Paige Albiniak

Programmers want better measurement standardization, monetization and discovery across the major FAST platforms, leaders from Roku, Cox Media Group, PBS and Creator TV told an audience at TVNewsCheck’s Programing Everywhere conference at the NAB Show last week.

The free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) ecosystem has exploded from its anything-goes beginnings into a sophisticated, multi-billion-dollar business. As FAST approaches a projected $12 billion-plus valuation, industry leaders at TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere conference at NAB in Las Vegas last week were quick to identify the sector’s two biggest pain points: measurement standardization and monetization.

TelevisaUnivision CEO Daniel Alegre put a brave face on it but the first half of 2026 has been a bit challenging for any programmer who doesn’t have U.S. rights to the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics or the FIFA World Cup. In other words, everyone other than Comcast — which owns both NBCUniversal and TelevisaUnivision’s main U.S. rival, Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo — and has had the benefit of all three massive sporting events in the first half of this year. To that end, TelevisaUnivision’s total advertising revenues were down 3% to $545.6 million in Q1 2026 compared to Q1 2025, …

Paige Albiniak TelevisaUnivision CEO Daniel Alegre put a brave face on it but the first half of 2026 has been a bit challenging for any

Paige Albiniak Sinclair Broadcast Group concluded a solid first-quarter and is looking forward to more revenue opportunities in the second

But the broadcast ownership group faces obstacles as Scripps stands firm and Nexstar-Tegna is enjoined by a federal court.

Paige Albiniak Paramount executives had to skirt the questions most on analysts' minds in its first quarter 2026 earnings call on Monday, all

Paramount executives had to skirt the questions most on analysts’ minds in its first quarter 2026 earnings call on Monday, all of which were about Paramount’s hard-fought $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. While the closely watched deal remains under regulatory scrutiny and is the subject of an antitrust lawsuit in California, it is on schedule to close by the end of the third quarter of this year, Paramount Chairman and CEO David Ellison said on Monday’s call with analysts. “We have made significant progress toward closing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by end of Q3 ’26, including …

The advertising picture came in better than expected for Gray Media in the first quarter of this year, with the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics and early political spending providing an overall boost, executives said during the company’s earnings call on Thursday. Gray was up 2% in core advertising in the first quarter of this year, “with a boost from the Winter Olympics,” Pat LaPlatney, president and co-CEO, said. Core advertising hit $352 million in the quarter, the company reported. LaPlatney noted that there is “some softness in core advertising” due to the situation in the Middle East and sky-high oil …

TV station ownership groups’ Q1 2026 earnings reports revealed that broadcasters are trending toward stable financial footing when it comes to balancing retransmission consent fees from pay TV providers with reverse compensation paid to the networks. But they are gearing up to resist the networks’ call for more, more, more as the NFL works behind the scenes to renegotiate its deals with media rights’ holders. Rumors and reporting have persisted all year that the NFL has begun renegotiating its 11-year, $110 billion deal with Paramount, Fox, Comcast NBCUniversal, Disney, Amazon Prime Video, NFL Network, Netflix and YouTube that’s set to expire …