Michele Greppi

Strong political advertising helped drive Hearst-Argyle Television's profit for the third quarter up 20 percent. The station group reported Thursday that its net income for the quarter that ended Sept.

The sun is setting on NBC Weather Plus, the 4-year-old digital joint venture between NBC and affiliated local stations, which programmed the 24/7 local weather service on their digital channels.

Friday night's presidential debate between Republican candidate John McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama drew a combined household rating of 33.2 in 55 of the 56 local TV markets metered by Nielsen Media Research.

Days away from election '08, some lingering issues from 2004 are still being settled. New York Supreme Court Justice Ira Gammerman ruled Monday that former "CBS Evening News" anchor Dan Rather can continue with his $70 million breach-of-contract suit against CBS, but he cannot sue Viacom, CBS' former parent company.

An estimated 21.5 million people watched the second night of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. on six television networks, according to preliminary local data from Nielsen Media Research.

Four commercial stations in Wilmington (NC), site of the earliest complete switch to digital signals, will turn off their analog signals for one minute starting at 7:30 p.m. August 19.

For television stations affiliated with NBC, it's not whether they'll have to pay up to stay in the relationship, it's how much. The reverse-compensation shoe has dropped for NBC affiliates and they are unhappily contemplating the pinch.

Content ownership seems to be the main sticking point for failed talks between ABC and its affiliates about launching a national-local cable news channel built of content from ABC News and ABC affiliates.

Eleven TV stations in central Florida have banded together to run a test designed to flush out viewers who are not technologically prepared for the congressionally mandated nationwide switch to digital television on Feb.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is set to announce Thursday that it will run a test of the switch to digital broadcasting signals in Wilmington (NC), the smallest TV market in the Tarheel state.