Industry News

As expected, Univision Communications on Tuesday formally launched its streaming channels-based and VOD service created specifically for U.S. Hispanic audiences.

The launch follows the recent acquisition of VIX, the largest Spanish-language ad-supported VOD streaming service for Latin American audiences and U.S. Hispanics.

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The recently formed Independent Broadcasters Association has forged a partnership with a top distributors in the broadcast and multimedia space. This gives member radio stations access to parts and service and new inventory.

The agreement is with Broadcast Depot, and brings member-only deals to IBA stations.

“Our goal is to provide a one stop shop for members of the IBA, where they can utilize
Broadcast Depot as a resource for knowledge, service, planning and equipment
acquisitions,” U.S. sales manager Tim Jobe said. “It has also proven beneficial for us and
our clients to have a partnership with Balboa Capital where we can present financing
options and jump the hurdles that usually slow projects and reaching goals.”

The IBA presently boasts membership of 1,500 independently owned radio stations.

IBA President Ron Stone, who heads Adams Radio Group, says, “This was one of the most important partnerships we wanted to solidify for IBA members. Having an equipment provider that can respond quickly, provide industry leading prices and provide our members with potential finaancing when needed was incredibly important.”

A Forrest Breese is flowing through the Western United States for clients of Point Source Audio.

No, that’s not a typo. That’s the name of the new regional account manager at the Petaluma, Calif.-based company.

Point Source Audio expanded its sales team with the addition of Breese as Account Manager for the Western U.S. He’s a familiar face to California’s pro audio industry for many years and brings with him considerable experience from previous roles with manufacturers, distributors, integrators—and on stage as a musician.

As a gigging bassist since the age of 13, Breese has been around the music and pro audio industry for most of his life. Starting his professional career as a manufacturer’s rep, Breese has worked across just about every aspect of the industry from sales to integration, and has extensive experience working with a number of microphone brands.

He is based in Southern California.

“We are delighted to welcome someone of Forrest’s knowledge and experience into the Point Source Audio family,” said Yvonne Ho, Point Source Audio’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “He has an incredible grasp of the technology and our industry so he will immediately be a valuable resource for all of our customers and dealers in the Western region. He will bring a lot to the Point Source Audio community and I know he can’t wait to get out there and meet everyone.”

To learn more about Point Source Audio products, visit www.point-sourceaudio.com.

Friend MTS, a global provider of content protection services, has launched 4th Generation ASiD, an enhanced and extended set of subscriber-level watermarking solutions that address a wide range of content protection scenarios to secure high-value content and revenue across all types of broadcast and OTT devices, clients and apps.

With an increasing need for content owners, broadcasters and operators to tackle real-world piracy, Friend MTS has also included ASiD OTT Edge-switched, a new smart server-side A/B variant solution with an additional robust method of watermarking premium content that works to protect Live and VOD assets from illegal redistribution.

“We are at the forefront of developing and deploying real world end-to-end content protection solutions at scale for our valuable sports and entertainment customers, which is important now more than ever as the pandemic continues to shape the piracy landscape as well as the technology needs to combat this prevalent issue,” Friend MTS CEO Jonathan Friend said. “These new watermarking and monitoring solutions with enhancements to help our customers protect their valuable content in a larger industry effort to drive subscriber growth and safeguard revenue.”

Friend MTS’ advanced subscriber identification watermarking (ASiD) now includes:

ASiD Embedded (Enhanced): Offers accelerated watermark generation in certain devices (especially those without functional FPUs), and optimisations to enable memory and CPU-efficient watermark parameters for different content types (UHD, HD, linear channels vs on-demand content, etc).

ASiD OTT Client-composited (Enhanced): Introduces a new collaboration mechanism between headend and client, and improved intelligence feedback to take action on bad actors. The solution now offers higher precision of session identification and stronger support for cloud PVR, as well as a new feature to enable variable per-device watermark parameters for different content and playback types to enable optimised watermark compositing based on individual client devices’ capabilities.

ASiD OTT Edge-Switched (New): Based on the proprietary algorithms, ASiD OTT Edge-switched benefits from other Friend MTS’ best-in-class mature technologies and offers accelerated watermark extraction working in conjunction with the company’s distributor-level watermarking solution, Distribution iD.

The new and enhanced 4th Generation ASiD solutions remain fully compliant with the MovieLabs Specification for Enhanced Content Protection, including 4K/UHD and HDR content, and provide robust Live and VOD content protection.

As a family of advanced forensic watermarking solutions, Friend MTS’ ASiD OTT offerings share the optional ASiD iQ enhancement that monitors for fraudulent user behavior, flags bad actors, and enables content owners and service operators to react in real-time.

As a result, Friend MTS proactively prevents content theft and other business-affecting activities such as credential or account sharing by revoking access to compromised accounts.

Radio + Television Business Report is pleased to announce that it will be co-presenting this year’s annual Forecast conference with Radio Ink.

Both publications are owned by Streamline Publishing.

In making the announcement, EVP/Publisher Deborah Parenti explained the reasons that prompted enhancing this year’s agenda.

“The unique challenges faced over the past year have demonstrated the importance of both radio and television broadcasters to local communities as well as the leadership they have provided in leading many of the national conversations that have taken center stage during this time,” Parenti said. “As legacy media, both also share commonality in areas of advertising revenue, investment capital, and a constantly changing competitive landscape filled with digital players and streaming services. The pending Supreme Court decision on cross ownership and other critical regulatory issues are also focuses of shared interest. As such, we believe the time is ripe to examine those mutual concerns and explore how broadcasting’s combined assets can encourage and enhance industry growth over the coming years.”

Forecast 2022 will be presented on November 16, 2021 at the Harvard Club in New York City.

This will be the 19th year for the annual event that gathers the smartest minds in broadcast and advertising to forecast trends, expectations, and revenues for the coming year. The prestigious conference is capped by the traditional executive cocktail reception in Harvard Hall, this year honoring the Top 40 radio and the Top 15 broadcast television leaders.

FOR FULL DETAILS AND TO REGISTER, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

NAB Show Premiere, a special online event, will convene top brands in media and entertainment and offer exclusive educational content on NAB Amplify, April 12-23. Program highlights include new product launches, award presentations and networking opportunities.

NAB Show will take place in person October 9-13, 2021 in Las Vegas.

“NAB Show Premiere is strategically timed to bring the media and entertainment community together in April when we would normally be gathering in Las Vegas,” NAB EVP of Conventions and Business Operations Chris Brown said. “The content is indicative of our commitment to connecting the NAB Show community year-round and provides a critical touch point for companies to roll out new products.”

Sony, Panasonic and Grass Valley are among the featured companies scheduled to announce new products and provide demonstrations beginning April 19.

Featured content includes an executive perspective on the state of streaming, a look back at one year of broadcasting amidst a pandemic, tech deep dives on HD Radio and edge computing, and curated networking opportunities. Additionally, the editors behind Zack Snyder’s Justice League will lead a panel discussion on their creative process.

Post | Production World Online, produced in partnership with Future Media Conferences, is also taking place in April, 10–14. The program, currently in its 18th year, aims to deliver best-in-class training for creative professionals and will complement NAB Show Premiere with live, interactive sessions.

The NAB will present the TV Chairman’s Award and the Crystal Radio Awards during NAB Show Premiere.

Participants must have or create an NAB Amplify account to access NAB Show Premiere.

Still not convinced that the leadership team at TEGNA Inc. is delivering the best results for all of its shareholders?

You may want to take note of the increase in the company’s quarterly dividend its Board of Directors just approved.

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The final days of the first quarter of 2021 are upon us. For auto dealer associations, that means the push is on to attract potential customers.

It’s a welcome sign, as it marks the first time in nearly a year under the pandemic that multiple automotive brands are actively using Spot TV.

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He served from 2016-2018 as Sr. VP of Content and Programming for Fusion, an English-language MVPD-distributed network owned and operated by Univision Communications.

Now, he’s being called on by The E.W. Scripps Co. to lead its Washington Bureau’s national investigation team as Deputy Bureau Chief.

Taking the newly created role is Keith Summa. According to Scripps, he’ll “chart the editorial strategy and creative vision for the bureau’s investigative journalism while leading its talented team of reporters, producers and photojournalists.”

Summa also will be responsible for helping to direct the bureau’s strategic planning and operations. He reports to Bureau Chief Ellen Weiss.

The bureau produces documentary-style investigative stories in support of Scripps’ 61 local TV stations and its Scripps Networks, including Newsy. It also produces original, investigative serialized podcasts.

“Scripps is a company uniquely committed to journalistic excellence and the Scripps Washington Bureau is a center of that excellence,” said Summa, who led the CBS News Investigative Unit before joining Fusion. “So I’m eager to work with the bureau’s extremely talented team of journalists and producers, as well as the leadership of the Local Media and Scripps Networks divisions, to extend the bureau’s high-impact reporting across the company and across new and emerging television platforms.”

Before joining CBS News, Summa spent 15 years as a producer and writer for ABC News and Peter Jennings Productions.

The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report is out, and it shows a top job-seeker website is tops with respect to the number of spots played at radio stations tracked by the iHeartMedia-owned service for the week ending March 29.

That’s Indeed, which beats out Progressive for the No. 1 slot.

Other activity of note includes continued action from Babbel, GEICO, ZipRecruiter and Allstate, while iHeart busily promotes itself across its own radio stations.