AT&T Inc. is weighing a sale of its regional sports networks as part of a plan to cut as much as $8 billion in debt by the end of the year, according to people familiar with the matter. The four regional networks, which includes rights to teams such as the hockey’s Pittsburgh Penguins, basketball’s Houston Rockets and baseball’s Seattle Mariners, could fetch close to $1 billion, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the deliberations are private. Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., which agreed in May to buy 21 Fox regional sports networks from Walt Disney Co. for $9.6 billion, could be among the potential buyers, the people said. John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp. and Ice Cube’s Big3 U.S. basketball league were among the other bidders for the Fox assets. AT&T hasn’t started a formal process to sell the networks, and there are no guarantees a deal will be announced, the people said. The four networks are AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah, Nevada and Colorado), AT&T SportsNet Southwest (parts of Texas and Louisiana) and Root Sports Northwest (Alaska, Washington and Oregon). The four networks have rights to more than two dozen pro teams, college programs and NCAA conferences. A representative for AT&T declined to comment, while Sinclair didn’t respond to requests for comment. A sale of the regional sports networks—known as must-see content for avid fans—highlights AT&T’s ongoing struggle to fix a... Continue reading at 'Advertising Age'
[ Advertising Age | 2019-07-02 19:54:11 UTC ]
When speaking to the investor community for the first time about Peacock, Steve Burke didn’t exactly fling open the metaphorical kimono. In response to analysts’ queries about the nascent streaming service, the NBCUniversal CEO said his team is keeping details about the pricing and promotion of... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-24 19:47:42 UTC ]
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Telecommunications giant Spectrum Inc. is investing nearly $2 million in a Northern Kentucky facility ahead of a push to hire on 300 more workers. Spectrum, born from the acquisition of Time Warner Cable by Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR), is investing $1.7 million in upgrades to its... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2019-10-11 16:16:40 UTC ]
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Welcome to the another edition of Ad Age Sports Media Brief, a weekly roundup of news from every zone of the sports media spray chart, including the latest on broadcast/cable/streaming, sponsorships, endorsements, gambling and tech. Fear Strikes Out Viciousness and stupidity are as endemic to... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-04 22:01:54 UTC ]
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Vice Media Inc., the youth-oriented media company, agreed to acquire the online publisher Refinery29, seeking to reignite growth by reaching a young female audience. The deal marks the biggest move yet by Vice Chief Executive Officer Nancy Dubuc, who has been trying to revive the once... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-02 19:51:02 UTC ]
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The esports industry, notorious for its lack of reliable streaming viewer figures, is trying to get its act together and provide third-party ratings to make its broadcasts attractive for rights buyers and advertisers. Companies like Tencent Holding Ltd.’s Riot Games and World of Warcraft’s... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-09-26 18:44:54 UTC ]
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The U.S. Justice Department this week filed suit against former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden and his publisher, Macmillan, looking to seize Snowden's proceeds from his new memoir, arguing that the manuscript violates nondisclosure agreements Snowden signed. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-09-18 04:00:00 UTC ]
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After putting in a quarter-century as the head of CBS’s marketing efforts, George Schweitzer has begun mapping out his final campaign. The network’s marketing director will step down from his post at the end of the 2019-20 broadcast season, whereupon he’ll transition to a new role as a special... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-09-17 18:55:53 UTC ]
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Meredith Corp. announced several promotions within its Digital Content Group this week: [caption id="attachment_170397" align="alignright" width="150"] Jessica Plautz[/caption] Jessica Plautz was promoted to the director of content operations, succeeding Ron Kelly, who departed the company in... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2019-08-29 18:50:41 UTC ]
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Farmers seeking government assistance knew where to make their case: on Fox News, in TV ads with tractors and corn stalks designed to snag the attention of President Donald Trump. U.S. airlines, opposed to subsidies for foreign competitors paid by Qatar, took the same broadcast route to the... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-08-28 16:12:29 UTC ]
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Philip Morris International, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes in overseas markets, is in talks to reunite with Altria Group more than 10 years after the tobacco giants split their operations. The deal would be the biggest since AT&T Inc. bid for Time Warner in 2016. Philip Morris had a... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-08-27 18:36:32 UTC ]
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In “The Girls,” Abigail Pesta interviews some of the promising gymnasts the Olympic doctor abused. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-08-07 20:23:06 UTC ]
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Notice more TV ads lately? You’re not imagining it. The amount of commercial time on cable TV keeps increasing as networks try to make up for shrinking audiences by stuffing more ads into every hour of television. That’s despite years of promises to cut back on ads. Last quarter, commercial... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-08-02 17:18:39 UTC ]
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could reportedly further shrink its future offices at the Time Warner Center amid a global restructuring. The embattled financial institution signed a lease in May 2018 to move into a roughly 1.1... To view the full story, click the title link. Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2019-07-30 12:59:30 UTC ]
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could reportedly further shrink its future offices at the Time Warner Center amid a global restructuring. The embattled financial institution signed a lease in May 2018 to move into a roughly 1.1... To view the full story, click the title link. Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2019-07-30 12:59:30 UTC ]
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As ad-tech outfits face a tighter and tighter squeeze from industry consolidation and impending regulations surrounding data privacy, investors are starting to take notice and funnel their dollars elsewhere. This was the sentiment heard across the stage at Adweek's NexTech Conference this week,... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2019-07-26 18:48:49 UTC ]
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If you can find a bookie who’ll take some action on the latest pay-TV carriage dispute, bet everything you have that the stalemate between AT&T and CBS will end before the 2019 NFL season kicks off in September. Like Time Warner Cable before them, the phone company and its DirecTV subsidiary... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-07-22 20:52:00 UTC ]
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The author paints alternate realities to explore, obliquely, what it means to be alive today. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-07-16 13:15:03 UTC ]
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Charter Communications Inc., the largest cable provider in New York, will be allowed to continue operating in New York after reaching an agreement with regulators. The state Public Service Commission approved a settlement with Charter today, reversing a decision it made a year earlier to kick... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2019-07-12 11:59:24 UTC ]
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Charter Communications Inc., the largest cable provider in New York state, will be allowed to continue operating in New York after reaching an agreement with regulators. The state Public Service Commission approved a settlement with Charter today, reversing a decision it made a year earlier to... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2019-07-12 11:50:50 UTC ]
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