MSNBC Has Much to Juggle as Brian Williams, Rachel Maddow Take Next Steps

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorComcast and Disney renewed a critical carriage pact that will keep ESPN, Disney Channel, ABC and more flowing to the subscribers of the Philadelphia cable giant.The two companies said they had struck a “multi-year agreement” that includes carriage of the ESPN networks, Disney’s kid-focused cable networks, Freeform, the FX and National Geographic networks and ABC stations on Comcast’s Xfinity service.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorChris Cuomo is, once again, making headlines instead of delivering them.CNN said Monday that is was placing new scrutiny on the actions its most popular anchor took when his brother Andrew, the former governor of New York, was facing accusations of sexual harassment that eventually led him in August to give up his role as New York’s top politician.The WarnerMedia-owned outlet said in a statement that new revelations about how Chris Cuomo aided his brother,

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorChristian Nodal and Olga Tanon, two popular Latino musicians, no doubt thought they were reaching core fans when they agreed to give interviews yesterday to Univision’s recently launched Sunday broadcast of “Despierta America.” But they were also helping the Spanish-language network make inroads in a weekend-morning news war that has grown increasingly competitive.The weekday edition of “Despierta America” is a staple of Spanish-language TV in the U.S.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThere she is … but not on TV.When the Miss America Pageant returns this year for its 100th anniversary after being scuttled by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, it won’t air on a traditional television network — the latest indication how TV culture is radically changing in the face of broadband technology that gives entertainment seekers whatever they want at the push of a button.Organizers have planned a five-day event that starts on Dec.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorChristina Spade was named chief operating officer of AMC Networks as the company continues to fine-tune its executive suite after longtime chief Josh Sapan stepped back from his role in August.Spade, formerly the chief financial officer of ViacomCBS, was named CFO for AMC Networks at the start of 2021, and she will retain her current CFO duties.  She held CFO roles for both Showtime and CBS Corp. before it was re-merged with Viacom.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNielsen has a new proposal for TV networks that have been threatening for months to find other means of measuring their audiences: Stick with the yardstick you already use.The company, which has for decades offered viewership counts that are at the heart of how TV outlets set advertising rates, plans in 2022 to overhaul one of its most critical tabulations.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBCUniversal has retained rights to the English Premier League, a growing part of its sports offering in the streaming era, agreeing to a six-year rights extension with the sports organization.Under terms of the new deal, which starts with the 2022-23 season, NBC Sports, Peacock, Universo and Telemundo Deportes will present 380 soccer matches a year through 2028. The league and NBC Sports have been working together since 2013.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorSuccess in the TV industry has long been measured by Nielsen. Now WarnerMedia wants to be judged by a different yardstick.The owner of popular media outlets like HBO, CNN and TNT intends to offer its own audience-measurement data next year, with hopes of doing some deals based on its efforts in the 2022 upfront, Andrea Zapata, who oversees data, research and insights for the company, said in an interview with Variety.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAmazon has a new delivery for fans of “Thursday Night Football.”The tech behemoth, which currently enjoys rights to stream “Thursday Night Football” and will next year gain exclusive access to the NFL property, will test interest in interactive fan polling during this evening’s game between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons.Fans who watch the stream-cast via Amazon Prime on Android phones will be able to respond to polls once before kickoff and once

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorLaura Molen is using November to pitch Madison Avenue as if May were just around the corner.The NBCUniversal ad-sales president (above, pictured) is ready to unveil two new advertising formats for Peacock, the company’s streaming-video hub, as well as tout a host of new efforts to incorporate advertiser data; new quality standards; and partners like DV360, OneView, The Trade Desk, and Yahoo that will help so-called “programmatic” marketers using algorithms to get

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorGeoff Bennett, a Washington journalism veteran, was named chief Washington correspondent for PBS NewsHour, and he will also take over weekend anchoring duties for the program, which is moving its weekend broadcast from New York to the nation’s capital in April.Bennett, who had been a White House correspondent for NBC News and a substitute anchor on MSNBC, will start his new role January 3.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorESPN, which has seen some of its top executives charged with overseeing documentary and investigative work depart in recent months, said it had named news veteran Marsha Cooke as vice president and executive producer of its ESPN Films unit as well as its venerable “30 for 30” documentary unit.Cooke, who spent 24 years at CBS News, was most recently senior vice president of global news and special projects at Vice Media Group.“Marsha’s extensive production

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorPatsy Loris, a Univision news veteran who joined rival Telemundo’s news operations in a senior role in 2019, will take the reins of Notcias Telemundo in 2022, the latest in a changing of the guard in the top ranks of national media news divisions.She will replace Luis Fernández, president of Telemundo Network News, who is expected to retire at the end of the year after nearly five decades in the media industry.“Luis has been the driving force behind the growth of

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorLarge station owner Tenga Inc. struck a multi-year pact with Law & Crime Productions and Cineflix Rights to create original true-crime documentary series that utilize content from Tegna’s stations.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorBrian Williams, the veteran anchor who became an integral part of MSNBC after a critical on-air gaffe in 2015 while behind the anchor desk at “NBC Nightly News” led to his removal from that landmark program, is parting ways with the cable-news outlet and striking out on his own.His next steps in the news business, or whether he expects to continue in it, remain unknown.“After nearly three decades as an award-winning journalist and anchor at MSNBC and NBC News,

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBCUniversal has taken viewers to a little house near Walnut Grove, Minn., a police station on Hill Street and to whatever locale hosts the Olympics.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorDisney is testing a few methods of transporting advertisers to a galaxy far, far away.When visitors to the Disneyland Resort’s Downtown Disney District tour the area between November 21 and January 5, they will have the chance to test out a preview of “Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge,” the virtual-reality game that takes place on the planet of Batuu and uses Meta’s Oculus Quest 2 headset.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorJane Clarke will step down as managing director at the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, and will be succeeded by Jon Watts, a longtime consultant who has specialized in data and tracking digital activity. He joins a group that strives to scrutinize media measurement just as that topic has become one of the hottest in the sector.Clarke, who has led CIMM since its inception in 2009, will retire as its CEO and managing director.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorHallie Jackson will double the amount of time she spends anchoring each weekday, while dividing those duties between cable outlet MSNBC and the streaming hub NBC News Now.Jackson, a senior Washington correspondent who has been with NBC News since 2014, will launch “Hallie Jackson Now,” a new hour-long program  on NBC News Now that starts Monday, November 15, at 5 p.m. eastern.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorDisney’s ABC has renewed Tamron Hall’s daytime talk show for two more seasons, with the company’s local stations group agreeing to continue to carry the program.The decision guarantees a fourth and fifth season for the program, which was recently placed under the aegis of ABC News, and will see it produced through the 2023-2024 season.“ABC’s decision to give our show a two-season renewal is beyond my wildest dreams,” said Hall, in a prepared statement.