Radio Broadcasting
Is Radio Next? In a 2-1 split, the agency voted to eliminate a rule that prohibits any company from owning television stations reaching more than 39% of U.S. TV households. The FCC said it would instead review proposed station acquisitions on a case-by-case basis.
Podcasts Continue: Cumulus Media denies reports that it eliminated the entire staff of its Cumulus Podcast Network amid a new round of layoffs across its broadcast, network and digital operations as the company continues financial restructuring.
Golic Gig: Longtime media personality and former Notre Dame defensive lineman Mike Golic Sr. will serve as the new color analyst for Fighting Irish football radio broadcasts this season.
Media Industry
Nielsen Spending Cash: Nielsen will acquire DoubleVerify in an all-cash deal valued at about $2.15 billion in enterprise value. The combination aims to create an independent end-to-end media intelligence platform that pairs Nielsen’s audience measurement and cross-screen data with DoubleVerify’s tools for verifying media quality.
Who Is Matt Gutman? The “CBS Evening News” averaged 4.1 million viewers last week, its strongest performance in 17 weeks and the first time the program cleanly surpassed the 4 million-viewer mark since March. The milestone came while regular anchor Tony Dokoupil was on a two-week summer vacation.
Don't Mess w/Golden Goose: Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said Thursday that the company will not reopen or amend its current NFL media rights contract until after the 2029 season, becoming the first major network executive to state on the record that it will not renegotiate early.
U-S News
Let's Try Again: President Donald Trump is making another bid to curtail birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court ruled his earlier effort was unconstitutional, announcing executive orders limiting who qualifies for automatic citizenship and cracking down on so-called "birth tourism." "We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright… so we’re making adjustments," Trump said Thursday.
Will Hardliner's Playball? Can Iran’s Diminished Diplomats Deliver a Hormuz Deal? - Hard-liners’ growing clout raises the risk that they will undermine an agreement to reopen the strait.
He's Home: Sen. Mitch McConnell has been discharged from a rehabilitation center, where he was recovering from a fall and a subsequent bout of pneumonia that forced a lengthy Senate absence. The 84-year-old said Thursday that he would undertake an “intensive regimen of physical therapy” from home.