Paramount Global stock closed down sharply Thursday after the company's Q1 earnings announcement pointed to a weak advertising market. Paramount shares ended the day at $16.40, down 28.4%. Revenue was $7.27 billion for the quarter, down from $7.33 billion the same quarter a year earlier. Streaming revenue was up 39%, but the overall decline was driven by an 8% decline in TV Media revenue. Chief Financial Officer Naveen Chopra said "weakness" in the global ad market caused a 7% year-over-year decline in ad revenue, with TV media advertising down 11% and direct-to-consumer advertising down 15%. "However, we are seeing signs of market stabilization," with some rebound in spending by categories including travel, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals, he said in a call with analysts. He said the Q2 year-over-year ad trend should be somewhat better than it was in Q1. Citing macroeconomic conditions, Chopra said the company was reducing its quarterly dividend from 24 cents per share to 5 cents. "The macro environment has not gotten less complex," and the dividend cut will save it $500 million annually, he said. He said the company is restarting its efforts to sell Simon & Schuster, with a deal potentially completed this year. Its attempt to sell it to Penguin Random House was blocked in 2022 on antitrust grounds. CEO Bob Bakish said the publisher's operating performance "is substantially superior to what it was when we brought it to the market before," which is driving "a lot of interest." Paramount said its Paramount+ streaming service added 4.1 million subscribers in the quarter and subscribership hit 60 million. It said Paramount+ revenue was up 65% year over year. It said its ad-support Pluto TV hit 80 million monthly active users.

Nexstar signed a multiyear distribution agreement with Hulu covering 122 of the company’s local television stations, plus the launch of affiliates and independent stations, the broadcast chain said Monday. The deal includes continued carriage of Nexstar's cable news network, NewsNation, on Hulu+Live TV, it said.

FCC proposals for improving emergency alert system reliability “are not tailored to the size, resources, or capabilities of EAS Participants,” said NCTA, ACA Connects, National Public Radio and NAB in meetings this week with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr, Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 15-94. The FCC “relies on fairly scant evidence of cybersecurity incidents or EAS equipment failures to justify the far-reaching proposals,” the filing said. The agency also underestimated the resources required for entities to comply with the proposals, the filing said. “Most EAS Participants have no in-house cybersecurity expertise, and therefore would likely require extensive -- and expensive -- assistance from outside consultants to translate the FCC’s broad and vague requirements into an actionable plan,” the filing said. The recently enacted Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 designated the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) as the lead federal agency on cybersecurity incident reporting, the filing said. “It would be premature, and potentially duplicative and counter-productive for the Commission to create a cyber-related incident reporting scheme before CISA completes its proceeding,” the groups said.

Fox Corp.'s $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems is "significant," but Fox will still have more than $3 billion in cash on its balance sheet, S&P Global said Thursday. Pointing to a related defamation suit from Smartmatic and potential shareholder suits, S&P said lawsuit-related costs could increase the company's debt but not enough to lower its credit rating.

Nexstar's NewsNation cable news network will expand to 24 hours, Monday through Friday, beginning Monday, the broadcaster said Tuesday.

Netflix will end its DVD service Sept. 29, co-CEO Ted Sarandos blogged Tuesday. "Our goal has always been to provide the best service for our members but as the business continues to shrink that’s going to become increasingly difficult," he said.

Black households are particularly heavy users of subscription VOD and free streaming services, Horowitz Research said Tuesday. It said 80% of Black Americans report using free over-the-top services in the past month, compared with 69% of consumers overall. It said 76% of Black consumers report subscribing to at least one SVOD, up from 68% in 2022. It said 67% of consumers overall report having at least one SVOD subscription. Horowitz said offering content representing the array of Black experiences and communities can help keep that audience engaged.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, saying classifying streaming services or virtual MVPDs (vMVPDs) as MVPDs is outside the FCC’s jurisdiction (see 2303310061) “overlooks the forest for the trees,” said Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long in a blog post Monday. Long said Rosenworcel’s conclusion that the agency doesn’t have authority over streaming was correct but ignored that more competition from streaming services means the agency should roll back regulations on industries it does oversee. “Given the vast array of competitive options available to consumers, regulations premised upon that technical distinction have outlived whatever utility they once may have had and should be eliminated,” wrote Long. The “goal of the Commission in 2023 should be to identify opportunities to eliminate outdated rules that apply to traditional MVPDs, not extend them to the new entrants,” he said.

Online video distributors don’t fit the statutory definition of an MVPD, and it would require changes to the Communications Act and copyright policies to change that, said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a letter posted Friday replying to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. Grassley wrote Rosenworcel in February, amplifying calls from broadcasters for the FCC to refresh the record on a 2014 proceeding on classifying streaming services as virtual MVPDs (see 2301260057). As subscribers increasingly move from regular MVPDs to streaming, broadcaster retransmission consent revenue is falling, and under the current system streaming services such as Hulu negotiate compensation for programming with networks rather than individual broadcasters, said Grassley. In the 2014 proceeding, “the record revealed significant concerns with the agency asserting jurisdiction over MVPDs,” Rosenworcel responded. The FCC “lacks the power to change these unambiguous provisions on its own but can do so if Congress changes the underlying law,” she said. If the FCC proceeded anyway, it’s not clear if the U.S. Copyright Office would allow the current statutory programming license used by current MVPDs to apply to virtual MVPDs, she said. The license allows MVPDs to negotiate for broadcast programming without having to negotiate with every entity that holds rights to each program. Without the license, “those distributors would be obligated to black out programming for which they are not able to negotiate copyright licenses, she said. The FCC is monitoring the matter of networks negotiating streaming contracts for broadcasters and the FCC Media Bureau “is carefully reviewing the record as it assesses appropriate next steps,” the letter said. “In light of the decades-old legal framework governing these matters, please know I would be happy to work with you to update underlying law to better reflect the current marketplace,” Rosenworcel said.

Citing a weakening overall economy, a sluggish advertising market and higher than previously forecast losses in its direct-to-consumer segment, S&P said Thursday it's lowering its Paramount Global rating on senior unsecured debt from BBB to BBB-. Paramount Global didn't comment.