessing campaign results (26%) and difficulty/confusion in buying/selling programmatic media (24%).

Paramount Global is in talks to sell its Black Entertainment Television network to a management-led investor group, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. The potential buyers include BET CEOScott Mills and Chinh Chu, a former Blackstone Inc. executive who runs New York-based CC Capital Partners, said the people who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private. A price of a little under $2 billion has been discussed, the people said. Media mogul Byron Allen also renewed his pursuit of network.

Gray Television moves him from WALB-WGCW-WTSG Albany, Ga., to oversee operations of its CBS-CW duopoly in Tennessee.

What will the New Year bring for CNN, Fox, The Washington Post, Paramount, The Telegraph, and more?

The good news for broadcasters is that while 2024 will be a major year for political advertising (and the extensive Political File paperwork that comes with it; notice how everything positive in broadcasting comes with a regulatory cloud?), it is an off-year for regulatory deadlines.  2024 marks a brief respite between FCC license renewal cycles, the off-year for biennial ownership reports, and television broadcasters completed their three-year must-carry elections in 2023.

The entertainment giant has real issues, and now the CEO has to deal with the Greek chorus of Ron DeSantis, Nelson Peltz and Elon Musk at the same time.

When Disney+, HBO Max (now just Max) and other streaming services were launched, the idea behind their strategies was simple enough. The entertainment companies took what was essentially a “walled garden” approach by having a bunch of content from the same company, new and old, streaming in one place. Lately, though, the walls around the streamers’ orchards have started to crack. Executives have become increasingly willing to license titles from their libraries to third parties, including Netflix, as studios mine their catalogs for much-needed cash.

The company quietly purchased a large parcel of land in Bedford, about 45 minutes out of London, a spokesperson for Universal’s parks division confirms.

TVNewsCheck’s annual conference in New York last week charted the forward trajectory of news technology and storytelling. See all the videos of the sessions here.

Wall Street ticked up Tuesday, and the S&P 500 pulled closer to a record on rate-cut hopes.

The good news is that following years of lagging overall U.S. ad spending growth, multicultural ad spending — ad budgets targeting Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans — will expand faster than the general marketplace next year. The bad news is most of that growth is coming from one segment — Hispanic Americans — while ad budgets aimed at Black and Asian Americans will continue to represent a minority share of multicultural ad spending.

Karen Sack (left) has been elevated to EVP, finance, Disney Entertainment Television; Peggy Ting to SVP finance and business planning, Disney Television Studios; and Amit Ziv to SVP finance and business planning for ABC Entertainment, ABC News, ABC Owned Television Stations and Freeform. In her expanded role, Sack will be instrumental in setting business strategy and ensuring delivery of profitability targets for the TV business by leading P&L forecasts and short- and long-term financial planning. She will oversee all finance matters, including budget management and analysis.

A Citrix vulnerability was exploited, leaking names, contact information, partial social security numbers, and birth dates.

Industry veterans Kathy Klingler and Jim Norton join as CMO and CRO, while David Beck is elevated to a newly created COO role.

With studios rethinking exclusive streaming licensing deals and warming to the idea of selling to Netflix, executives face tough calls on whether to bulk or trim catalogs.

Award shows, major sporting events and the Summer Olympics are among a rich slate of programming broadcasters can look forward to, offering a 2024 boost.