Lythgoe is also co-creator and executive producer of the Fox dance competition series, whose 18th season is set to start in March.
Regional cable company Breezeline is no longer carrying CBS affiliate WBOC in Salisbury, Md., but the TV station is insisting it is not engaged in a classic carriage dispute like the one going on between Tegna and DirecTV. “Please understand this is not a carriage dispute,” WBOC says on its website. “Breezeline stated it dropped WBOC because we are an ‘out of market’ station to the communities they serve, which are in the Baltimore viewing area as defined by Nielsen Media Research.”
CLOSING BELL
Dow Moves Up 26, Nasdaq Adds 14, S&P Advances 9
Wall Street shaved off some losses Friday to close its worst week in the last 10.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
Gibbs is returning to the NCIS universe as the lead of a new CBS drama, which serves as a prequel to the long-running procedural. The network has given a straight-to-series order to NCIS: Origins, about young Leroy Jethro Gibbs, for the 2024-25 broadcast season. The project comes from the two actors who have portrayed Gibbs on NCIS, Mark Harmon and his son Sean Harmon, veteran NCIS writers-producers, Gina Lucita Monreal and David J. North, as well as CBS Studios, which is behind the NCIS franchise.
Broadcasters Foundation establishes the Philip J. Lombardo Memorial Fund in his honor.
Exclusives
CEO David Zaslav announced the news in a memo to staff Friday. Variety has learned Brown decided to step down himself, following his tenure getting the company through its merger between the legacy Discovery and WarnerMedia, which closed in April 2022. A respected communications veteran, Brown also led the PR strategy for the launch of Max, the combined HBO Max and Discovery+ streamer, in May 2023.
The AFL-CIO is pushing for Disney and Apple to explain how they use artificial intelligence.
David Muir, anchor of World News Tonight, and Linsey Davis, anchor of Prime on ABC News Live, will moderate the Jan. 18 Republican presidential primary debate in New Hampshire. The debate, hosted by ABC News, originates fromat Saint Anselm College in Manchester. Rounding out the broadcast team at Saint Anselm is Martha Raddatz, This Week co-anchor; Jonathan Karl, ABC News chief Washington correspondent and This Week co-anchor; and Adam Sexton, Hearst Television's WMUR Manchester political director.
The 40-year industry icon is taking on a leadership role in his church.
The growing group comprising stations in small and mid-size markets adds the new title to his chief revenue officer duties.
He joins from WNCT Greenville, N.C., to oversee journalism at the Nexstar Virgina ABC affiliate.
The deal includes football, men’s and women’s basketball, as well as Olympic sports through 2032.
Quietly, over the past two decades, as Blockbuster rental stores closed by the thousands, DVD replaced VHS, streaming replaced DVD and digital began to dominate analog media in the war for consumer attention, a few resisters clung tight to their tapes. Now this growing group of enthusiasts — who sometimes self-identify as “tapeheads” — are rewinding time to an age before on-demand, and they are bringing the VHS and the video store back to life. (Russell Falcon/Nexstar)
The company, which debuted last year with big plans to disrupt journalism, generated only $3 million in revenue by the end of December.
Netflix has said it plans to be in gaming for years to come. Now the company is trying to figure out how to make money from it, a potential shift in strategy for the streamer. Some of the ideas that have been discussed include in-app purchases, charging for more sophisticated games it is developing or giving subscribers to its newer ad-supported tier access to games with ads in them, according to people familiar with the discussions. Pictured: Netflix’s most popular original game is tied to its Too Hot to Handle reality show.
Sam Liccardo (center) reports raising $1.65 million in the fourth quarter, just weeks after announcing his entry into a crowded field in a rare open Bay Area seat. (SusanWalsh/AP)
OpenAI has offered some media firms as little as between $1 million and $5 million annually to license their news articles for use in training its large language models, according to two executives who have recently negotiated with the tech company. That’s a tiny amount even for small publishers, which could make it difficult for OpenAI to strike deals.
Marie Donoghue, who parlayed a stint at ESPN into a job helping Amazon break into the U.S. sports-media business, is leaving the company, according to a person familiar with the matter. Amazon declined to comment.
The agreement, struck in September after a blackout, pulls some of Disney's streaming services into the linear bundle.
The Grey’s Anatomy spinoff will end this year with an abbreviated seventh season. With Station 19 and Grey’s serving as the only remaining shows on ABC produced by hitmaker Shonda Rhimes — who is now based exclusively at Netflix — why would the network ax one of its Thursday staples? The answer can be found in the math.
Compared to their counterparts in communities without an election, monthly web traffic to local newspaper websites does not increase as mayoral elections approach.
New research from Woods & Poole Economics with support from BIA Advisory Services show stations generate $1.23 trillion in economic activity and provide 2.52 million jobs.
NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt says he’s “tremendously frustrated” with the FCC’s late December decision to reaffirm and tighten its regulations on broadcast ownership. So, what’s the organization’s next move? A full transcript of the conversation is included.
NBC News announced Thursday that Dateline senior producer Paul Ryan will be the show’s new executive producer. He will oversee the brand’s broadcast, streaming and podcast entities.
TVN’S MEDIA JOBS
Jobs Posted To TVNewsCheck
Jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for video technical support coordinator, investigative reporter, integrated digital specialist, local sales manager, creative services director, a news anchor/reporter and nightside news reporter.
Programming Everywhere, TVNewsCheck’s conference gathering content executives and creators across platforms to provoke innovative thinking, will return to the NAB Show for its second year under the theme Ideas Beyond Boundaries on April 14. Register here.
