Broadcasting and Cable - February 17, 2020

TECH LEADERSHIP AWARDS: BUILDING A 2020 VISION ABC’S ‘LOCALISH’ GOES NATIONALISH

V O L U M E 1 5 0 • N U M B E R 2 • F E B R U A R Y 1 7, 2 0 2 0 • $ 6 . 9 5

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR

REALITY TITAN The brain behind ‘American Ninja Warrior,’ ‘The Titan Games’ and other unscripted staples, Arthur Smith has elevated the genre

IN THIS ISSUE XXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX VOLUME 150 ISSUE 2 • FEBRUARY 17, 2020 WWW.BROADCASTINGCABLE.COM

FOLLOW US twitter.com/BCBeat www.facebook.com/BroadcastingandCable CONTENT VP/Global Editor-In-Chief Bill Gannon, william.gannon@futurenet.com Content Director Kent Gibbons, kent.gibbons@futurenet.com Content Manager Michael Demenchuk, michael.demenchuk@futurenet.com Senior Content Producer - Washington John S. Eggerton, john.eggerton@futurenet.com Senior Content Producer - Programming Michael Malone, michael.malone@futurenet.com Senior Content Producer - Technology Daniel Frankel, daniel.frankel@futurenet.com Senior Content Producer - Business Jon Lafayette, jon.lafayette@futurenet.com Senior Content Producer R. Thomas Umstead, thomas.umstead@futurenet.com Senior Content Producer Mike Farrell, michael.farrell@futurenet.com Content Engagement Manager Jessika Walsten, jessika.walsten@futurenet.com Contributor Paige Albiniak Production Manager Heather Tatrow Managing Design Director Nicole Cobban Senior Design Director Rosanna Bulian ADVERTISING SALES Director of Sales, Media Entertainment & Tech Laura Lubrano, laura.lubrano@futurenet.com Ad Director Paul Mauriello, paul.mauriello@futurenet.com Account Manager Katrina Frazer, katrina.frazer@futurenet.com Japan Sales Sho Harihara, Yukari Media Inc., 81-64790-2222 or mail1@yukarimedia.com

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FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

8 COVER STORY

Arthur Smith is a prolific reality producer and the mind behind shows from Hell’s Kitchen to American Ninja Warrior to The Titan Games. His knack for creating content that makes viewers feel emotion has earned him recognition as B+C’s Producer of the Year.

By R. Thomas Umstead

24 SPECIAL REPORT: TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP AWARDS

Meet the 10 leaders who are laying the groundwork for the next generation of video news and entertainment — and who will be recognized at this year’s Technology Leadership Awards dinner in Atlanta.

By George Winslow

4 LEAD-IN 20 PROGRAMMING 22 LOCAL NEWS 29 CURRENCY 30 POLICY 31 FATES & FORTUNES 36 FREEZE FRAME 38 DATA MINE 40 VIEWPOINT 42 THE FIVE SPOT

28 SYNDICATION

The ABC Owned Television Stations group is thinking locally and acting nationally, relaunching diginet Live Well as Localish, a national showcase for hyperlocal digital content created by its news teams.

By Paige Albiniak

24 SPECIAL REPORT:

TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP AWARDS

Cover: Zach Lyons; This Page: Zach Lyons; Getty Images

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8 COVER STORY

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3

LEAD-IN

ESPN, Fox Sports Give Wilder-Fury a One-Two Punch Sports programmers put promo heft behind PPV heavyweight title fight

By R. Thomas Umstead thomas.umstead@futurenet.com @rtumstead30

Juan Ocampo / ESPN Images

F

4

ox Sports and ESPN hope their unprecedented joint marketing and promotional efforts for Saturday’s Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury heavyweight boxing rematch will deliver a major pay-per-view performance punch.

Fox Sports and Premier Boxing Champions promote Wilder, and ESPN and Top Rank represent Fury. Together, they’ve rolled out a massive marketing campaign for the Feb. 22 fight that started with spots in ESPN’s Jan. 13 LSU-Clemson College Football Playoff Championship Game telecast and included ads in Fox’s Feb. 2 Super Bowl LIV telecast.

“This has been a remarkable effort by many different stakeholders, both internally and externally,” said Matt Kenny, ESPN’s VP of programming for combat sports. “The Fox Sports team has been a great partner and it’s been very rewarding to see all the contributions from so many people.”

Fox Sports executive VP and head of programming and scheduling Bill Wanger said the magnitude of the fight brought both Fox Sports and ESPN together as promotional partners, and the ad push is reaching viewers.

Fox Sports reported that its Wilder-Fury Super Bowl promo spot was seen by more than 105 million viewers.

Overall, Wanger said, Fox Sports has produced more than 10 hours of original programming around the fight, including a four-part docuseries dubbed Inside WilderFury II and a fight countdown show currently in rotation on ESPN and Fox Sports platforms.

ESPN has also created several originals around Wilder-Fury II, including Ring Science, which is streaming on ESPN+.

“It’s really an unprecedented amount of promotion and level of cooperation among the two main media sports companies,” Wanger said.

The Wilder-Fury fight is the second between the two undefeated heavyweights; their 2018 bout ended in a controversial draw.

That PPV event, distributed by Showtime, generated a reported 325,000 buys.

On fight night for Wilder-Fury II, a combined ESPN and Fox Sports on-air crew will describe the action. ESPN commentators Lennox Lewis and Andre Ward will join ESPN

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blow-by-blow announcer Joe Tessitore for ringside commentary, while Fox Sports commentators Timothy Bradley and Shawn Porter, former welterweight champions, will join ESPN’s Max Kellerman and Fox Sports’s Brian Kenny for live analysis.

ESPN and Fox Sports hope their collaborative on-air and promotional efforts will drive enough PPV buys from hard-core boxing aficionados and casual sports fans to reach the industry-standard 1 million buy mark.

Pushing for 1M Buys

“I think a million buys is reasonable given everything that’s being put behind it,” said sports consultant Lee Berke. “You have two strong, popular fighters. It's a throwback in a sense in that heavyweights have not been that popular on PPV lately. You have two media powerhouses promoting the hell out of it.

And it's scheduled during a lull in sports between the end of football and beginning of the NCAA college basketball tournament and baseball. I think it will do well.”

Wanger would not project how many buys the fight would generate, but said he’s excited about its PPV potential. “The buys will be what the buys are,” he said.

While the fight marks the first PPV boxing co-promotion for Fox Sports and ESPN, similar recent team-ups have proven successful. Showtime and the UFC combined resources in 2017 to promote the Floyd

Deontay Wilder (l.) and Tyson Fury at a Los Angeles press conference to promote their Feb. 22 pay-per-view fight, co-promoted by ESPN and Fox Sports.

Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight, which drew 4.3 million PPV buys. That fight’s PPV performance was second only to the 4.6 million PPV buys generated by the 2015 Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight, co-promoted by HBO and Showtime.

This week, both ESPN and Fox Sports will ramp up marketing for the fight. On Wednesday FS1 and ESPN2 will simulcast the final fight press conference as well as Friday’s weigh-in. ESPN and Fox Sports studio shows will originate from Las Vegas, including FS1’s Speak for Yourself and ESPN’s First Take.

“This will raise awareness for one of the most anticipated heavyweight fights in a number of decades,” Wanger said. “We’re pulling out the stops.”

Along with traditional PPV carriage through In Demand, DirecTV and Dish Network, both Fox Sports PPV — which includes foxsports.com and the Fox Sports App — and ESPN+ PPV will stream the fight, which retails for a suggested $79.99, said representatives from both parties.

ESPN’s Kenny said he would not rule out future marketing partnerships with Fox Sports on major PPV boxing events. “ESPN is laser-focused on serving sports fans and should a collaborative approach with a partner like Fox Sports help stage, promote and produce the biggest fights, we are certainly open to exploring those opportunities,” he said. ●

LEAD-IN

THE WATCHMAN

WATCH THIS …

Senior content producer Michael Malone’s look at the programming scene

Hot Ones: The Game Show Hot Ones: The Game Show begins on truTV Tuesday. Inspired by an online talk show, Sean Evans hosts this “battle of wits and gastrointestinal fortitude," truTV said. Contestants answer trivia and chow down wings slathered in serious sauces.

Wednesday, it’s Year of the Rabbit on IFC. Rabbit is a detective with a taste for booze,

Hunters

By Michael Malone michael.malone@futurenet.com @BCMikeMalone

Amazon/ChristopherSaunders; Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television; Ben Meadows/IFC; Discovery Communications, LLC

Pacino In for Nazi Hunt on Amazon

6

If you really need another sign that the golden era of TV is here, how about Al Pacino signing on to be in a series? Yes, Pacino stars in Hunters, which premieres on Amazon Feb. 21. David Weil created the show and Jordan Peele executive produces.

Hunters follows a band of Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York (see Programming, page 20). They’ve discovered that hundreds of high-ranking Nazis are living in the area and conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the U.S., and set out to bring the Nazis to justice.

“Al’s agent read the script, and said, ‘I think there’s something in this character that Al will really respond to,’ ” said Weil.

There were four meetings. Pacino eyeballed all 10 scripts, weighed in on the character, and the story, and he was in. “It was an incredible process,” said Weil. “It’s an absolute dream.”

The idea for the series came from Weil’s talks with his grandmother Sara, a Holocaust survivor. Amidst the tragedy, bits of her stories “sounded like the stuff of comic books and superheroes,” he said.

Weil was eager to put those tales of heroism on screen. “As we move into the next generation, it falls on us to tell their story,” he said.

Weil also liked the idea of showing Jewish people as more than nebbishes. “I wanted Jews to be portrayed with strength and might and power,” he said.

“There’s a lot for Breaking Bad fans to enjoy — it’s racing toward that timeline,” said Melissa Bernstein, executive producer. “You’ll see Jimmy embracing that new identity, and see new business opportunities from exploiting that identity.”

Plenty of Saul viewers never watched Breaking Bad, said Bernstein, who said women seem to be drawn to the relationship between Jimmy and Rhea Seehorn’s Kim Wexler.

Both series are character studies, according to Bernstein, and McGill is a bit more relatable than Breaking Bad protagonist Walter White. “Jimmy offers a little more room for people to connect,” she said.

“Jimmy is a naturally optimistic person, naturally upbeat and fun to be around.”

Walter White? “More grim,” she said.

Bernstein promised a closer look at Kim this season.

“Viewers will understand more about her back story,” she said.

Season five pays a visit to Omaha, where McGill’s “Gene Takavic” ran that Cinnabon. But it remains shot in Albuquerque. “The folks in Albuquerque are amazingly supportive,” said Bernstein. “I think they feel like they’re part of our team, and we feel like that too.” ●

Broadcastingcable.com

and his partner is by the books. Joined by the daughter of the police chief, the trio faces down street gangs, shady politicians and other unsavories. Matt Berry plays Rabbit.

Friday, it’s season two of Gold Rush: Dave Turin’s Lost Mine. Turin goes on the hunt in

Dave Turin's Lost Mine

‘Saul’ Signs Off on Jimmy McGill Season five of Better Call Saul starts up on AMC February 23. The season sees Jimmy McGill, played by Bob Odenkirk, transitioning to Saul Goodman. Better Call Saul inches closer to its forebear, Breaking Bad.

Year of the Rabbit

Better Call Saul

the lost mines of Montana. “With more than 3,500 abandoned mines in the Treasure State, Dave believes one of them could be a jackpot in gold,” said Discovery. Friday, Babies premieres on Netflix. This docuseries explores the first year of a person’s life.

Fifteen families share their stories.

Zach Lyons; Vivian Zink/NBC

All the business that I do and all the development that we do is so I can have the joy of making the show.

8

Arthur Smith and A-lister Dwayne ”The Rock“ Johnson joined forces for NBC’s reality competition series The Titan Games (r.).

Broadcastingcable.com

COVER STORY

Arthur Smith Brings Passion To Reality ‘B+C’s’ prolific Producer of the Year creates content that makes audiences feel

By R. Thomas Umstead thomas.umstead@futurenet.com @rtumstead30

D

wayne “The Rock” Johnson took to social media in September 2018 to detail a dream he had about creating a platform for people to showcase their best athletic self, but which needed the “perfect” partner to turn the dream into reality.

“That partner is Arthur Smith,” Johnson declared in the post. Johnson’s dream platform turned into The Titan Games, NBC’s successful freshman competition series that the former WWE star launched in 2019 with Smith, the founder of production company A. Smith & Co. (ASC) and chairman of ASC parent company Tinopolis USA. Titan Games, in which everyday people compete in endurance-based mental and physical challenges, is one of more than 180 reality, unscripted and documen-

tary series produced under the tutelage of Smith and his ASC banner since the company launched 20 years ago. Several of his shows, including Fox’s culinary cookoff Hell’s Kitchen and NBC’s obstacle course-based series American Ninja Warrior, helped define the genre of competition-based reality shows.

“Arthur understands that great storytelling requires ultimate dedication and an unrelenting desire for excellence,” said Meredith Ahr, NBC Entertainment president of the alternative & reality group. “When I am working with Arthur, whether it is on American Ninja Warrior or The Titan Games, I am keenly aware that I am dealing with a producer who thinks big, wants to win, and will put in the daily reps to ensure that every detail of the production is first class and a reflection of our collective ambition.”

From long-running shows like TV One’s documentary music series Unsung to new series like TLC’s off-the-grid reality show Welcome to Plathville and streaming service BET+’s docuseries American Gangster: Trap Queens, the Canadian-born Smith is known for his ability to create successful unscripted

content that entertains viewers while bringing out the best qualities of the world-class talent and everyday people who participate in his shows.

“Arthur Smith and his team really understand how to make great television,” said Jason Ryan, executive producer in charge of production for Unsung, which Smith has produced since its debut in 2008. “People know TV One for Unsung [and Smith’s] knowledge and passion for the show has really made the show special.”

Mark Darnell, president of unscripted and alternative television at Warner Bros., who worked with Smith in the 1980s on a number of projects including Hell’s Kitchen, said Smith has the uncanny ability to turn the simplest of ideas into a successful production.

“He’s an extraordinarily talented and driven producer,” Darnell said. “He’s unbelievably collaborative. Over the years, if I had an idea or a nugget of a concept, I’d go to Arthur and he would take it and make it work in a way that very few producers can.”

Smith cut his production teeth in the sports production at Canada’s CBC, where he produced

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9

COVER STORY

Arthur Smith’s quick rapport with chef Gordon Ramsay was a key ingredient in the success of Hell’s Kitchen.

Fox

learner. He’s terrific at taking a concept and making it into a reality.”

Johnson in his Instagram post also showered Smith with praise, saying that while “my big head may be in front of the camera, this man [Smith] is the magic maker.”

Smith’s prolific TV series production accomplishments along with his infectious enthusiasm and passion for producing has earned Smith and his company, A. Smith & Co., B+C’s Producer of the Year award for 2020. Smith spoke with B+C senior content producer R. Thomas Umstead about his company’s 20-year run of success, as well as his vision for the future. Here’s an edited transcript of their conversation.

10

the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics, and with Fox Sports in the late 1990s, helping to launch the company’s first regional sports networks. In between his sports producing stints, Smith got his first taste of the entertainment business as senior VP of Dick Clark Productions in 1990.

“Coming from such an unconventional and atypical background in sports has allowed him to approach more entertainment programming in a slightly different way,” said Brandon Riegg, Netflix VP of unscripted originals and acquisitions, who has worked with Smith on Death by Magic as well as two other yet-to-be announced shows.

While his passion is for producing shows, Smith is equally comfortable in the C-suite as chairman of Tinopolis USA — which bought A. Smith & Co. in 2011 Broadcastingcable.com

— where he oversees a portfolio of Emmy-nominated content from such companies as Magical Elves. Under Smith’s leadership, Elves and ASC combined for three of the six 2019 primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Reality Competition series: Elves’s Top Chef and Nailed It! and ASC’s American Ninja Warrior.

Smith is also comfortable with top talent. He has collaborated with such celebrities as Ellen DeGeneres, who will host Ellen’s Home Design Challenge for HBO Max; actor Rob Lowe, host of Fox’s unscripted series Mental Samurai; and celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, host of Hell’s Kitchen.

“He’s great with talent,” Darnell said. “When I first brought Gordon Ramsay out here, he had never done an American television show, and Arthur and him got along amazingly. I also think that he’s a very fast

B+C: What would you consider to be the show that put you and A. Smith & Co. on the map?

Arthur Smith: When I started my company, I didn’t know what reality television was, I just knew nonfiction was my role. I used to read encyclopedias as a kid before there was the internet. I always read biographies. I was totally into nonfiction, and so I knew I was going to be producing something in the doc/reality genre. The first big network show that we did was Paradise Hotel, and it was funny because [then-Fox president of alternative TV] Mike Darnell had put $50,000 into a development deal with a company called Mentorn and wanted me to be a consultant. Eventually, I ended up producing it. For Paradise, we were doing two shows a week and we were turning it around in days. When I look back, the staff from Paradise Hotel are all people who are producing relationship shows now, so it was kind of like Paradise High School.

COVER STORY

always run into the control room and ask what was going on, so eventually I studied film and television production. That’s how I ended up in production. I didn’t plan to start a production company — I just knew I loved the business.

We have some things that we’re working on right now that are crazy and risky. I just hope the networks will be receptive, and I think when networks take chances, they often pay off.

© 2014, HGTV/Scripps Networks, LLC

The other one has to be Hell’s Kitchen. The interesting thing about Hell was at that time, in 2004, food was in a much different place in America. I never really knew Gordon, who was a star chef in the U.K. but no one really knew who he was here. I saw a tape and said, but I don’t like the show. We eventually did the show, but Fox was kind of nervous about it. It actually sat on the shelf for like six months before they put it on.

Eventually they did, and it launched on Memorial Day and won its time period. In its third season, it was the highest-rated show in America. It wasn’t the highest rated reality show, it was the No. 1 show over America’s Got Talent, and it really opened the door for food on television and really changed it. We just did our 20th season of Hell’s Kitchen and it’s interesting because, while the show has changed and Gordon has become one of the biggest stars on television, the food scene in America has changed. It’s now all kind of connected because Top Chef, which is the show that Magical Elves produces which is part of my group, launched a year later.

I think the combination of what Hell’s Kitchen was doing on Fox and all of a sudden people are watching food and everything else, and then what Top Chef did on Bravo, I think this was kind of a tandem combination. Hell’s was first though.

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B+C: This year, you’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of your production company, A. Smith & Co. Growing up in Canada, did you ever consider the fact that you might be a successful producer in America?

AS: I’ve loved the entertainment business since I was a kid and I knew that was for me. Nobody in my family worked in the entertainment business and I had no connection to it, but I knew it was my calling. I just had to figure out what it was.

I was an actor as a kid in Canada, but I was always more interested in what was happening behind the scenes. I did a couple of feature films and a couple of guest spots on situation comedies for CBC, but I’d Broadcastingcable.com

B+C: What part of the business did you love the most?

AS: When I really, really think about it, the happiest times were when I was making shows.

It’s still the thing that motivates me — yes, I run a business, and yes, I’m chairman of a couple of companies and everything like that, but my joy in life is still producing, and that’s why — and people are always surprised — that I’m still on set. I [was recently] in Atlanta for three weeks to be with Dwayne Johnson on The Titan Games. I shot last year for two months in Las Vegas with Gordon Ramsay for seasons 19 and 20 of Hell’s Kitchen. All the business that I do and all the development that we do is so I can have the joy of making the show.

B+C: While your focus has been on the entertainment field, you really got your start on the sports side with CBC. How did your experience in sports influence your entertainment endeavors?

AS: Growing up in Canada, CBC Sports is a premier organization — as good as any organization in the world. In Canada, we have an inferiority complex about our comedies and our dramas. But sports, we’re very, very secure in that. I decided that that was where I wanted to work. I had a crazy break during my final year at Ryerson [University in Toronto] when I met a gentleman who attended Ryerson that was the executive producer of CBC Sports. I literally stalked the guy. I waited outside of his office and one day, he came out, and I said, ‘Can I have 10 minutes of your

time?’ And he goes, ‘Who are you?’ And I said, ‘I’m Arthur Smith. I’m in Ryerson. You went to Ryerson.’ I was feeling pretty good about myself: I was on scholarship and I had won some awards for some student films that I did. I didn’t know any better and sometimes ignorance is bliss. I ended up spending 90 minutes with him.

He said I could be a production assistant, but I said I wanted to be a producer. He said I would have to start as a production assistant and you have to start in local news. I told him I didn’t think this is for me, but he called back three weeks later and I ended up starting as a junior producer.

Within six months, I was the replay director on Hockey Night in Canada, and then I went on to produce the [1984] Los Angeles Olympics, which was my introduction to L.A. Then I became CBC’s executive producer, and somehow I ended up as head of CBC Sports. But the whole time I was producing sports, entertainment was my first love. And so my whole approach to sports was always about the story, music and graphics and really setting up the game.

When I was at Fox Sports, we used to always gather the production teams for a meeting every year and I would always say, ‘We make our money as producers when the action stops.’ I said: ‘We’re going to do a great job covering the game, but how we set up the game and the stats that we put in and the stories that we tell, and all that extra stuff, that’s where we make the money. The game is the game. You’re not in control of it.’

B+C: You mentioned that CBC’s Los Angelesbased Olympics coverage was your first exposure to the city, but what was your first exposure to the entertainment business in the States?

AS: CBC was an unbelievable place to learn and I love sports, and the interesting thing, is when I became

On board for Arthur Smith’s HBO Max offering Ellen’s Design Challenge (l. to r.): Portia de Rossi, Arthur Smith, Ellen DeGeneres and producer Jeff Kleeman.

COVER STORY

Smith project Mental Samurai for Fox offers an obstacle course for the brain, and is hosted by actor Rob Lowe (l.)

Michael Becker/Fox

head of CBC Sports I got a lot of attention in the States.

And God bless Dick Clark. He found me and got me my green card and was my mentor. I was still close with Dick until he passed away. Even when I was running [Dick Clark Productions], Dick and I would still talk. I learned a lot about him [and] how he ran his production company. The interesting thing is that I moved to L.A. never, ever thinking that I’d work in sports ever again, and I was good with that because I’d had a whole sports career. And then years later, I ended up with Fox Sports, and that was an unbelievable time.

We launched more than 20 regional sports networks.

It was an amazing time of growth and Rupert [Murdoch] was amazing. But I wanted to go back to entertainment. I actually signed a five-year deal, but I had a four-year plan — I just didn’t tell them about it. When I got to my last year, I said I wanted to start my own company. About a month before I was leaving, they came to me and said, ‘There’s a show [Smith] created as the head of programming called, You’ve Got to See This, which was a sports clip show.’ They said, ‘Why don’t you take it for your company?’ They gave me an order for 65 episodes for a show and I hadn’t even started my company. I didn’t even have an office yet. They didn’t have to do that, but we ended up doing 200 episodes.

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B+C: Obviously the sports business has grown exponentially since you were at Fox Sports.

Does sports have more influence within television now, compared to 25 years ago?

AS: In this world of programming clutter, sports still reigns supreme. It’s still so impressive. Sports continues to be such a valuable commodity to any of the major studios and networks because it’s still the Broadcastingcable.com

thing that people watch live; it’s still the thing that brings everybody into the tent.

B+C: Your shows such as Hell’s Kitchen, American Ninja Warrior and Unsung have all exceeded industry standards for longevity.

What is it that you look for in a show that you think leads to such long-running success stories?

AS: Well, there are three things every hit television show must have: format, great casting and execution.

I’ve seen shows that have great format and bad talent, and I’ve seen shows that have great talent but not great format. You really have to have all three. In today’s world, it’s changed a little bit because one of the challenges in today’s marketplace is the amount of programming that’s on. So not only do you have to have all three, you need to have freshness. You need to

have some fresh point of view on your show. It could be something new formula-wise. So those are, to me, the key ingredients for a hit show. Those are the things we look for in our new shows.

The other thing when I think about our shows — and we think we have a little bit of a secret sauce we never reveal — but the one thing I will say is television has to make you feel something. Content has to make you feel something. If it doesn’t make you feel anything, you’re not watching it. Sometimes it can make you angry. Sometimes it can make you happy or sad or mad at a character. But you feel something.

That really applies with regards to scripted programming, but I don’t think it’s any different in the nonfiction space. It has to make you feel something. The other thing that we work really hard on is to get invested in characters, no matter what it is.

Also, it’s not only important that you have the freshness and all of the things that I’ve talked about, but you have to choose the right network.

As producers, all that we want to do is make and sell shows. But you’ve got to keep yourself in check because you may take an idea but sell it to the wrong place. And by the way, many times, great shows don’t work because they’re on in the wrong place. When we were developing Welcome to Plathville, we took it right to TLC because we knew that was the place where the show would be up in the ratings every week. We’re still waiting on season two, but it was the right place for it.

B+C: How does that criteria apply to sportsthemed shows like American Ninja Warrior and Titan Games, where athletic competition is the center of the series?

COVER STORY

and its Emmy nominations. To be a little clichéd, they are all my children, and I love all of them the same.

Content has to make you feel something. If it doesn’t make you feel anything, you’re not watching it.

Paras Griffin/Getty Images for YouTube Music

AS: Actually, Ninja is a great example of how we’ve been successful by getting invested in people.

That is the whole emphasis of the show, because there’s no reason for an obstacle course show to be on in primetime at NBC. We’ve made the obstacle course into a metaphor for life, and it was purposeful and it was planned.

I’m a big sports fan and I love everything. I love the new sports and I love the traditional sports. So how do you take an obstacle course and make it special? Well, you make it a story about people. I had great training because I worked on three Olympic games. The first thing we did, when we first got together to talk about Ninja, even when it was on [former cable channel] G4, was that we have to make viewers care about the people, because then when they run the course it’s a whole different level. The visuals are great and the challenges and the obstacles that we come up with are great, but it’s in other people. It’s about the stories that we tell.

10 16

B+C: You have also created documentary programming such as Unsung and American Gangster that is focused on more targeted and diverse audiences. Where do those shows fit in the overall production strategy for ASC? AS: In whatever we do, it’s the same thing. It’s getting invested in characters; it’s making you feel something. That applies to Unsung and Gangster, but I really do love everything. So for me it’s a joy. When I think back, we did Welcome to Plathville for TLC in the same year that we did Titan Games for Dwayne Johnson. We did American Gangster the same year we did Hell’s Kitchen. Now, all of these shows are very different, but the dream from the very beginning was to offer a wide and varied palate. Yes, it’s good business, but it really came from the passion first. I’m as proud of Unsung winning the NAACP Image Award six times as I am about Ninja Broadcastingcable.com

B+C: Having said that, you don’t have one show that is your favorite across your portfolio?

AS: Not a chance. There are shows that I personally spend more time on, but that doesn’t mean I like them anymore or any less. I wasn’t on the day-today development of Plathville, but I love the fact that we did it. I love the story of these people who live off the grid and what the show was and everything else like that.

B+C: You’ve been a TV producer for more than 20 years. Given today’s plethora of platforms and networks, is this the best time in your career to be in the business as a producer?

AS: It is. More money is being spent on programming than ever before, so it is definitely the best time to be a producer. However, it’s probably a little harder to have a hit now than it was before. There are more places to sell, but it’s probably harder to get your show to stay on. You really have to be strategic with stuff like that. We are a lot more cautious when we take a show out, who we pitch it to, etc. We think about it a lot more.

When reality was more of a novelty, you could sell a lot more things and the audience would accept more things because there was so much freshness out there.

But now, you have to work harder. You have to work harder to develop it, but if you get it, you can sell it.

B+C: What will it take for producers to remain successful in this business over the next five to 10 years as the industry continues to evolve?

AS: I think that the biggest thing that we have to do as producers in partnership with networks is take chances and risks. The audience loves when we take risks and take chances. When you think back over the years of some of the biggest hits in unscripted and scripted, they were things that were ahead of their time.

I believe Hell’s Kitchen was a risk. And I believe moving Ninja, on NBC — because it started on G4 — was a risk. I remember talking about other people’s shows: When Dancing with the Stars was first brought to America everyone laughed at it and said, ‘Oh, it’s ballroom and it’s cheesy’ and everything, but it was fresh and different. The Masked Singer is fresh and different. I think the audience craves it and I think it’s more important than ever before.

Anytime I hear something that sounds very similar, very familiar, even in our development, I think it’s an uphill battle. I think we’re going to be challenged by the consumer who has so many choices. We have some things that we’re working on right now that are crazy and risky. I just hope the networks will be receptive, and I think when networks take chances, they often pay off.

B+C: You sold A. Smith & Co. to Tinopolis in 2011.

What made you pull the trigger on the deal?

AS: We had been approached by people starting probably in 2006 or 2007. I love our culture and I love the way it works here — it is a company run by producers and we do things because we’re passionate about them. It’s not always about the bottom line; we do make money, but we have a culture here and I was very protective of it. Like I said, we were approached by a number of people before that and got very close a couple times, but I said no because it didn’t feel right. The Tinopolis guys approached us and it was interesting because Mentorn, who I did Paradise Hotel with, is part of this Tinopolis Group, which is kind of weird that it all came around again. There was something about that, and I really liked the guys. So, I sold my company but I’m just a partner in another company. That was very important to me: I never wanted to be somebody collecting companies. I never saw myself selling my company to a group so large that I would just be this unit, and the Tinopolis guys didn’t have anything in the United States. I’m talking to

Smith’s roster includes TV One’s signature documentary series Unsung, chronicling the lives of music stars like Goodie Mob members (from l.): CeeLo Green, T-Mo, Khujo and Big Gipp.

COVER STORY

them about culture, and they said, ‘Run the business the way you want to.’

I’m still a major shareholder in the company, so I feel like I got an investment in my company. There is the opportunity to grow and it just felt right. It’s been eight years and we have such a great relationship with the guys in the U.K. We’ve been very careful about the American companies we’ve selected and the Magical Elves being a part of it. They were very, very similar to us in terms of how they ran their business and their focus on the highest quality shows.

B+C: So with Tinopolis now behind you, do you approach the business differently in terms of the networks you talk to and the shows you’re creating?

AS: Our development is very robust, however, I have this philosophy: If you want to sell more shows, you develop less programs. If you pitch less programs, you’ll sell more shows. I found a number of years ago that if we develop the things that we’re most passionate about and really made those great, so those pitches were iron-clad. It’s kind of like the kid who sends out a hundred resumes as opposed to really focusing on three or four and really doing a white paper and dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s. Things don’t leave the building until we have figured it out.

Then right from the very beginning, our shows come in on budget. We only do the highest quality of work, we’re responsive and we’re a service company. I don’t feel like we’re an old company, however, when I look around, there’s not a lot of 20-year-old companies in the entertainment business. I think that has to do with the way we operate. Obviously they have to be good programs, but we have to be good partners. All businesses have relationships and reputations and stuff like that. It’s really important. We will go the extra mile on a pilot or a series to be a good network partner.

B+C: Some of today’s unscripted/reality programming is salacious and controversial.

Does that worry you at all in terms of the future prosperity of the genre?

AS: I think the audience has woken up and they’re turning their back on things that don’t feel authentic now. I’m happy to see the audience is weighing in.

Listen, there’s still stuff that’s out there and that’s fine. The buzzword today is authenticity, and it matters. When it’s overly manipulated, it kind of feels like old-school cheese reality, and I think the audience doesn’t want it. I think that’s behind the successes recently for Netflix and for a network like TLC, which is very authentic — strange people, but authentic — that it doesn’t feel overly manipulated.

David Becker/NBC

B+C: What would you say is the biggest regret of your career?

AS: I don’t believe in regrets, however, when I was working on Hell’s Kitchen and Desperate Housewives was on the air I was thinking, ‘There’s got to be a reality version of this.’ And I located this really well-known jeweler who lived in Scottsdale. I had an idea for a Real Housewives of Scottsdale series — I didn’t call it that at the time, but I ended up getting busy with Hell’s and I never pursued it. Then I watched all the Real Housewives launch.

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B+C: Other than Real Housewives, what show currently on the air do you wish you developed?

AS: I’m sure there are others I would’ve liked to have developed that are on, but that’s one I saw but I just didn’t act fast enough. By the way, so many times in Broadcastingcable.com

Among the productions Smith is most proud of is NBC’s American Ninja Warrior, which he shepherded during a risky move from niche cable network G4. the nonfiction business, it’s not only about having a good idea, it’s also moving quickly. Because there’s so much energy not only in this, but in New York and all around the country where people are thinking of the next idea. Everyone’s online, watching the same stuff, reading the same things. Chances are — and it’s happened to every producer over the years — you have an idea and then they read about the same idea in Broadcasting+Cable or Multichannel News.

B+C: Have you ever considered producing scripted shows?

AS: Sure. I’m a nonfiction guy and I love nonfiction, but we’ve played around in the mockumentary area, we’ve played around in the sketch area. There is a feature that we have in development right now that I can’t talk about, but it’s something that comes out of a true story. So I think that’s the type of thing we would do. I think we’re more inclined to get into features and maybe a scripted drama that’s based on a true story.

But there’s so much joy in what we do and I really feel like we’re still diversified in the types of things that we have in nonfictional.

B+C: As the streaming companies begin to move into the non-scripted arena, do you see that developing as a major area for you?

AS: I love the streaming business. Between the two companies, I think we have more shows with Netflix than anybody and we love working with them. ASC has two shows with Netflix that haven’t been announced yet that’ll be on this year. And the Elves have Nailed It! and Sugar Rush and there’s another one coming — they’ve had great success there. We also have a development deal with Amazon, and that hasn’t been announced yet but we are in development with them. It was interesting when Netflix first started, they didn’t get it. It was more premium, dramatic series that they got into but now they’re finding a lot of success in the unscripted space and I

think that’s only going to grow. I’m glad they’re there.

B+C: Are you concerned about how the linear cable business will continue to evolve?

AS: Yes, I am concerned for a number of the cable networks, and I know they are too. But this is indeed the best time to be a producer, and there is more money to be spent on production. There is growth in streaming and there’s a bit of consolidation on the linear side, but the net effect is still more and still better content. Of course I think about it, and when we were talking about where shows go, you have to think about where your show has the most chance of success. We want them all to be successful.

B+C: Looking over your career, what’s the one thing that you’d point to and say, this identifies who I am and what I want to do?

AS: I’m a very emotional person. I’m a very passionate person. I’ll go back to something that I said before: my greatest joy is making television that makes people feel something. Right from the very beginning when I was in sports and was making those emotional Olympic packages, I said this is my calling. That’s why Ninja is such a joy for me.

I’m so proud of the show because it was such a long shot and now we’re getting nominated for Emmys.

I’m so proud of it because I think it plays to what people care about most, which is their fellow human beings. I want to make shows that make people feel something and care. That, to me, is what drives me, is what makes me most excited. When the viewer watches something, they’re not analyzing why they feel, they just know they feel and then they’re compelled to watch. Our job is to make them feel.

Sometimes it’s the cut of music and sometimes it’s that emotional bite and sometimes it’s the way it’s shot. Those are the tricks that make the game so much fun. It’s still the thing that gets me most excited. ●

PROGRAMMING

PBS Doc Puts Amazon’s Bezos ‘Front’ and Center ‘Frontline’ film digs deep into company’s founder

By Michael Malone michael.malone@futurenet.com @BCMikeMalone

F

rontline, the investigative series on PBS, takes a big swing when Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos premieres Feb. 18. Airing Tuesdays, Frontline episodes typically run 60 to 90 minutes, but Amazon Empire goes for nearly two hours. Raney Aronson-Rath, executive producer of Frontline, said the film offers a fresh perspective on Amazon. “We are really able to understand, from a company perspective, where Amazon is today,” she said, “and where it is going to be tomorrow.”

Based at WGBH Boston, Frontline debuted in 1983. Recent specials that stood out include For Sama, a look at a baby girl in Aleppo, Syria, and On the President’s Orders, about the war on drugs staged by Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines. “For nearly 40 years, Frontline has represented the gold standard in investigative journalism,” Perry Simon, PBS chief programming executive, said.

Frontline is undeniably on a hot streak. In 2018, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail was nominated for a best documentary feature Academy Award. For Sama was in the running at the Oscars earlier this month. “It was truly one of the most moving documentaries I’ve ever seen,” Simon said.

Aronson-Rath described Frontline films as “well-told stories with very well-vetted, factual and fair journalism.”

Wesley Mann/AUGUST Image, LLC.

‘Prime’ Time

20

Amazon Empire depicts Bezos as a young man, working on Wall Street and studying the nascent internet, then launching Amazon as an online book seller in 1995 and growing it into the retail colossus we intimately know today. The film also looks at Bezos’s ambitious plans for space travel.

Amazon Empire acknowledges Bezos as a brilliant entrepreneur, but also wonders how the company has affected the global retail landscape and if it treats its fulfillment center staffers fairly. “There are very serious questions at the heart of the film,” Aronson-Rath said.

“They all deserve fair journalistic treatment.”

Bezos declined to be interviewed for the documentary, but does make several high-level employees available. “Amazon gave us extraordinary access to its top-level executives,” said Aronson-Rath.

Broadcastingcable.com

She likened the project to Frontline’s 2018 film The Facebook Dilemma, an examination of the social platform and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and their impact on society.

Frontline producer James Jacoby does the bulk of the interview work in Amazon Empire.

The film took a year to produce.

“An investigation of this type really needs the time to get it right,” said Aronson-Rath.

A few years ago, PBS set out to make its biggest films available for theatrical viewing, getting a few into high-profile film festivals.

“It’s something we increasingly work with our partners in PBS Distribution to do,” said Simon.

For Sama was in theaters, but Amazon Empire will not be. The thinking at PBS is, Amazon Empire should reach as many viewers as possible, and should do so right away. “We needed to get this out to the biggest audience right now,” Aronson-Rath said.

Toward that end, PBS is making Amazon Empire available for streaming simultaneous to its on-air debut. The film will also be available on YouTube.

One of the main takeaways of the documentary for Aronson-Roth is just how much data Amazon is compiling on its users, and how their privacy is balanced out as users share the room with Alexa. “It’s good to be a thinking consumer,” Aronson-Rath said.

REVIEW

HUNTERS (Friday, Feb. 21, Amazon Prime Video)

‘The Choice’ is Yours

After Amazon Empire airs, Frontline film NRA Under Fire premieres in March. Further out is The Choice, which will offer investigative deep dives into President Donald Trump and the Democratic nominee for the presidency. “It’s our biggest hit every four years,” said Aronson-Rath.

Jon Klein, chairman of Tapp Media and former CNN U.S. president, calls himself a “huge fan” of Frontline.

“They tackle many of the stories no one else will touch, and many stories people have touched but they go way deeper,” he said.

“They have a fraction of the budget of 60 Minutes, yet their stories are often more probing and more impactful.”

Simon said Frontline stories stand out for their unflinching investigative work, and the innovative way the films are delivered to viewers.

Aronson-Rath echoed that sentiment. “We are filmmakers and journalists,” she said. ●

Frontline’s Amazon Empire digs deep into the life of company founder Jeff Bezos.

Thriller drama Hunters looks at a diverse band of New Yorkers hunting down Nazis in ’70s New York City. The Hunters have learned about hundreds of high-ranking Nazis in the metropolitan area, and set out to bring them to justice.

Al Pacino plays Meyer Offerman, a Holocaust survivor who oversees the Hunters. It’s a unique role for Pacino, playing Offerman with a thick accent and devouring most every scene he’s in. He doesn’t appear in the pilot until 23 minutes in, but makes his mark on it in a way that few other actors can.

Offerman is something of a mentor to Jonah, a young Brooklyn man whose grandmother is murdered. Logan Lerman plays Jonah, and handles the juicy role with verve, holding his own in his taut scenes with Pacino. After Jonah’s grandmother is killed, Offerman, an old friend of the woman’s, quotes the Talmud, telling Jonah that living well is the best revenge.

Once Jonah learns of the Hunters and their ambitions, Offerman recasts the quote. “Know what the best revenge is?” the gentleman assassin asks. “Revenge.”

The pilot, running a feature-length 90 minutes, is titled “The Belly of the Whale.” The producers, including creator David Weil and Jordan Peele, deliver a convincing rendering of America — New York, suburban Washington — in 1977.

There are Dodge Darts, bottles of Schlitz, Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” and pictures of Farrah Fawcett to bring the viewer back in time. Flashbacks, to Holocaust happenings in the early ’40s, at times make Hunters a period piece within a period piece.

Hunters offers compelling secondary stories, including Grey’s Anatomy’s Jerrika Hinton as an FBI agent, looking into the murder of a female NASA veteran in Florida, and a brutal Nazi thug doing the dirty work for a Washington insider.

Hunters offers a succulent idea, and bravura performances by Pacino, Lerman and Hinton immediately get their hooks into viewers. The pilot offers plenty of thrills, and one may never look at a chess set in quite the same way after watching. — MM

LOCAL NEWS

All Eyes on Des Moines Iowa kicks off presidential derby, and the stations in state capital are on it

I

By Michael Malone michael.malone@futurenet.com @BCMikeMalone

owa is, of course, the first state to weigh in on the presidential candidates, and it’s a role its residents hold in high regard. As the leading Democratic hopefuls, including Joseph Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, traipsed around the state ahead of the Feb. 3 party caucuses, the stations in the Iowa capital were there to cover them. And when caucus confusion enveloped the market the next day, the Des Moines stations were all over it.

KCCI has the specials series Commitment 2020: The Undecideds. The station has done six

specials under this title, each one featuring one of the Democratic candidates facing questions from the people of Iowa. “We want to get at the issues that matter to real Iowans,” said Brian Sather, KCCI president and general manager.

Dave Price is WHO’s political director, and hosts Sunday morning program The Insiders.

“We’ve put a tremendous amount of resources behind political,” said Bobby Totsch, WHO VP and general manager.

Hearst TV owns KCCI, a CBS affiliate. That station is in a tight ratings race with Nexstar Media Group’s NBC-aligned WHO. “We win households and total viewers, and it’s clearly a competitive market in demos,” Sather said.

“It’s a two-horse race and you have to bring your A game every day.”

KCCI and other Des Moines stations go big for the Iowa caucuses. Here, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) speaks with KCCI’s Stacey Horst (l.) and Steve Karlin.

Other horses in Des Moines-Ames are Tegna’s ABC affiliate WOI and Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Fox outlet KDSM. Tegna also owns CW affiliate KCWI. MyNetworkTV runs along with H&I (Heroes & Icons) on a KCCI subchannel. Mediacom is the primary subscription TV operator in DMA No. 68.

Nexstar picked up WHO in its Tribune Media acquisition. Totsch took over as VP/ general manager in Des Moines in late September. He said Nexstar is investing, including a “state-of-the-art set” that blows away the antiquated one, in Totsch’s words, that WHO used to have.

WHO moved its weekday news up a half hour to 4:30 a.m. in November, and will debut a lifestyle show in September (see sidebar).

“We have the most local programming by far of any station in the market,” said Totsch, whose previous posts included general manager at WPMI Mobile and at KCTV Kansas City.

Steve Rohrer is the VP/general manager of KDSM. WHO produces the 9 p.m. nightly news for the Fox affiliate. KDSM’s diginets include Sinclair-owned Stadium, Charge! and TBD. As Sather suggested, the ratings race is between two horses. For 2019 through November, KCCI won the household race at 6 a.m. and KCCI and WHO split the 25-54 contest. At 5 and 6 p.m., KCCI won households and 25-54. At 10 p.m., KCCI did a 10.6 in households, ahead of WHO’s 7.1.

WHO got a 4.0 in viewers 25-54, ahead of KCCI’s 3.2.

KCCI won prime households easily in 2019, while the 25-54 race was much closer.

Totsch called Des Moines “a bit of an old-school type Midwestern market,” where people still watch lots of local TV and listen to local radio. (Nexstar sold news radio station WHO.) He described the city as clean and family friendly. “A secret gem, I think,” Totsch added.

The market quieted down once the caucus results, delayed by a software issue, were finally revealed. But in a growth market, things keep humming. People in Des Moines quip that the official bird of the city is the crane. “There are a lot of them,” Sather said.

“There’s a lot of growth.” ●

WHO TO LAUNCH ‘HELLO IOWA’ IN SEPTEMBER WHO will premiere lifestyle show Hello Iowa in mid-September. The show will go in the 11 a.m.-noon weekday slot. Hello Iowa will focus on health and wellness, food and cooking, entertainment, local events, a bit of news and maybe a celebrity interview now and then.

“Nexstar continues its focus on driving more locally originated content and programming,” said Bobby Totsch, WHO VP and general manager. “Hello Iowa will be a nice addition for us.”

Megan Reuther will be the host. Totsch calls the veteran anchor “a perfect fit” for the role.

Totsch has overseen daytime lifestyle program launches in other markets multiple times in his career. He said Hello Iowa will have “marketing opportunities available” for local vendors.

“Hello Iowa will be the first lifestyle show of its kind on any network affiliate in the Des Moines market,” he said. — MM WHO’s Megan Reuther 22

Broadcastingcable.com

SPECIAL REPORT: TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP AWARDS

Building a 2020 Tech Vision Meet 10 leaders laying the groundwork for the next generation of news and entertainment

By George Winslow winslowbc@gmail.com @GeorgeWinslow

Getty Images

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uch attention has been paid to the consumer technologies and digital media now disrupting the TV industry. Behind the scenes, though, there’s been an equally important revolution in the technology infrastructures that media and entertainment companies use to create and distribute content.

This year’s B+C Technology Leadership Award winners have been at the forefront of that revolution, developing and deploying new technologies that promise to radically change the way TV companies operate, giving them new facilities and tools for a host of new services and business strategies.

This year’s award winners will be honored at the Technology Leadership Award dinner in Atlanta on Thursday, March 5. Here are their stories.

Broadcastingcable.com

Fred Baumgartner

Director, Next Gen TV Implementation ONE Media 3.0 /Sinclair Broadcast Group Fred Baumgartner is more than a prime example of the innovative tech work that has long come out of the broadcast industry. His long and varied career in broadcasting, emergency alerting, cable, mobile and tech training also shows how tech leaders use their experience to implement technologies like ATSC 3.0, which promises to revolutionize the over-the-air television.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have had a front-row seat to many, if not most, of the advances that make up next-gen broadcasting,” said Baumgartner, working at Sinclair Broadcast Group’s ONE Media 3.0 to develop some of the first applications of ATSC 3.0.

Baumgartner has held a lifelong fascination with broadcasting. At 12, he and a friend set up a radio station, which the Detroit police soon shut down. By 16, he was working at an AM radio station.

Fred Baumgartner

After getting a bachelor’s degree in electronics education at the University of Wisconsin, he taught school for two years before moving to full-time broadcast engineering, first in radio and then in TV. He was chief engineer at a number of TV stations, including KDVR/KFCT Denver and WTTV/WTTK Indianapolis.

In the early 1990s, he played a key role in the development of emergency alerting systems and published hundreds of articles and several books on radio and TV engineering. He’s also been extremely active in training at industry organizations like the Society of Broadcast Engineers, work that won him the SBE Educator of the Year Award.

Rounding out that already wide ranging resume, Baumgartner was also director of engineering at the Comcast Media Center in Denver; he directed the Leitch/Harris Systems Engineering Group; and he was director of broadcast engineering for Qualcomm’s MediaFLO, a groundbreaking effort to deliver content to mobile devices.

SPECIAL REPORT: TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP AWARDS

Baumgartner’s long history of innovation and wide-ranging resume have guided his work developing new applications for ATSC 3.0. “The major value to the industry is the merging of OTT and OTA and using our advantage to wirelessly deliver content,” he said. That will create “a world of opportunity,” boosting audiences with the addition of mobile viewing and creating business opportunities with new ad revenues from “dynamic ad insertions and hyperlocalized programming,” he said.

Chris Blandy

Executive VP, Technology Solutions Walt Disney Television One obvious example of Chris Blandy’s technology leadership in the TV industry occurred earlier this year, when his old tech teams at Fox Networks Engineering & Operations (now part of Walt Disney Television) won a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award, along with Discovery, Amazon Web Services, Evertz and SDVI, for their pioneering work in developing public cloud-based linear media supply chains.

Work on issues like “linear media supply chains” may sound obscure, but it’s part of an industry-wide effort to deploy new, much more flexible technologies that will allow media companies to thrive in a digital world.

“It has really been a game-changer for our operations,” Blandy said.

Blandy’s fascination with new technologies began as “young boy when my dad brought home a Commodore [home computer] in the early 1980s.” At the University of Texas, Blandy studied economics but worked in technology throughout his school tenure. He learned valuable skills in digital video and multimedia while working at the school’s computer lab from 1995 to 2000.

Such skills were increasingly in demand at TV operations and in 2000 he joined Fox Sports to help them build out their digital presence, which included the first webcast of a major college football game.

More innovation followed as he assumed increasingly senior roles. In 2007, he led Fox’s initial tech efforts for the launch of the Hulu joint venture with NBCUniversal, and as SVP of digital media at Fox, he supervised the development of their pioneering TV everywhere initiatives.

Then, as executive VP of technical solutions at Fox Networks Engineering and Operations from October 2013 until 2019, he assumed direct responsibility for TV engineering teams, merging the digital teams into the broadcast engineering group. “That enabled us to take another look at the entire supply chain and figure out how we could leverage some of the expertise we had in software, IP and cloud technologies,” to radically rethink their operations, he said.

These efforts, which recently earned a technical Emmy, “allowed us to take the best of both world, broadcast and digital,” to build new cloud and IP-based infrastructures, Blandy said.

After the Disney acquisition of the 21st

Century Fox properties, Blandy is continuing those efforts as executive VP of technology solutions. “We’re keeping an eye on the future while continuing to integrate all those platforms” for the combined Disney and Fox operations, he said.

data analytics systems, including the development of a complete crossplatform suite of tools and the launch of national addressable advertising on WarnerMedia’s TV networks in 2021.

Throughout her career, Gunnell has also focused on her tech teams, which have very low turnover, and on mentoring as a way to encourage innovation. “I’ve had the good luck of getting help in my career and I’m really a fan of taking mentoring very seriously,” she said.

Terri Gunnell

Executive VP, Monetization & Data Platforms WarnerMedia Technology and Operations As all the major TV companies pivot their business strategies to launch direct-to-consumer subscription or ad-based video-on-demand streaming services, advanced technologies for better data analytics, monetization and advertising have become central to the industry’s success.

Terri Gunnell’s success in using those technologies to strengthen traditional TV businesses and build new ones dates back to an early passion for learning new technologies. After graduating from Florida State University, she joined Turner Sports in Atlanta in 1991 as a production assistant and then moved into trafficking and scheduling ads for Turner’s networks.

Here, she quickly displayed an aptitude for finding new ways to use technology to strengthen operations and businesses. All on her own, she figured out how to use the relatively primitive data software tools of the time to send reports about pricing and inventory to the ad sales team in New York. “I just always had this passion for figuring out how we could use data to make more money and make ourselves more efficient,” she recalled.

That led to a 1996 promotion to join the ad sales team in New York and pioneering work on developing new technologies for managing and selling ads. In 2000, Gunnell was named director of product design and implementation for ad sales, initially overseeing the business requirements for new ad technologies and then managing both the business requirements and the engineering teams for those technologies.

Those teams in 2008 created Crossroads, a custom-built trafficking system that would win a technical Emmy, and a host of other new tools for Turner’s ad sales and monetization efforts.

Building on those successes, Gunnell took a series of increasingly important roles and in 2019, following AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, she was promoted to her current role, heading up data and monetization tech efforts at WarnerMedia.

“One of our big focuses is on how we can use our data to power [the upcoming launch of] HBO Max,” she said. Her teams are also working with AT&T and Xandr on new ad and

Renard Jenkins

Former VP, Production, Media and Distribution Operations PBS Technology and Operations

Chris Blandy (top), Terri Gunnell and Renard Jenkins

Renard Jenkins has been a notable example of TV network tech leadership from the start of his career at CNN, where he won Emmy Awards, to PBS, where he has played central roles in the launch of PBS Kids, the creation of the PBS’s Advanced Format Center and the rollout of new content delivery infrastructures. He recently left PBS to pursue a new opportunity.

Jenkins started college at Florida State University with the idea of becoming a marine biologist. He was frequently put in charge of filming ocean dives, and eventually decided to pursue his longstanding love of film, music and sound as a career.

Jenkins landed at CNN in 1989. “I got there just in time for Desert Storm and I became part of an award-winning team of editors who traveled the world and put out a lot of content,” he said.

CNN was “like a giant R&D playground” in those years, Jenkins recalled. This enabled him to test and play with a wide range of production equipment, skills that helped him move CNN to a file-based editing system. After a stint at Discovery Communications between 2006 and 2009, where he refreshed the company’s Technical Center, he joined TV One, where he helped design, build and then lead the network’s production facility.

Since joining PBS in 2010, he helped set up PBS’s Advanced Format Center and used the R&D facility to spearhead a wide range of pioneering work with stations, vendors and manufacturers on the creation and distribution of VR/AR, 4K, high dynamic range (HDR), new audio systems and other formats. “We really want to get an understanding of where these things are going to land,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins has also been playing a central role in the development of PBS’s next generation of media supply chains and content delivery systems, which will move the network and stations to cloud and IP-based infrastructures.

It’s already helping public broadcasters quickly launch new services, such as the recent

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25

SPECIAL REPORT: TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP AWARDS

rollout of PBS stations on YouTube TV. But Jenkins, who has won a number of awards for his work over the years, said he is most proud to have been the technical lead on the launch of PBS Kids. “It touches our youth and our most vulnerable children and gives them a space to learn and grow,” he said. “That means a lot to me.”

the end of January. “We’ve integrated the 20th Century Fox team and we are creating a truly global organization so that everything we do is not just domestic, but global,” he said.

Aaron LaBerge

While live sports is one of the most popular types of online content, it’s also one of the most difficult to deliver. Consumers expect streaming services to provide the high quality video they’ve long demanded from broadcasters and cable networks.

That imperative makes Stephanie Lone’s lengthy career at CBS Interactive and CBS Sports Digital particularly noteworthy, given that the innovative technologies developed by her teams now deliver a mind-boggling 30,000-plus live streaming events each year, as well as a host of other services from fantasy sports to breaking news.

Much of this was built on an early fascination with tech and new media. As a kid, Lone recalls playing games on computers and learning how to code improved versions of them. While earning a bachelor’s degree at North Carolina State University from 1989 to 1993, she was so fascinated with multimedia applications she convinced her professors to let her put together a multidisciplinary course of study with an emphasis on multimedia.

After graduating, she started her own company focused on multimedia, animation and design that began working for SportsLine.

SportsLine acquired her company in 1997 and was in turn acquired by Viacom in 2004.

At CBS Interactive, Lone has held a series of increasingly senior roles, including a promotion to VP of core data services in 2007, VP of ad revenue systems in 2008 and VP of shared platforms in 2010.

Armed with that wide-ranging expertise in digital media, she moved back to sports in 2014, first as VP of engineering at CBS Sports Digital and then in her current role in 2019, where her teams have developed pioneering cloud-based workflows. “By executing the majority of the workflows in the cloud, we’ve been able to deliver very high-quality video with low latency for very high-profile events like the Super Bowls,” she said.

At the same time, her team has used cloud-based workflows to successfully spin up new services like CBS Sports HQ and deliver an ever-growing roster of live events.

“The digital transformation we did 18 months ago now allows us to execute over 30,000 live events in the cloud,” she said, which in turn has made CBSI more efficient and

Executive VP & Chief Technology Officer The Walt Disney Co., Direct-to-Consumer & International Aaron LaBerge’s long list of innovative tech efforts run the gamut from the launch of sports websites and early work on the internet delivery of sports clips, to pioneering mobile offerings and the recent launch of Disney+.

LaBerge is also a notable example of how executives with a background in software, computers and digital are revolutionizing the TV industry. Those skills would ultimately lead to his getting the job as chief technology officer at ESPN — only the second in company history — and to his current role, with responsibility for the technology vision and strategy of Disney’s direct-to-consumer and international efforts.

“I think a lot of people think of Disney as being a content company,” LaBerge said. “We are certainly a master storyteller that is all about our characters and experience, but the earliest days of Disney and the earliest days of ESPN, it’s always been about a marriage of content and technology, and I think that is even more true today.”

LaBerge became fascinated with the web and computer software while studying engineering at the University of South Carolina and after school went to work in software engineering, joining Starwave in 1997, which was involved in pioneering web work for the likes of ESPN.com, NBA.com, NFL.com and others. “We created the first version of ESPN.com and found a way to automatically load scores to the website,” he recalled.

After The Walt Disney Co. acquired Starwave in 1998, LaBerge joined Disney Interactive and then ESPN, overseeing tech teams on a number of pioneering projects, including early efforts to put video clips on the website and the launch of ESPN’s mobile product in 2005. “Rethinking the workflows for that project laid the foundation for our later mobile efforts today, where we continue to be a leader,” he said.

After a stint as the co-founder of software company Fanzter, he returned to ESPN in 2015 as only its second CTO. In that role, he used his digital background to revamp traditional TV operations.

He assumed his current role in 2018, following Disney’s acquisition of the 21st Century Fox cable and studio assets, overseeing the technological vision and tech teams at the Direct-to-Consumer & International division.

Those efforts have already led to the successful launch of Disney+, which has racked up nearly 29 million subscribers as of 26

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flexible. “It allows us to deliver the best possible experience to the consumer.”

She credits that success to her teams. “We wouldn’t be achieving what we’ve done if we didn’t have this fantastic team of people,” Lone said.

Stephanie Lone

Senior VP, Engineering, CBS Sports Digital CBS Interactive

Jeff Mayzurk

Senior VP of Operations and Technology NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises

Aaron LaBerge (top), Stephanie Lone and Jeff Mayzurk

Jeff Mayzurk joins this year’s class of Technology Leadership Award winners after years of innovative work, most notably in overseeing the design and construction of the Telemundo Center in Miami, a facility that employs groundbreaking internet protocol and cloud technologies.

As with some other 2020 award winners who’ve brought innovation from newer media into the TV industry, Mayzurk developed an early fascination with computing and software. By age 10, he was playing around with computers. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996, he started working in software development at companies like CNET, which in those days was heavily involved in creating tools for publishing content to the web.

CNET had a joint venture with E! to launch Eonline.com and when CNET sold its stake, Mayzurk moved to Los Angeles to work for the cable network. That led to increasingly senior tech positions at E! and then at Comcast, as it acquired E! and expanded its cable-network portfolio. “It was a time when the media and entertainment industries that had been based on bespoke hardware were becoming more software oriented,” Mayzurk recalled. “That opened up some interesting opportunities for people like me to apply new technologies to solve problems.”

In the early 2000s, Mayzurk and his teams developed an innovative and much less costly way to launch international networks for E! that involved internet delivery.

In 2009, after Comcast announced plans to acquire NBCUniversal, Mayzurk led the tech teams overseeing transition planning.

Post-merger, as general manager of West Coast Technical Operations, he led the creation of an innovative 150,000-square-foot broadcast center on the Universal Studios lot, which boosted innovation and efficiency by bringing a wide range of operations into one facility.

Building on that experience, Mayzurk was then charged with radically rethinking the company’s operations with the design and build of the Telemundo Center in Miami.

When it went live in 2019, the 500,000-square-foot facility

SPECIAL REPORT: TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP AWARDS

featured an all IP-infrastructure that puts 13 studios and five production control rooms on one unified infrastructure capable of creating and processing over 4,000 hours of original production per year for sports, news, entertainment, scripted drama and digital.

“The scale of the facility and the collaboration and innovation that it creates between different parts of the business and our tech teams would have been impossible with traditional TV infrastructures,” Mayzurk said.

Neil Mazur

VP of Engineering & Operations WAGA Atlanta For some tech leaders like Neil Mazur, you quickly get the sense that technology isn’t just a tool for improving broadcasting. It’s also something they’ve loved all their lives.

“I was always fascinated by radio and broad­casting,” recalled Mazur, who earned his amateur radio license at the age of 13 and was working at a local AM radio station by 16.

After graduating with a degree in electrical engineering from Lafayette College, he landed a job at New York’s WNEW-TV (now Foxowned WNYW), where he quickly impressed his bosses working on the night shift. “I was getting a lot of equipment repaired at night and after about a year, they asked me to join them as a manager.”

In 1990, he moved to KCAL Los Angeles, where he worked his way up to director of engineering in his last two years before taking the top engineering job at WAGA Atlanta. At the Fox-owned station, he’s earned a well-deserved reputation for building impressive tech teams and finding new ways to improve news operations. For example, two of his most recent directors of engineering have gone on to the top engineering job at other Fox-owned stations.

WAGA produces 70 hours a week of local news, with a relatively modest tech staff.

“There are very few stations in the country that produce that amount of news,” Mazur said, crediting his tech teams with finding ways to operate extremely efficiently.

“We have two people [on the tech and operations team] running our news shows in addition to a producer,” he noted. “There are still a lot of stations that claim to be automated that will have five or six people doing that.”

Notably, WAGA began experimenting with tethered drones in 2014 as part of a larger effort to use drones by Fox Television Stations and Fox News. In September 2016, WAGA’s Doug Evans and Mazur, who has a Federal Aviation Administration license to fly helicopters, got their Part 107 FAA license to fly drones.

Over time, the “Fox Flight Team” at the stations and Fox News have flown several thousand flights, including about 1,000 flights in the last half of 2019. “It has really allowed us to get footage and tell news stories that we wouldn’t have been able to any other way,” Mazur said.

Lisa Pedrogo

about leading teams to their best … and most proud of my ability to handle change and to coach people through change.”

VP of NY Engineering & Strategic Initiatives WarnerMedia Technology and Operations News organizations have been scrambling to meet consumer demand for more video on more platforms as the news cycle speeds up during the run-up to the 2020 elections.

That makes Lisa Pedrogo’s work overseeing the building of a new all-internet protocol (IP) facility for CNN at New York City’s Hudson Yards particularly notable. Election season can be a trying time for engineers, Pedrogo noted, because traditional infrastructures make it difficult for them to quickly launch new offerings or speed up the delivery of news to consumers.

“We constantly need to be able to respond to developments with products that look professional but don’t take six months of ordering and installing equipment,” she said.

“Going all-IP [at Hudson Yards] enables us to do more of what we want to do as we make the transition from a hardware environment to a software environment where more and more of the equipment and infrastructure is going into the cloud.”

The Hudson Yards operation, with 110,000 square feet of technical space, went live in 2019 but its creation was built on years of innovation by the tech teams at CNN and Pedrogo’s long experience with building innovative news projects.

Pedrogo, who still remembers being blown away by a visit to a TV studio at age 4, readily admits that she’s always fascinated by the medium.

After studying communications at Hofstra University, she went to work as a production assistant at CNN’s business news network in 1989. There, she quickly picked up new skills and technologies, rising to director of operations at CNNfn in 1996.

When veteran business anchor Lou Dobbs left CNN, she followed him into the digital world to assist on the 1999 launch of Space.com.

After gaining valuable experience at the e-commerce and video website, she then returned to CNN, where she played a key role in the construction of a number of innovative facilities. She was project manager for CNN’s Time Warner Center studio build in 2002, then the CNN HD network launch and the rebuilding of various bureaus. In 2008, she was put in charge of technical training programs.

Looking back, Pedrogo said she’s proud not only of the projects she has managed, but the teams that have built those facilities. “I’m not an engineer but I manage engineering teams,” she said. “In doing that, I’m most passionate

Blake Sabatinelli CEO , Newsy

Neil Mazur (top), Lisa Pedrogo and Blake Sabatinelli

With all the controversies over fake and partisan news, Newsy CEO Blake Sabatinelli joins the 2020 award winners for the work his teams have done in finding innovative ways to deliver fact-based news over multiple platforms.

“I was always the kid who was trying to learn how to code,” Sabatinelli recalled, noting that he was building websites for people by age 15. After graduating from Florida Atlantic University, he worked as a software and web developer before taking a job as an online producer and editor for WFTS Tampa-St. Petersburg in 2007.

After working his way up to executive producer of new media, he moved to WJLA Washington in 2012 and to E.W. Scripps as director of digital solutions in 2014. Sabatinelli was put in charge of Newsy in 2015, after it was acquired by Scripps.

By that time, Newsy had established a reputation for technical innovation.

Launched in 2008 by media entrepreneur Jim Spencer in partnership with the University of Missouri, the streaming service focused on delivering news to mobile phones. It won accolades for its popular app and innovative production techniques for turning out news clips for its own service and a variety of clients, such as Time Inc. Following the acquisition, Sabatinelli pushed to expand Newsy’s innovative product development efforts while strengthening its financial prospects. After seeing longer viewing times on Roku, he worked to beef up Newsy’s focus on streaming content to smart TV devices just as that market started to take off. Meanwhile, his tech teams deployed an innovative dynamic ad insertion platform to better monetize news streams. “It was the right bet and being a first mover in that space, along with CBSN, has been very helpful,” he said.

To further expand its reach, Newsy has launched a 24-hour cable channel while developing apps for a wide variety of streaming devices. “The opportunity to own a channel is an opportunity for us to be ubiquitous,” he said.

“It is about being available for news consumers wherever they want to watch.”

Newsy also won kudos and awards for its long-form documentary programming and fact-based approach to the news. “You won’t see opinion hosts or pundits arguing with each other on Newsy,” Sabatinelli said. “You’ll see a reporter and video providing that information in a way that is meant to be informative and thought-provoking.” ●

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SYNDICATION

ABC’s Localish Goes Nationalish Station group converts locally produced, positive content into national network

By Paige Albiniak palbiniak@gmail.com @PaigeA

O

n Monday, Feb. 17, ABC relaunched its multicast network formerly known as Live Well as Localish, taking advantage of reams of digital-first content that its owned stations have been producing at the local level for some 18 months.

“In terms of the inspiration for Localish, we originally created it for a number of very simple reasons: we wanted to reflect and serve the communities we call home,” Wendy McMahon, president, ABC Owned Television Stations, said. “While the ABC Television Stations are best in class in terms of breaking news and covering big stories, we thought we weren’t capturing as many of the positive stories in our our communities, so we thought about how we could intentionally bring good stories about people, places and things into our brand offerings.”

That results in stories told from the perspective of locals. For example, a recent story showcased a Los Angeles bar that created custom cocktails to reflect some of this year’s Oscar-nominated movies, and another revealed how a Port Washington, New York-based cheesemonger teaches people to make cheese. In both stories, the subject

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narrates the action, whether it’s shaking a cocktail or pulling fresh mozzarella.

“One of the things we wanted to do with Localish is create a space where we could experiment with next-generation story­ telling,” McMahon said. “It feels different than our traditionally produced content.

This new way of producing places subjects at the forefront of stories. It feels different than the traditional anchor voiceover.”

Enhancing Local Newscasts

That change in producing style also has trickled up to the stations themselves, allowing them to start injecting digital-first storytelling into local newscasts.

Up to this point, Localish content lived in several places: online at the ABC Television Stations’ websites, in the owned stations’ apps, and sometimes in the stations’ daily newscasts. This new effort takes those stories and repackages them into half-hour programs for the new Localish network.

“We have created more than 1,000 shortform videos and those allow us to create strong half-hour shows where we can stack content based on the most viral and engaging pieces,” said Localish executive producer Michael Koenigs, who also hosts two shows on the new network. Some of these pieces have been seen more than 20 million times across social media, he said.

The network is debuting with 10 original programs, with titles such as More In Common, featuring inspiring stories of

The Localish network focuses on feel-good stories like a pair of New York sisters who met for the first time a few years ago— but that didn't stop them from going into business together, starting Brooklyn Nail Company.

Americans coming together despite their differences; Out of Office, revealing locals’ favorite vacation spots; Glam Lab, discovering the latest trends in beauty and self-care; and Secretly Awesome, which doubles as a branded-content play sponsored by Hiscox Insurance.

Many of the ABC-owned TV stations also produce their own local shows, which are branded as Localish LA or Localish Bay Area, for example, said Jennifer Mitchell, senior vice president, content development, ABC Owned Television Stations: “We are looking to do that in all eight of our markets.”

In general, the network plans to add more shows as it progresses. “We’ll expand to more as we go forward without a doubt,” Koenigs said. “The hits will expand and we’ll seed new formats each season.”

“We try to find the universal in the local,” Koenigs said. “We’re about finding the light at the end of the tunnel; we’re less about dwelling in the problem. That’s one of the reasons this content resonates — it’s a divisive time and people are eager for that story that gives them a little confidence in their fellow man and their world. People generally feel more positively about their local communities than they do about the world at large.”

Friendly to Ad Formats

Due to that positive perspective, Localish appeals to both ABC’s local and national advertisers. It also will carry direct-response advertising (ads that include a 1-800 number to call for more information or to place an order), which is a standard type of advertising offered by multicast networks.

As intended, Localish’s short-form content does very well across social media, with people grabbing videos and sharing them across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Localish as an initiative has helped drive ABC Television Stations’ social traffic. As a result, the owned TV stations had as many social engagements from October 2019 through January 2020 — 71 million — as The New York Times and The Washington Post combined, with 44 million and 27 million, respectively, according to Shareablee.

While some content is being packaged into shows for the new network, Localish also will continue to exist as it does now, with local content produced for station websites, apps and newscasts.

“We are multiplatform brands,” McMahon said. “It is always through that lens that we consider how we can bring this content to life and use it to connect with audiences and advertisers.” ●

CURRENCY

Cable Nets Run More Ads As Streamers Steal Eyeballs Among big groups, only NBCU cut the clutter in Q4

By Jon Lafayette jon.lafayette@futurenet.com @jlafayette

N

Minutes Down, Sales Up

Comcast’s NBCU unit, a major proponent of reducing commercial clutter under ad-sales chairman Linda Yaccarino, was the only programmer with fewer ad minutes per hour. NBCU networks ran 11.8 commercial minutes per hour, down 1.6% from the fourth quarter of 2018.

At the same time, Nathanson notes that NBCU’s cable networks earlier this month reported that cable network ad revenues were up 2% to $886 million.

Not coincidentally, when NBCU provided

details about its upcoming ad-supported streaming service Peacock in January, Yaccarino crowed that it will have no more than five commercial minutes per hour.

A+E Networks-owned channels were flat, but their 13.7 commercial minutes per hour was the highest on cable.

At the Peacock investor day, NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino said the streamer would limit ad loads to five minutes per hour.

SPOT CHECK Total-day commercial minutes per hour, by network group Network Group

4Q18

4Q19

YOY

Turner

12.3 12.7 3.7%

Discovery

11.7 12.1 3.2%

Disney

10.9 11.2 2.2%

Independents 13.6 13.8 1.8% Fox

12.6 12.7 1.3%

AMC Networks

13.0

ViacomCBS

13.3 13.4 0.6%

A+E Networks

13.7

13.1 13.7

1.2% 0.0%

NBCUniversal 12.0 11.8 (1.6%) TOTAL

12.6 12.7 1.3%

SOURCE: Nielsen; MoffettNathanson estimates and analysis

All of the other cable programmers showed upticks in commercial loads.

The biggest increase was registered by AT&T’s Turner networks, where commercial minutes jumped 3.7% to 12.7 minutes per hour.

Ad minutes on Discovery’s networks rose 3.2% to 12.1 per hour, the second-biggest hike. The Walt Disney Co.’s channels registered a 2.2% increase, leaving them at 11.2 minutes per hour.

Ad loads were up 1.3% and 1.2% at Fox and AMC Networks, respectively, and ViacomCBS registered a relatively small increase of 0.6%, but its minutes per hour average stands at a hefty 13.4 for total day.

ViacomCBS in the past has said it was taking measures to reduce ad loads during primetime in particular.

The ad clutter is a symptom of a national TV ad market where flat appears to be the new up, according to Nathanson.

For the fourth quarter, Nathanson projected that national TV advertising will finish up 0.4% at $10.7 billion. Broadcast networks will be down 0.5% with CBS doing the best with a 2% increase and ABC and NBC each down 1.5%.

Cable advertising is expected to show a 1.2% increase, led by ViacomCBS’s 2.8% gain, which was bolstered by the addition of streaming service Pluto TV. AMC Networks is expected to drop 6.5%. ●

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Peter Kramer/Peacock

ot long ago, cutting commercials seemed like a good idea.

A few years back, advertising dollars were migrating to digital and viewers were just starting to stream video and cut the cord that connected them to cable networks.

Fox, NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia’s Turner networks and Viacom were among the major programmers that unveiled plans to reduce commercial clutter, a move that was seen as making traditional TV more attractive to viewers and more effective for advertisers.

New data compiled by MoffettNathanson Research senior analyst Michael Nathanson has found that for the fourth quarter of 2019, total day commercial loads rose 1.3% to 12.7 minutes per hour.

Ad loads had been flat during the third quarter, according to Nathanson. “This is the first quarter where the growth in aggregate cable commercial minutes per hour accelerated since early 2018 as cable networks try to help offset the linear ratings challenges,” he said in a research report.

“Increased ad loads will likely only push more viewers to on-demand viewing for entertainment content.”

The linear ratings challenge Nathanson refers to are the 8% drop in C3 commercial ratings for broadcast and 14% slide for cable in primetime during the period. Fox was the only broadcaster to post a C3 ratings gain. All of the cable network groups were down, with AMC Networks posting the biggest drop at 22%.

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POLICY

Big Tech, Broadcast Battle Over 6 MHz

to incumbents, the clear answer is to make 6 GHz available for shared unlicensed use."

Lawmakers Join Push

Commission is looking to free up more spectrum for 5G

By John Eggerton john.eggerton@futurenet.com @eggerton

Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images; Sheilagh Craigshead/The White House

T

30

he FCC is getting pressure to free up the entire 1,200 megahertz of the 6 MHz band for WiFi, as broadcasters wave caution flags over potential interference to their signals should a sharing regime be instituted.

A continued call for all of the spectrum that stations now use for electronic newsgathering (ENG) came in a letter to the FCC from some of the biggest in Big Tech — Apple, Facebook, Google — as well as from consumer and free-market advocacy groups.

That was followed closely by a letter from a bipartisan pair of legislators calling for the same approach, including one whose Northern California district skirts Silicon Valley.

Broadcasters use the 6-MHz band for broadcast auxilliary services (BAS) operations such as sporting events, breaking news and special events. They said the FCC's proposed interference protections — limited to lower-power, indoor operations — miss the mark, particularly as some camera transmitters used to relay footage to stations also operate indoors and at low power, so they would be in the interference line of fire even with those limitations on unlicensed devices.

Broadcasters have had to fight for ENG before as the FCC trolled for spectrum. They don't want the agency to allow full use of the band without assurances — and not simply from the computer companies or cable operators hungrily eyeing the spectrum — that new uses

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won’t interfere with existing operations.

Cable operators, who are looking for more WiFi spectrum, agree with the computer companies that there is a way to share and share alike.

The FCC on a mission to free up as much spectrum for 5G as possible (a Trump administration priority), including allowing shared use wherever it is feasible.

While some have argued for moving incumbents to a different band entirely, Apple and others have said that process could take a decade. Besides, sharing will work without jeopardizing incumbent service, tech companies told the FCC: "If the commission wants to bring more mid-band spectrum into use for next-generation wireless in the near term, while preventing disruption and interference

Tech companies and cable operators have their eyes on spectrum in the 6 MHz band that TV stations now use to relay electronic newsgathering (ENG) signals from crews and trucks in the field.

In their letter, Reps. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) and H. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) asked the FCC to free up the entire band ASAP. "We believe the 6-GHz band's greatest potential would be realized by unlocking all 1200 MHz of the band for unlicensed use,” they wrote. “This would foster innovation and greatly benefit American consumers and our nation's economy."

The legislators said they agree that protecting incumbents is crucial, but also argue that WiFi has a track record of successful sharing and this should be no different, given the FCC's expertise in protecting licensed users from interference.

The FCC voted unanimously back in October 2018 to propose opening up the band to unlicensed devices — everything from laptops to Fitbits to offloading wireless traffic — using automatic frequency control (AFC) devices to prevent interference with licensed users.

All the commissioners pointed to the need to relieve congestion in the wireless band, including under the direction of Congress in the MOBILE NOW Act, which charged the FCC with finding more spectrum for 5G. The FCC is expected soon to vote on making that proposal a reality. But not if broadcasters have anything to do with it.

The National Association of Broadcasters argues the proponents of sharing in the band "assume away" the challenges of protecting those BAS operations. The trade group told the FCC earlier this month that hundreds of MHz can be opened for WiFi and broadcasters are willing to work with the government and stakeholders on a solution to sharing. But nothing the computer companies have so far come up with fills the bill. "[T]he WiFi uses under consideration in this proceeding are simply incompatible with mobile broadcast operations used for electronic newsgathering — and no proposal advanced by any party to date will protect those mobile operations," NAB says.

If those do ever materialize, the NAB said, the FCC can consider them then, and in a separate proceeding. ●

TRUMP BUDGET DOUBLES AI INVESTMENT President Donald Trump's 2021 budget may be looking to cut money for noncommercial and international media, but it doubles the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) budget for the development of artificial intelligence and quantum computing and makes other investments in a high-tech future.

The budget proposes investing $2 billion in AI and another $860 million on quantum science over the next two years.

The National Institute of Science and Technology will get $718 million as part of the mission to make sure the U.S. leads in quantum computing and AI, including the interoperability of AI-enabled systems.

The budget, which Congress must approve, would also create an "advanced manufacturing institute" to ensure that tech innovations developed here are manufactured here, another Trump priority.

In addition, the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, the president’s chief spectrum policy adviser, would get $25 million toward spectrum management systems to “more efficiently" free up added spectrum for 5G wireless service. The NTIA oversees government spectrum users. — JE

FATES & FORTUNES

People Notable executives on the move BRIEFLY NOTED Other industry execs making moves

AVID

BRIGHTCOVE

COMCAST VENTURES

THE CW

Avid in Burlington, Massachusetts, has promoted Kathy-Anne McManus to chief customer experience officer.

She had been senior VP, global customer solutions and services for the media platform vendor.

Boston-based provider of cloud services for video Brightcove has tapped Amee Desjourdy as chief people officer. She comes from biotech firm Quanterix, where she was chief people and culture officer.

Former NBA player Andre Iguodala has joined the Comcast Ventures Capitalist Fund as a venture partner. He will focus investments in companies founded by African-American, Latinx and women entrepreneurs.

Betty Ellen Berlamino has joined The CW as executive VP, distribution. She joins the Viacom-CBS/AT&T joint venture from CBS Television Stations, where she had been senior VP, director of sales.

ENGINE

FITE

FOX

FUTURE TODAY

Media and marketing services company Engine has tapped Scott Schiller as global chief commercial officer. He comes from NBCUniversal, where he was executive VP, advertising and client partnerships.

Digital combat sports platform Fite has hired Ben Halabi as senior vice president, international business development.

He had been head of ITV Box Office, the pay-per-view service of U.K. television network ITV.

Fox has named Allison Wallach executive VP and head of Fox Alternative Entertainment, a new post at the company’s unscripted content studio. She had been president of Jupiter Entertainment.

David Di Lorenzo has joined Miami-based advertising video-on-demand platform Future Today as senior VP and head of the Kids & Family business. He had been president of Kabillion.

PEBBLE BEACH

SCENARIO

TELESTREAM

VIZIO

Automation and content management firm Pebble Beach Systems has upped Mat Shell to head of sales. A veteran of Imagine Communications, Grass Valley and Tektronix, Shell had been solutions and proposals manager.

Jennifer Reed was named executive VP of the new Television & Entertainment Division at publicity firm Scenario Communications in Los Angeles. She comes from BWR, where she was senior VP of television.

Westwood, Massachusettsbased Telestream has tapped Benjamin Desbois as senior VP and chief sales officer. He comes from Avid Technologies, where he led U.S. sales after four years in sales management in Europe.

Adam Bergman has joined smart TV maker Vizio as vice president of ad sales, based in Los Angeles and tasked with building relationships with media buyers and marketers.

He led the West Coast client partnerships team at Samba TV.

Digital media and marketing trade group IAB in New York has named Hearst Magazines president Troy Young as chairman of its board of directors. … Steven Zenker has joined Sinclair Broadcast Group as VP of investor relations. He comes from General Garden & Pet Co., where he was VP of investor relations, FP&A and corporate communications. … ABC affiliate WPLG Miami has named Layron Livingston as co-anchor of its weekend morning newscasts. Livingston has been a reporter and consumer advocate at WPLG since 2016. …

Also at Pebble Beach Systems, Roger Sewell was named VP of sales for Central and Eastern Europe and Central Africa. He worked at such companies as Pixel Power, Pro-Bel, Miranda and Omnibus. … Scenario Communications also tapped Molly Kukla as account director in the Television & Entertainment Division. She was director of television publicity at BWR. … Programmatic OTT platform ZypMedia has named Tushar Patel as senior VP of Engineering and Sridhar Guthula as senior VP of product management. Patel had been an executive VP at IPG Mediabrands; Guthula was CEO of WelcomeTV.

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FREEZE FRAME

Disney execs and guests on the red carpet before the 92nd Oscars (l. to r.): Michael Duggan; Willow Bay; Bob Iger, chairman and CEO, Disney; Karey Burke, president, ABC Entertainment; Peter Rice, chairman, Walt Disney Television and co-chair, Disney Media Networks; Dana Walden, chairman, Walt Disney Television and ABC Entertainment; and Matt Walden.

Netflix chief content offcer Ted Sarandos arrives for the 92nd Oscars ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

ABC/Eric McCandless; ABC/Rick Rowell; Elizabeth Cisson/NBC; Tom Gallo

At the Black History Month screening of Smithsonian Channel’s Black in Space: Breaking the Color Barrier (l. to r.): Charles Poe, Smithsonian Channel; Cyndy Garza Roberts, Comcast; Cathleen Lewis Ph.D., National Air and Space Museum; Ray Purser, Comcast; Laurens Grant, the show's director and producer; Ed Dwight, Air Force pilot and astronaut candidate; Dana DeSanto, Smithsonian Channel; Cheryl McNair, wife of astronaut Ronald McNair; Charlotte Brohi, Houston Museum of Natural Science; and Mia Gradney, KHOU.

36

Celebrating the 100th episode of NBC’s Chicago Med at Cinespace Chicago (l. to r.): S. Epatha Merkerson, executive producer Dick Wolf, Oliver Platt, Nick Gehlfuss, Dominic Rains and Jason Beghe.

Broadcastingcable.com

Executive producers Jessica Biel (l.) and Michelle Purple at the premiere event for USA Network’s The Sinner at The London West Hollywood.

FREEZE FRAME

At the Rocky Mountain Cable Association, Adaptive Spirit, NAMICDenver, SCTE and WICT Rocky Mountain 2020 kickoff event at The Cable Center in Denver (l. to r.): Melanie Lopiccolo, Dell Technolgies; Jayme Eichner, Slalom; Michelle Kissler and Tammy Smith Gandullia, Sia Partners; and Navi Saini, Charter.

At the Fox and Debmar-Mercury party at NATPE in Miami (l. to r.): Frank Cicha, EVP, programming Fox Television Stations; Jack Abernethy, CEO, Fox Television Stations; Mort Marcus, copresident, Debmar-Mercury; Nick Cannon; and Ira Bernstein, co-president, Debmar-Mercury.

At the opening of the NBC Boston Media Center in Needham, Mass. (l. to r.): Chris Wayland, GM, NBC Sports Boston, and senior VP, NBC10 Boston, Telemundo Boston and NECN; Raul Martinez, sports director, NBC10 Boston; and Mike St. Peter, president and GM, NBC10 Boston, Telemundo Boston and NECN.

Honoree Bonnie Hammer (l.), chairman of NBCUniversal Content Studios, and Jimmy Fallon, host of The Tonight Show, at Lincoln Center’s 2020 American Songbook Gala at the Broadway Theatre in New York.

Fox Sports gave $200,000 from its “Gamechanger Fund” to the Hank Kline Club of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Miami-Dade (from l., with club members): Alejandro Rodriguez-Roig, president, Boys & Girls Clubs of Miami-Dade; Adrian Garcia-Marquez, Fox Deportes NFL announcer; Eric Shanks, CEO and executive producer, Fox Sports; and Alex Rodriguez, Fox Sports MLB studio analyst.

SUBMISSIONS: Send your most recent press photos, with an ID, contact name and telephone number via email to: michael.demenchuk@futurenet.com. Electronic images should be at least 4 inches by 6 inches at 300 DPI.

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37

DATA MINE

Data provided by

Ad Meter Who’s spending what where

PROMO MOJO Our exclusive weekly ranking of the programming that networks are promoting most heavily (Feb. 3-9)

BIG SPENDERS

MOST-SEEN TV ADS

Brands ranked by the greatest increase in TV spend (Feb. 3-9)

Brands ranked

by TV ad impressions (Feb. 3-9)

1

1

GEICO

Cadillac Spend Increase: Est. TV Spend

▲ 1735%

$23.6M 30%

Spend Within Industry:

▲ 324%

$5.5M

Est. TV Spend:

9%

Spend Within Industry:

▲ 317%

$8.4M

Est. TV Spend:

Est. Media Value: $22,409,916

Estimated media value of in-network promos With 556.3 million TV ad impressions, ABC’s promo for its new drama For Life tops the chart, moving up a spot from last time; the network also grabs second place for hyping its Oscars telecast. Cable networks dominate the rest of the ranking, with HGTV at No. 3 for its Extreme Makeover: Home Edition reboot; ID fourth for true-crime series The Murder Tapes; and USA Network at No. 5 for 10-part anthology drama series Briarpatch. The Extreme Makeover spot earns the highest iSpot Attention Index number (145) in the ranking, interrupted 45% less often than the average promo (interruptions include changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV).

38

Broadcastingcable.com

1. For Life, ABC

TV Ad Impressions Est. Media Value

2. 2020 Oscars, ABC TV Ad Impressions Est. Media Value

556,342,016 $22,409,916

3. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, HGTV TV Ad Impressions Est. Media Value

289,134,053 $2,041,381

4. The Murder Tapes, ID TV Ad Impressions Est. Media Value

181,319,298 $598,224

5. Briarpatch, USA Network TV Ad Impressions Est. Media Value

22%

Spend Within Industry:

179,314,494 $1,178,470

Est. TV Spend: Spend Within Industry:

$4.6M 36%

Spend Within Industry: Top Network: MTV

928.2M

Est. TV Spend:

$8.9M

Attention Score:

95.36

TV Ad Impressions:

909.9M

Est. TV Spend:

$10.2M

Attention Score:

94.38

Top Show: SportsCenter

5

5 Macy's Est. TV Spend:

TV Ad Impressions:

Domino's

▲ 310%

Top Network: Discovery en Español

Spend Increase

92.57

4

4

Spend Increase

Attention Score:

$10.1M

Top Show: NBA Basketball

Top Network: ABC

JPMorgan Chase 290,870,458 $2,457,319

Est. TV Spend:

Taco Bell

M&M's

Total TV ad impressions within all U.S. households, including national linear (live and time-shifted), VOD plus OTT and local

1.2B

TV Ad Impressions:

3

3

TV Ad Impressions: 556,342,016

94.34

Top Show: America’s Newsroom

Top Network: NBC

TOP 5 PROMOTIONS

Attention Score:

Liberty Mutual

Metro by T-Mobile

For Life, ABC

$23M

2

2

Spend Increase

Est. TV Spend: Top Show: XFL Football

Top Network: ABC

Spend Increase

1.8B

TV Ad Impressions:

TurboTax ▲ 167%

$3.7M 16%

TV Ad Impressions:

869.2M

Est. TV Spend:

$12.9M

Attention Score: Top Show: 2020 Oscars

93.84

DATA MINE

CAN AT&T TV STEM THE SUB-LOSS TIDE?

Top stories on broadcastingcable.com, Jan. 21-Feb. 13

0% -5% -12.3%

-10%

Q3 2019

Q2 2019

Q1 2019

Q4 2018

Q3 2018

Q2 2018

Q1 2018

Q4 2017

Q3 2017

Q2 2017

Q1 2017

-14.1% Q4 2016

-15%

Q3 2016

To read these stories, go to broadcastingcable.com/Feb17.

5%

Q2 2016

5. 50 Cent Legal Drama For Life Premieres on ABC Feb. 11

Premium TV

10%

Q1 2016

4. Batter Up: Marquee Network to Launch Promo Campaign

Total TV

15%

Q4 2015

3. TiVo’s Latest Pivot: From DVR Pioneer to OTT Company

For more stories on the streaming video space, go to nexttv.com.

20%

Q3 2015

2. Rookie Talker Mel Robbins Will Not Return for Season Two

Video Subscriber Growth, YoY

1. Sprint-T-Mobile Team Gets DOJ Award

to lease more set-tops for secondary rooms. There will be hidden fees — customers of the mid-level “Choice” tier and above must pay $8.39 a month more in regional sports network fees. And there will be early termination fees.

AT&T, which paid $50 billion five years ago for a DirecTV brand it will no longer use, won’t need to launch pricey satellites or send technicians to homes anymore. It hopes AT&T TV will also speed deployment of fiber-to-the-home — AT&T has 4 million FTTH customers now and hopes to have 3 million more by 2022. The telco hopes AT&T TV — along with HBO Max — turns around sagging sub growth that has permeated across pay TV platforms.

“As we move through this year and we start shifting to AT&T TV, our gross add performance starts to get much stronger,” AT&T chief operating officer John Stankey told analysts during the company’s Q4 conference call in late January. — Daniel Frankel

AT&T Entertainment Group: Video Subscriber Growth/Loss

Q2 2015

B+C’S MOST VIEWED

Q1 2015

Mel Robbins

HAVING LOST 1.2 MILLION pay TV customers in the fourth quarter — and a whopping 5 million since 2016 — across its DirecTV, U-verse TV and AT&T Now pay TV platforms, AT&T is getting set for the national launch of the premium streaming video platform it hopes will turn around its subscriber fortunes.

Cord Cutter News, citing unnamed sources, reported AT&T TV would roll out nationally Feb. 27, following tests in a handful of U.S. markets. AT&T executives, who talked during a Q4 earnings call about AT&T TV “hitting its stride” in Q2, deny a firm national rollout is set. But it can’t come soon enough for the telco’s struggling media and entertainment division. Here’s what we know so far.

AT&T TV will stream over the open internet, but carry all the accoutrements of a traditional pay TV service.

There will be a two-year contract, with the base iteration of the four-tier service priced at $50 for 12 months, then spiking to $93 a month in year two. There will be proprietary leased set-tops — AT&T will provide one Android TV-based box, but customers will have to pay

SOURCES: Company reports; MoffetNathanson estimates and analysis

Ratings Rank

Telecast (Week Ending Feb.2 )

Network

Stickiness Index*

1

150

Enamorándonos

UniMás

145

2

90

El Señor de los Cielos

Telemundo

143

3

83

Amor Eterno

Univision

143

4

4

NCIS

CBS

141

5

10

Blue Bloods

CBS

141

6

5

FBI

CBS

139

7

105

Rubí

Univision

133

8

92

Ringo

Univision

132

9

11

Magnum P.I.

CBS

130

10

25

Grey's Anatomy

CBS

129

Stickiness Rank

Enamorándonos hosts Ana Patricia Gámez and Rafael Araneda

* TV Engagement ratings powered by Comscore’s TV Essentials. (Sorted by social media activity.)

Broadcastingcable.com

Univision Communications, Inc.

STICKIEST SHOWS Top 10 broadcast programs ranked by viewer engagement

39

VIEWPOINT

By Adriana Waterston, Horowitz Research @HorowitzInsights

In a Census Year, Representation Matters As the U.S. grows more diverse, advertisers must become culturally attuned to ‘colorism’

Getty Images

W

40

e know representation in media matters. In Horowitz’s latest State of Consumer Engagement 2019 study, more than half (55%) of multicultural consumers said it would have a positive impact on their intent to purchase from a company if it featured people of their race/ethnicity in their advertising, and six in 10 (57%) said it would have a positive impact if a company’s ads represented their culture or lifestyle.

Census 2020 will begin in just a few short weeks, on April 1. Even before the numbers start rolling in, there’s one census finding that won’t be a surprise: The U.S. population is becoming even more multicultural and less white than ever before. This means it is more important than ever for the media industry and its advertisers to learn how to connect with American audiences in more nuanced, sophisticated and culturally attuned ways.

But executing nuanced, sophisticated and culturally attuned media and creative is not as straightforward as it seems.

High-profile faux pas by companies like Dove, Nivea, H&M, Gucci and others underscore the damage that a racially insensitive creative decision can do to a brand. On the other hand, companies like Nike, Xfinity, Google, Apple, P&G and Coca-Cola have shown by example that great, inclusive, culturally resonant creative can deliver on multiple fronts, including creating goodwill, helping shift negative perceptions and adding to a company’s bottom line.

As the diversity and representation conversation evolves, one issue that looms large is colorism. Colorism — the practice of favoring lighterskinned people of color over those who are darker-skinned — is rampant across all forms of media, especially when casting people of color in general market content and advertising.

On many levels, colorism is problematic. It is also not that effective. Horowitz has begun analyzing survey data based on skin tone (self-

Broadcastingcable.com

assessed based on an image) to better understand the impact of colorism on consumers.

Horowitz’s recent State of Consumer Engagement 2019 study reveals that blacks with darker skin are more likely to feel that the advertising industry ignores them (36% vs. 25% of mediumskinned), but more likely to say that when they see African-Americans in a company's advertising, it makes them feel like the company cares about them (43% vs. 26% of medium-skinned). In other words, darker-skinned black consumers are more likely to feel that the ad industry ignores them compared to their lighter-skinned counterparts — but are more likely to react positively to representation.

The rationale for casting lighterskinned, less ethnic-looking talent is often justified by pragmatism.

Some might think that casting racially ambiguous talent could do double duty by checking off more than one diversity box. But is it really pragmatism at play in deciding to cast lighterskinned people, or something else? To answer that question, we must unpack and contextualize societal notions of race and color.

Cultural anthropologists and biologists have long asserted that there is, in fact, no such thing as race. The classification of people into categories based on skin tone is a societal structure, not a biological one. Indeed, skin tones exist on a spectrum.

Adriana Waterston is senior VP, insights and strategy at Horowitz Research.

Is it really pragmatism at play in deciding to cast lighter-skinned people, or something else?

The binary classification of people into racialized classifications by skin color has been used to justify granting rights and privileges to some, while denying them from others. Positive traits and characteristics were generally assigned to lighter-skinned “races,” while negative ones were generally assigned to those with darker skin, all without biological justification.

Legal and institutional structures were built around these racialized classifications which, in turn, perpetuated those underlying biases for whiteness and against darkness.

There were (and still are) many examples of structural discrimination. Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation and discrimination in the South from the end of the Reconstruction era until well into the 1950s. The Federal Housing Authority enacted policies that redlined African-American neighborhoods, precluding blacks from getting FHAbacked mortgages from the 1930s until the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968. Blacks were systemically barred from institutions of higher education, leading to numerous lawsuits. Stop and frisk and other racial-profiling-based policing policies are still widely implemented today.

Moreover, representations of attractiveness and beauty in the arts reinforced the idea that whiteness and all the features and traits assigned to it were superior and more desirable to darkness and its associated features and traits. Indeed, blackness was often “whitewashed” or rendered invisible in the arts. Given all the privileges of whiteness, colorism even took root within many racial and ethnic groups themselves, with lighter skin symbolizing higher social status and being deemed more desirable. Some who could chose to “pass” for white.

Unpacking Biases

The racialized classification of people is so enmeshed in the fabric of American society that many of us unwittingly help perpetuate it. This is known as implicit bias: the unconscious preference for people with lighter skin over people with darker skin. This permeates virtually all aspects of American life, including media and advertising.

People of color — especially young people of color — are realizing their social, political, economic and cultural empowerment. They are flexing their economic muscle to support brands that are committed to them: Six in 10 African-American (61%) and Hispanic (61%) consumers say they are more likely to patronize companies that embrace and support their community. They are also pushing back against all forms of racism — implicit or otherwise. This includes calling out colorism in all its manifestations.

As we move into 2020, brands’ success hinges on connecting with America’s increasingly diverse general market and in order to connect, brands must step it up. Playing it safe is not going to cut it anymore. ●

THE FIVE SPOT

Dan Abrams Host, Producer, Correspondent, Author Law & Crime founder says viewers want ‘real reality,’ not the fake stuff

D

an Abrams has become a one-man media conglomerate.

The son of famed First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams, he’s moved from reporting on legal issues on Court TV to launching web businesses including Mediaite, a studio that produces shows such as the top-rated Live PD and Court Cam on A&E and the Law & Crime network. He also hosts a daily show on Sirius XM, and he’s the chief legal correspondent for ABC News, which kept him busy during the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

In March, Abrams will publish John Adams Under Fire: The Founding Father’s Fight for Justice in The Boston Massacre Trial.

Working out helps keep Abrams sane. “But when things heat up on my books, I have basically no free time beyond spending time with my son Everett,” he said.

He spoke with B+C business editor Jon Lafayette.

For a lawyer turned TV-news guy, you’ve been very entrepreneurial. What spurred the urge to launch businesses? I have always been as, or more, interested in the business side of media than the on-air side. When I was on air at MSNBC, I made a pitch to leave my show and run the network. I eventually realized what I really wanted to do

wasn’t to run an arm of NBC News but to start my own media businesses. Media right now is the Wild West with lots of available real estate, so it’s incredibly exciting and fun.

What’s surprised you about the popularity of Live PD? I could not have predicted that it would often be the No. 1 show on cable on Friday and Saturday nights. What has been most surprising (and rewarding) about it has been how invested the audience is in the show. #LivePDNation, as we call the community, is so passionate about every detail of the show. They sometimes see little things the police miss, help catch wanted fugitives or find the missing children we highlight on the show How many other live or real-life shows — Live Rescue, Court Cam — do you think there’s an appetite for? People don’t really want fake, scripted reality shows anymore. They want real reality and we can provide that. A lot of it. The genre is really hot and we are now producing programs for five other networks/platforms.

Will digital and streaming technology sustain the type of legal networks like the one where you got your start, Court TV? I started Law & Crime based on my experience at Court TV in the ’90s, but it’s even more relevant today because media has

BONUS FIVE All-time favorite show? Happy Days Favorite app? Lyft or Barry’s Bootcamp Destination on your bucket list? An African safari, but it isn’t happening any time soon.

Book on your nightstand?

Re-reading David McCullough’s John Adams in preparation for a book tour Memorable meal?

I’m a big wine person and there is a terrific new restaurant in Manhattan called Pasta Eater. They don’t have a liquor license, so I bought an Ornellaia and a Saxum and had an amazing Italian pasta dinner.

Dan Abrams has moved from TV personality to multiplatform media maven, including radio host on Sirius XM (l.).

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Broadcastingcable.com

become so fractured. Law & Crime’s live trial coverage is a niche audience but fortunately it’s a pretty big niche.

Mediaite is in the journalism criticism business. How could the news do a better job covering stories like the impeachment? I wish media coverage would more often take a step back and present more context and analysis, even if it’s something we didn’t just learn about today. Some do try to do this, but we need to remember that most people aren’t following every detail of ongoing stories. Just because it’s not the first time something has occurred, that doesn’t mean that we should become numb to its significance. ●

9000