ESPN, FOX Get Big 12 Extension For Broadcasts

The Big 12 is extending its current television contract with ESPN and Fox, according to ESPN sources.

The league is in the final stages of putting together a six-year, $2.28 billion contract extension that includes a sizable pay bump for schools. The new contract, which takes hold starting in 2025, includes ESPN owning more than 60 percent of the inventory and Fox adding a sizable portion of college basketball.

The deal projects for the Big 12 to make a sharp increase in media revenue per school, despite Oklahoma and Texas not being in the league after the 2024 season. A source said that the league is expected to agree to a grant of rights with its 12 members for the length of the deal.

The overall value of the Big 12's media deal is expected to increase from $220 million annually to $380 million. That's an average increase in media-only revenue per school from $22 million to $31.7 million (the $380 million is now divided 12 ways with the addition of BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston).

Report: In-Car Listening Again Dominates AM Drive Listening Locations

The Radio Research Consortium has released an update of Morning Drive listening locations.

The quarterly Nielsen survey trend in the combined 44 Continuous Diary Measurement (CDM) markets shows the percentage of total AM Drive radio listening from the Car at 45.4% in June (Apr-Jun) 2022, followed by 35.4% from Home and 17.7% from Work. 

According to RRC, the percentages, have shifted in favor of Home, then Car, in the beginning of the pandemic in June (Apr-Jun) 2020, have moved back to their normal positions in June (Apr-Jun) 2022, although the Car and Work percentages are marginally lower than pre-pandemic levels while the Home percentage remains slightly higher. 

This is similar to what we have seen for Total Week listening.

In June (Apr-Jun) 2022, the AM Drive total AQH Persons (Persons Using Radio) in the 44 CDM metros has improved from a low of 4,612,800 in June (Apr-Jun) 2020 to 5,091,500 in June (Apr-Jun) 2022; this represents 96% of the pre-pandemic March (Jan-Mar) 2020 level (5,312,800).

Report: Chris Cuomo Not Happy With His Time Slot

Chris Cuomo is demanding that his bosses at NewsNation move his new show to a different time slot — his latest, desperate bid to improve his sagging viewership on the fledging cable-TV network, The NY Post is reporting.

Cuomo — who joined NewsNation Oct. 3 after getting fired from CNN for secretly helping his older brother, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, navigate a slew of sex scandals — is fuming about the lackluster performance of his nightly broadcast, which currently airs at 8 p.m., Monday to Friday, sources said.

In response, Cuomo recently has met with Michael Corn — the former ABC producer who became NewsNation’s president of news last year — about switching time slots with talk show host Dan Abrams, who has the 9 p.m. slot on weeknights, sources said.

"Midnight" Tops The Billboard Album Chart

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift achieves her 11th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Nov. 5) as Midnights arrives with the biggest week for any album in nearly seven years. 

The set launches with 1.578 million equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 27, according to Luminate. The last album to tally a larger week was the debut frame of Adele’s 25, when it bowed with 3.482 million units (Dec. 12, 2015-dated chart).

Midnight was released on Oct. 21 after being announced two months earlier by Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards (Aug. 28). No music from the album was released until the set dropped on Oct. 21, when she also issued the music video for Midnights’ first single, “Anti-Hero.” Midnights is Swift’s 10th full-length studio album and initially bowed as a 13-track standard release. Three hours after Midnights’ arrival, Swift released a deluxe version of the album (its “3am Edition”) with seven bonus tracks.

Swift now ties Barbra Streisand for the most No. 1 albums among women. Swift is also the sixth act with more than 10 No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 since the chart began regularly publishing on a weekly basis in 1956. She joins The Beatles (who lead with a record 19 No. 1s), Jay-Z (14), Drake, Bruce Springsteen and Streisand (each with 11).

Cost is Key For Streaming Services Plans

As major platforms like Netflix and Disney+ roll out cheaper subscription ad-supported tiers and crack down on password sharing, a new NPR/Ipsos poll reveals that consumers are focused on three important criteria when they make decisions about TV streaming services: cost, content and ease of use.

In a survey of 765 U.S. adults who use streaming services (which came from a nationally representative starting sample of 1,031 Americans), 92% of users say cost is an important factor in their decision to subscribe to a streaming service — followed closely by 87% who cited specific shows or movies in that decision. The poll has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points, so results could be nearly 4 points higher or lower. The full data is at Ipsos.

When asked about important factors in their decision to cancel or drop a service, 91% note cost once again, followed by 83% who cite a change in content.

And when it comes to navigating all the options available for streaming content, 69% of users agree there are too many streaming services; 58% feel overwhelmed by the amount of content available.

"Cost is key...frankly, I think this speaks to the greater economic uncertainty felt by Americans right now," said Mallory Newall, vice president of public affairs at Ipsos, which conducted the poll.

ESPN's SAS Suggests He's Underpaid At $8M

Stephen A Smith

ESPN broadcaster Stephen A Smith earns a reported  $8 million per year under his current contract with ESPN. There's more..,SAS also has a "$4 million-per-year production" contract as well. The Athletic reported that Smith’s total compensation is $12 million.

Fox News Digital reports ahead of Game 1 of the World Series between the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies on Friday, Smith and the "First Take" panel discussed the absence of U.S.-born Black players on the rosters of either team for the first time since 1950. The note was highlighted in an Associated Press piece.

"We are still Black in this country. We don’t trust this country in terms of meritocracy always. We know the bottom line is that just like women are underpaid compared to male counterparts, Blacks are underpaid compared to White counterparts," Smith said. 

"And so when you look at it from that perspective, and of course people look at me, I’m not talking about me even though, I got news for you, I am underpaid compared to some people on television what they get paid, but that’s a subject for another day. I ain’t apologizing for that to a damn soul. I am underpaid. Having said all of that, it ain’t about me."

Wake-Up Call: S. Korean Halloween Crush Kills 153

An estimated 100,000 people gathered in Itaewon on Saturday as the end of social distancing, mask mandates and other anti-Covid rules allowed the first Halloween party in three years. The victims are largely in their 20s, according to the National Fire Agency, and Two Americans were among the 19 foreign nationals who died according to ABC News. Authorities said thousands of people have called or visited a nearby city office, reporting missing relatives and asking officials to confirm whether they were among those injured or dead after the crush.

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES

Nightmare scenes in Seoul's Itaewon nightlife district. Social media captures the horror & heartbreak of friends & first responders frantically trying to save victims of the Halloween crowd crush that killed at least 151 people & shocked South Korea. pic.twitter.com/sgsha0Fx2W

— Will Ripley (@willripleyCNN) October 30, 2022

➤RUSSIAN MISSILE ATTACKS HIT UKRAINE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Ukrainian forces had repelled a “brutal” offensive by Russian troops in the eastern Donetsk region. The president said a military unit from Chop in western Ukraine had fought off the offensive, but did not say where fighting had took place. In recent weeks, however, intense fighting has centered around Avdiivka and the strategically-important town of Bakhmut. Ukraine’s National Police said multiple buildings had been destroyed and people killed and wounded after intense shelling in the region. Meanwhile, global wheat prices have started to rise following Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain export deal last weekend.

➤PELOSI ATTACKER UPDATE: The man accused of attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband was carrying zip ties with him when he broke into the couple's San Francisco home and was calling out 'Where's Nancy?', echoing the January 6 Capitol riot. The San Francisco Police Department has also confirmed that there were just two people in the Pelosi home at the time of the attack, not three. The suspect and the Democratic leader's 82-year-old husband, Paul Pelosi, did not know each other before the attack. The assault, coming less than two weeks before the November 8 election, was an unsettling reminder of the nation's toxic political climate. 

Streaming Price Hikes Leave Customers With Tough Choices

by Felix Richter, Statista

As consumers are grappling with inflation, trying to cut down on non-essential spending, Apple served its customers another tough pill to swallow. As 9to5Mac first reported, the company is raising the prices of Apple TV+ and Apple Music and Apple One, citing an increase in licensing costs and the quality of its services as reasons behind the move. Effective immediately, each of the aforementioned services will see its monthly price increase by $1 to $3 per month, with annual subscription prices rising accordingly.

Apple’s decision to raise its streaming prices comes just a few months after market leader Netflix and Disney took similar steps. In January, Netflix had announced the second price increase in less than two years, bringing the price of its standard plan to $15.49 per month. Disney will raise the price of its standard Disney+ subscription to $10.99 in December. The latest round of price increases comes at an unpleasant time for consumers, who now face some tough choices when it comes to their entertainment budgets. 

According to data published by Nielsen earlier this year, almost sixty percent of U.S. streaming subscribers now have three or more video subscriptions at the same time, a luxury that some may no longer be able or willing to afford.

Fraud Allegations Part Of Mid-Term Election Night Coverage

Gearing up to report this year’s midterm election results, American television networks are facing an uncomfortable question: How many viewers will believe them?

The NY Times reports amid rampant distrust in the news media and a rash of candidates who have telegraphed that they may claim election fraud if they lose, news anchors and executives are seeking new ways to tackle the attacks on the democratic process that have infected politics since the last election night broadcast in 2020.

“For entrepreneurs of chaos, making untrue claims about the election system is a route to greater glory,” said John Dickerson, the chief political analyst at CBS News, who will co-anchor the network’s coverage on Nov. 8. “Elections and the American experiment exist basically on faith in the system, and if people don’t have any faith in the system, they may decide to take things into their own hands.”

CBS has been televising elections since 1948. But this is the first year that the network has felt obligated to install a dedicated “Democracy Desk” as a cornerstone of its live coverage. Seated a few feet from the co-anchors in the network’s Times Square studio, election law experts and correspondents will report on fraud allegations and threats of violence at the polls.

Country Artist Luke Bryan Responds To Twitter Critics

Luke Bryan broke his silence Sunday after much of liberal Twitter erupted over his decision to bring out Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis at his Jacksonville concert on Friday.

The country musician took to his Twitter to address the apparent controversy, writing in part, "I typically don't respond to stuff when I'm getting run down on a social platform but here's the deal. I understand Governor DeSantis is a very polarizing figure. But I grew up in a country where if a governor ask you if they can come and raise awareness to help victims of a natural disaster you help."

He noted, "I've generally stayed out of politics throughout my career. I knew people would chatter about this but for me the more important piece was [if] I am going to come back there a few weeks after a large portion of people have been affected by a natural disaster in a state where people have been good to me this felt right."

In September, local Florida officials reported that 132 people had died due to Hurricane Ian.

Survey: Controversial News Topics Are Safe For Ads

Despite graphic violence in news coverage of the war in Ukraine and other controversial topics in the news, US consumers broadly believe that all news content is appropriate for ads, according to the 2022 TAG/BSI US Consumer Brand Safety Survey, conducted by the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) and Brand Safety Institute (BSI).

Only one in four respondents said any specific news topic should be off-limits to ads, while nearly half (46 per cent) said all high-quality journalism should be appropriate for ads. Reinforcing those findings by more than a two-to-one margin (69 per cent to 31 per cent), respondents said the importance of ad funding for coverage of the Ukraine war outweighed any risk of violent content in that coverage.

“It looks like the answer to ‘What is brand-safe journalism?’ may be ‘All of it,’” said Mike Zaneis, CEO of TAG, the certification program fighting criminal activity and strengthening brand safety in the digital advertising industry. “Consumers clearly see the value to high-quality, ad-supported journalism, and they prioritize funding for those news-gathering operations over any risk of ad misplacement with sensitive or controversial news-related content. This is good news for both advertisers and publishers, who can protect ad-funded journalism and the large audiences who follow it, while turning their attention to more complex brand suitability issues around the types of content that are most appropriate for their brands.”

Honolulu Radio: Jovi Santiago Named SVP/Sales At iHM

iHeartMedia/Honolulu names Jovi Santiago as Senior Vice President of Sales, effective Tuesday. 

Santiago is a media veteran with three decades of experience in the radio industry. He began his career as a sales person who then earned a promotion into management, then senior management. Jovi is an alumni from the Kamehameha Schools and the U.S. Naval Academy.

"Jovi has been a cornerstone of our success in Honolulu for our group of radio stations for 25 years," said iHeartMedia Honolulu Market President Scott Hogle. 

"Jovi's hometown style along with his strength in relationship building and innate talent for training the team will strengthen our mission to serve our listeners, advertisers, and community."

Report: Musk Tweeted Baseless Conspiracy Theory

Now-deleted Musk Tweet

Three days after completing a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, Elon Musk on Sunday morning used his new platform to spread a bizarre, anti-LGBTQ conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi in San Francisco that had been published by a fringe Southern California website, according to The S-F Chronicle.

Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla and the richest person in the world, according to Forbes, posted the tweet — which was deleted later Sunday morning after generating intense reaction online — while facing scrutiny over his plan to roll back the monitoring of content on the social media site. He was responding to a tweet by Hillary Clinton.

The former secretary of state — apparently referring to the arrest of a suspect in the attack on Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband who had professed conspiratorial, far-right views — wrote Saturday morning, “The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories. It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result. As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow.”

Musk responded Sunday at 5:15 a.m. Pacific time with a tweet that said, “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” and posted a link to a baseless, anti-LGBTQ article in the Santa Monica Observer. By 10:30 a.m. Sunday, the message and link had been retweeted more than 30,000 times and liked more than 110,000 times, before being deleted less than an hour later.

Rate Squeeze Punishes Once-Triumphant Tech Stocks

Shares of the largest U.S. technology firms have fallen out of favor in the most pronounced way since the 2000 tech bubble, victims of a shift in investors’ tastes inspired by rising interest rates.
The 2022 market bust has turned the popular “FAANG trade”—the practice of buying fast-growing technology titans such as Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc., Apple Inc., Amazon.com, Netflix Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. into a pumpkin. Of those five companies, only Apple, down 12% this year, has outpaced the Nasdaq Composite Index’s 29% decline.

For years, portfolio managers were willing to overlook the occasional blemish in the tech giants’ quarterly results, reasoning that there were few alternatives at a time of generally slow economic expansion. That sort of patience has evaporated this year, as investors in Meta in particular can attest following the past week’s earnings-driven rout.

Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that prices rose 6.2% in September from 12 months earlier, the same year-over-year rate as in August.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core prices rose 5.1% last month from a year earlier. That’s faster than the 4.9% annual increase in August, though below a four-decade high of 5.4% reached in February.

Earlier this month, the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index showed inflation surged 8.2% in September. (WSJ)

➤Inflation Gauge Stays Painfully High

Amazon Cutting Staff At Amp, Its Radio Style Service

Amazon’s plan to “reimagine radio” has run into a bit of static as the company is making staff cuts at Amp, the app it launched earlier this year.

Business Insider first reported the news on Friday and said “roughly 150 people,” or half of the division, were let go. Amazon would not comment on any figures when contacted by GeekWire.

“At Amazon we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas to delight customers,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We also continually evaluate the progress and potential of our products and services to deliver customer value, and we regularly make adjustments based on those assessments. Following a recent review, we’ve made the decision to consolidate a few teams so we can focus on the growth and scaling of Amp.”

Amazon is working with affected employees to identify other internal job opportunities.

October 31 Radio History

➦In 1912...actress & singing cowgirl Dale Evans was born as Lucille Wood Smith in Uvalde, TX (Died of congestive heart failure at age 88 – February 7, 2001) She was the third wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers.

She had a tumultuous early life. Her name was changed to Frances Octavia Smith while she was still an infant. She spent a lot of time living with her uncle, Dr. L.D. Massey, a general practice physician, in Osceola, Arkansas. At age 14, she eloped with and married Thomas F. Fox, with whom she had one son, Thomas F. Fox Jr., when she was 15. A year later, abandoned by her husband, she found herself in Memphis, Tennessee, a single parent, pursuing a career in music. She landed a job with local radio stations (WMC and WREC), singing and playing piano. Divorced in 1929, she took the name Dale Evans in the early 1930s to promote her singing career.

➦In 1942..."White Christmas" by Bing Crosby hit No. 1 on the pop singles chart for the first time.

➦In 1942...CBS radio debuted 'Thanks To The Yanks', a wartime themed game show starring Bob Hawk, the quizmaster who had introduced Take it Or Leave It to radio, the original $64 Question show.

➦In 1963...The Beatles returned to London from Sweden to be greeted by hundreds of screaming fans and a mob of photographers. Ed Sullivan happened to be at Heathrow, and was struck by the sight of Beatlemania in full swing. This was the day he determined to have the Fab Four appear on his Sunday night CBS TV variety show, thus introducing The Beatles to North America.