Joe Flint

Apparently, Nexstar Media Group has reached an agreement in principle to buy Tribune Media Co. for about $4.1 billion. The acquisition would add Tribune Media’s 42 stations in major markets to Nexstar’s portfolio of about 175 TV stations in cities including San Francisco, Phoenix and Tampa. It would catapult Nexstar past rival Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns more than 170 stations, mostly in midsize and smaller markets.

Fox News and its parent company 21st Century Fox said they have reached settlements with 18 former employees of the news channel who had filed lawsuits that included allegations of racial and gender discrimination.

Potential deals between 21st Century Fox and Walt Disney (or Comcast), Viamcom and CBS, and AT&T and Time Warner have producers wondering just who the TV programming honchos will be. New ownership or management could lead to changes in programming strategy, determining which shows get renewed or canceled, where they fall on the schedule, and what kind of resources and marketing budget they get. The uncertainty adds to the other challenges facing the industry including competition for talent and viewers from deep-pocketed streaming services.

Apparently CBS has made an offer to acquire Viacom and the bid is contingent on its management team being at the helm of the merged entity. The all-stock offer is below Viacom’s current market valuation of $12.5 billion. In its offer, CBS proposed that Chief Executive Leslie Moonves and President Joe Ianniello would run the combined company for the foreseeable future, which could make Viacom CEO Bob Bakish an odd man out. Both CBS and Viacom are controlled by media mogul Sumner Redstone’s holding company National Amusements, which has a nearly 80% voting stake in each firm.

The boards of CBS and Viacom have formed special committees to evaluate a potential merger, a deal that would reunite the two big pieces of the Redstone family’s media empire. Shari Redstone, vice chairman of both companies, is pushing for a merger. She, along with her 94 year-old father, Sumner Redstone, controls CBS and Viacom, with a roughly 80% controlling stake in each company through their holding company National Amusements. Shari Redstone believes both companies need greater scale to better compete against bigger rivals.

Federal regulators plan to reverse an Obama-era rule that prevented major television-station owners from buying stations or readily selling themselves, a move that could touch off a wave of deals among media companies.

The proposal, which would effectively loosen a national cap on audience share for station owners that the rule had tightened, is scheduled to be put before the Federal Communications Commission in late April, an agency official said. Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to announce the plan on March 30. The longstanding ownership cap limits TV groups to a 39 percent national audience share. But for years, the government said station owners didn’t have to fully count UHF stations in calculating their share because UHF was typically a less powerful signal.

The Obama-era FCC eliminated the so-called UHF discount last September, contending that the distinction between UHF stations and VHF stations had effectively disappeared. The FCC under Chairman Pai is expected to revert to the previous rule in one of a series of actions he is taking as he plans to reverse several policies adopted under his predecessor, Tom Wheeler, who was FCC chairman for much of President Barack Obama’s second term.

On the eve of the Republican National Convention, a dispute has broken out between the five national television networks that have traditionally pooled resources to provide live video from key political events and the online news publishers who rely on that signal for their streaming platforms. The networks—ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News —recently informed news outlets that aren’t members of the “pool” they will have to begin paying significant new fees in return for access to live coverage, not just at the conventions but debates, presidential news conferences, and many other events.

Media organizations are pushing back. A dozen publishers, from traditional players like The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal, to digital specialists like BuzzFeed and Vox.com, protested the changes in a July 13 letter to the executive committee of the White House Correspondents’ Association. They said the fees are exorbitant, and pushed for a new digital pool to be set up.

The Federal Communications Commission was attacked by Republicans and Democrats during a congressional hearing on the regulatory agency's media-ownership rules.

Among the issues debated were the FCC's long-standing rule prohibiting one company from owning a newspaper and television station in the same market; the role current regulations play in hindering traditional media's ability to compete against emerging digital platforms, and the lack of diversity among broadcasters.

The FCC, represented at the hearing by the chief of the commission's media bureau, William Lake, was also taken to task for failing to complete its 2010 quadrennial review of ownership rules, as mandated by Congress. New FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler plans to roll the 2010 review into the 2014 report and is aiming for a 2016 completion.

The hearing of the House Commerce Committee's subcommittee on communications and technology was split along party lines when it came to how the media industry should be regulated. Republicans, led by subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), challenged the FCC for keeping some rules, including the so-called newspaper-TV cross-ownership ban, on the books for almost 40 years.

Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox and private equity giant Apollo Global Management are in preliminary talks to create a global television production house that would manage big hits like "American Idol" and "Deal or No Deal."

The deal would combine Fox's Shine Group as well as the Apollo-controlled Endemol and Core Media Group. The joint venture would be one of the largest reality TV producers in the world, controlling franchises like "Master Chef," "The Biggest Loser" and "Big Brother."

Joining forces would buttress both companies during a period of intense consolidation in the production industry, particularly among firms that specialize in unscripted shows. A number of deals were announced among broadcasters seeking to expand content and increase audience share.

"This gives them access to newer programming ideas and exposes them to the possibility of other concepts," said veteran media analyst Hal Vogel, "and may save them some money too."

The number of commercials in the typical hour of television has grown steadily during the last five years, according to a new study from the ratings measurement firm Nielsen.

The rise in commercials can be attributed to two factors: Broadcast and cable networks are allotting more time for commercials, and advertisers are increasingly using shorter spots to hawk their products.

In 2009, the broadcast networks averaged 13 minutes and 25 seconds of commercial time per hour. In 2013, that figure grew to 14 minutes and 15 seconds. The growth has been even more significant on cable television. In 2009, cable networks averaged 14 minutes and 27 seconds per hour. In 2013, the average was 15 minutes and 38 seconds. At the same time, the number of 30-second commercials has declined while 15-second spots have increased. Not only is more time being devoted to ads, but more spots are being jammed into commercial breaks.