Are you ready for some football??

The football season starts this week and we want you to play offense.

EDO Ad EnGage Convergent, TV’s first real-time, always-on, advertising occurrence and effectiveness platform gives you performance measures within hours, not days.

360^o competitive and historic data so you can design the right plays, and prove the NFL is a winner for your brand.

* Get a demo or speak to a rep today.

Thursday August 5, 2021

Today’s Finales
HBO: Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union at 9p
WE tv: Beyond the Pole at 10:14p

IN THE NEWS

WarnerMedia Ad Sales has launched a new brand studio, House of Max, offering advertisers an opportunity to develop custom creative for their marketing messages on HBO Max’s ad-supported tier, as well as custom services for other WarnerMedia properties. “House of Max builds upon WarnerMedia’s bountiful history and storytelling tradition with captivating, consumer-centric experiences,” said Maureen Polo, SVP of Entertainment Marketing. “House of Max’s insights-driven brand storytelling is a harmonious combination of art and science that furthers consumers’ curiosity while driving business outcomes for partners.”

Fox Business Network unveiled a new primetime slate, “celebrating American industry and ingenuity.” Monday, September 20 is the launch date for “How America Works,” hosted by Mike Rowe, at 8p, followed by “American Built” with Stuart Varney at 9p. Tuesday brings “American Dream Home” at 8p and Mansion Global” at 10p. “American Gold: The Legend of Bear Gulch” premieres Wednesday, September 22 at 8p, along with “The Pursuit! with John Rich” at 9p. Thursday nights will feature encores of the week’s top FBN programs; “Kennedy shifts from 8p to 7p Mondays to Thursdays.

Notre Dame’s home opening football game on September 11 will not be broadcast on NBC for the first time in 30 years. Instead, the showdown will air on NBCU streamer Peacock’s premium tier – which means fans will have to pay up. It’s a sign of the times, said Jack Swarbrick, director of athletics at Notre Dame: “We have always strived for innovation in the media space – our partnership with NBC and Peacock only solidifies that mission. Bringing Notre Dame Football to Peacock is just the next step in the evolution of our relationship.” The rest of the Fighting Irish’s home games will be available on both NBC and Peacock.

Celebrate the Marketing Trailblazers, Public Relations Gurus, Social Media Groundbreakers, and more incredible women at Cynopsis’ Top Women in Media Awards Gala on October 27 in NYC. Register now to secure a table for your team before we sell out.

Canela TV has partnered with Target for the retailer’s Back to School Campaign. The AVOD and Target will host Nostalgic Movie Nights with movies including Sony classics “Annie,” “The Legend of Zorro” and “My Girl,” among others. Viewers will also have exclusive access to the series “Ryan’s World”, dubbed in Spanish for the first time.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-California) is suing NBCUniversal, alleging MSNBC host Rachel Maddow defamed him in a March broadcast. Maddow reported Nunes had not handed over a package from a suspected Russian agent to the FBI; Nunes’ lawyers maintain MSNBC’s failure to reach out to him for comment constitutes malice. In the past, judges have rejected lawsuits Nunes has filed against CNN, the Washington Post and Twitter.

The only conference to connect the dots between networks, brands, agencies, and tech to grow your business in the new TV landscape.

Registration is now open, lock in our lowest rates available!

http://www.thatbigtvconference.com/
[ Sponsored by: Simulmedia |New York Interconnect | TiVo | Nielson
A4 Advertising | FutureToday | Cross Screen Media | EDO | Spectrum Reach | VAB ]

Gordon Ramsay and Fox Entertainment are are expanding their long-term relationship with a new production company, Studio Ramsay Global, to develop, produce and distribute unscripted food and lifestyle programming. “This is an incredibly exciting opportunity, not just for me, but for the team at Studio Ramsay,” said the “MasterChef” star. “We’ll be creating food and lifestyle ideas, but also developing an incredible new talent pool of food, drink and industry leaders to create our own culinary talent branch.”

Walt Disney Studios is opening a new studio in Vancouver, focused on long-form series for Disney+. First up: a musical series based on the feature film “Moana.” The existing studio in Burbank will house the team for Disney Animation feature films and short-form series.

Apple TV+ has renewed “Physical” for a second season, and signed an overall deal with the show’s creator, Annie Weisman. The 1980s-set dark comedy stars Rose Byrne.

Acorn TV has ordered “Darby and Joan,” an Australian drama series starring Bryan Brown (“Cocktail”) and Greta Scacchi (“The Terror”). The eight-parter from CJZ focuses on a retired Australian policeman and a widowed English nurse.

Adult Swim is in for a third season of “Tuca & Bertie,” which was scooped up after its cancellation by Netflix. Adult Swim credits season two of the animated series with increasing teen and young female viewers.

Discovery has picked up an additional two seasons of BattleBots, for an order of 80 hours. In more robot news, BattleBots will stage its 2021 World Championships beginning next month in Las Vegas, which will also be the site for the event in 2022.

Discovery sibs OWN and HGTV are co-producing a new series, “Taking Back The House” (wt) to air on discovery+. The series will chronicle Broadway star Robert Hartwell’s renovation of an 1820 colonial house. Executive produced by Hartwell alongside “Property Brothers” Drew and Jonathan Scott, the new series will premiere in 2022.

Also given straight-to-series orders at the streamer are OWN-produced “The Great Soul Food Cookoff,” “Burger Truck Brawl,” “Like Mother Like Daughter” (wt), following pairs with serious relationship issues, and “Breaking Black” (wt), debunking stereotypes around Black men.

SNL alum Leslie Jones and Nat Faxon (“Married”) have joined the cast of HBO Max pirate comedy “Our Flag Means Death” in recurring roles.

That Big TV Virtual Conference on September 21-23 offers senior agency, programming, tech, and brand executives access to the latest information and strategies to stay ahead of the curve in the ever-changing TV and media ecosystem. The program features relevant sessions and industry thought leaders from American Express, dentsu, Group M, Havas Media, KFC, Lowes, Spotify and more! Don’t wait—secure your spot at the lowest prices yet!

BY THE NUMBERS

Sinclair Broadcast Group reported 2Q21 total revenue of $1,621 million, an increase of 26% versus the year-ago quarter. Media revenues rose 27% to $1,600 million versus $1,260 million in the year-ago quarter, and total advertising increased 109%, to $491 million, due to the recovery of the advertising market from the pandemic and the return of sports. The gains were partially offset by the absence of political revenues. “As we progress through the year, we have been making great strides in a number of areas, including planning our direct-to-consumer local sports service expected to launch next year, the debut of gamification elements in conjunction with Bally Sports in some of our sports programming, and the evolution of our digital agency Compulse into an omni-channel marketing technology platform for local agencies and media companies,” said President and CEO Chris Ripley.

Quarterly financial results for Nexstar Media Group included net revenue of $1,131,590, an increase of 23.7% from the 2Q20, while core ad revenue hit $424 million, up 42% from $298 million in 2020. “Record second quarter net revenue reflects our team’s success in generating a faster and stronger-than-anticipated recovery in core advertising as well as continued double-digit distribution revenue growth,” said Perry A. Sook, Chairman, President and CEO.

Fox Corp. beat Wall Street estimates, reporting a 20% rise in total revenue, to $2.89 billion, and earnings per share up from 62 cents last year, to 65 cents for the quarter. The company’s television division had 30% rise in revenue, to $1.45 billion. “Our exceptional Fiscal 2021 financial results highlight the strength of our distinct strategy and serve as a foundation for sustained operating momentum,” said Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch. “Despite the challenges presented by COVID, our businesses continued to inform and entertain households across the country. And in the midst of it all, we strengthened our core brands and expanded our digital capabilities, which together provide a robust platform for future growth.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

“Honestly Loren,” featuring social media star Loren Gray, premieres Saturday, August 7 on Snap’s Discover. The show will air every other day through August 12.

Kid influencer Casey Simpson (“Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn”) will host season one of Genius Brands International’s first live-action program, “KC! Pop Quiz” for Kartoon Channel!, starting Tuesday, September 14.

Season three of animated series “Gigantosaurus” premieres Monday, August 9 at 8:55a on Disney Junior.

Netflix cooking show “Baking Impossible,” a competition to create concoctions that survive engineering stress tests, launches Wednesday, August 6. Also on tap – but with no premiere date set – is pastry competition “School of Chocolate.” Season six on “Nailed It!” debuts Wednesday, September 15.

Dystopian drama “Anna” will be making its exclusive US premiere on AMC+ on Thursday, November 18. The six-part series tells the story of a world destroyed by a virus which kills adults but spares children.

IMDb TV picked up season one of the “Pretty Hard Cases.” The buddy-cop series follows two radically different female detectives in their early 40s. Commissioned by Canada’s CBC, the show will be available to stream starting Friday, September 10.

COMING UP

AppleTV+’s film adaptation of “Come From Away,” the Broadway musical telling the true story of 7000 people stranded in a small town in Newfoundland after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, will premiere Friday, September 10.

Cinelatino is planning a televised “parade” of hit films from the Dominican Republic in observance of the annual Dominican Day Parade, which continues in its reimagined virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Parada de Cine Dominicano starts Sunday, August 8 at 7:30a.

TECH TALK

Xandr has launched audience-based selling platform Monetize TV, giving buyers access to audience-based campaigns with companies including A+E Networks, AMC Networks, Crown Media Family Networks, Discovery, Disney Ad Sales and WarnerMedia. “As TV viewership moves to digital channels, buyers want the granular targeting and measurement benefits of digital on TV,” said Mark Mitchell, VP, Business Development, TV Platform, Xandr.” As such, sellers need to be able to offer optimized proposals for advanced audience targets for their linear inventory,”

Facebook has disabled the accounts of a New York University team researching political ad targeting. Facebook claims the group’s efforts violates its terms of service related to bulk data collection, and says it made “repeated attempts” to bring the research into compliance with its terms. “The work our team does to make data about disinformation on Facebook transparent is vital to a healthy internet and a healthy democracy,” responded Laura Edelson, lead researcher behind NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy. “Facebook is silencing us because our work often calls attention to problems on its platform.”

STREAMING

ScreenHits TV is launching a social feature on its mobile app that will enable users to see their friends’ viewing behavior and recommendations without having to ask them what they’re watching. TV Friends will be available on iOS phones and tablets.

German streaming service rlaxx TV has partnered with Vevo to add Vevo Pop to its channel portfolio. “At Vevo, our goal is to bring our vast premium music video catalog to fans wherever they are worldwide and however they want to enjoy them,” said Vevo’s Director, Advanced TV, UK & International, Richard Brant.

Redbox has added Free Live TV and Free On Demand to its Redbox App on Samsung Smart TVs. Through the Redbox app, audiences can browse new release movies for purchase or rent, as well as entertainment available to watch for free. Redbox Free Live TV and Free On Demand are available on all 2016-2021 Samsung TV models.

IMDb is now available on iOS and Android mobile devices. The streamer also announced it has acquired the AVOD rights for the CGI-animated series “100% Wolf – Legend of the Moonstone” for the US. The show is set to launch exclusively on the platform on Thursday, August 12.

Moonbug Entertainment struck its first SVOD deal with Turkish VOD platform, BluTV. BluTV will launch a dedicated Moonbug channel and environment showcasing a variety of its shows.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Publicis Groupe’s Team One has hired Prachi Priya as its first Chief Data Officer. Priya comes from Wunderman Thompson and will lead a consolidated team of data scientists and analysts across all offices.

Jocelyn Langevine has joined Allen Media Group as VP of Advertising Sales and Client Partnerships. Langevine comes to AMG from ViacomCBS, where she held both Director of Integrated Marketing and Senior Director of Integrated Marketing titles.

Crown Media Family Networks has tapped Courtney Huber as VP, distribution Partnership Marketing. Huber joins Crown Media from CuriosityStream, where she was VP,International Partner Marketing.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
What was HGTV’s first TV show? “Room by Room.” Kudos to: Marni C. Gold/Hawthorne, NJ; Louis Lewow-Fite/Atlanta; Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NYC; Steve Daniloff-Mission Broadcasting; Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; David Garber-Loyola Marymount University/Playa Vista, CA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank

Today’s Trivia Question
Who won an Emmy for playing a psychiatrist friend of Frasier’s on “Cheers” (1982-1993)? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four answers per time zone.)