Hearst-owned stations are to go dark on Comcast Dec. 22 as the cable operator plans to drop Hearst "overflow" stations where it's carrying more than one local station affiliated with the same network, said notices sent to subscribers in the 38 affected markets across 17 states. Hearst and Comcast didn't comment.

Comcast and Tegna got waivers to add existing collocated antennas to incumbent C-band earth station registrations for interference protection in the 4-4.2 GHz band, per an FCC International Bureau order in Tuesday's Daily Digest. It said the rights of such additional collocated antennas are different from those of the incumbent earth stations. The bureau said it will implement waivers to keep separate the two classes of C-band earth stations, with the additional antennas registered under a new call sign. The bureau plans to email detailed directions to all operators with approved waivers.

“The profusion of crystal-clear, widescreen digital HDTV sets in almost every American home and office, we just take for granted today,” former FCC Chairman Richard Wiley told a commemorative industry Zoom call Monday. Wiley chaired the FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service for 12 years. Saturday was the 25th anniversary of ACATS' final report to the commission, recommending adoption of the Grand Alliance HDTV system as “better than any of the four original” DTV proposals and “superior to any known alternative system.” Wiley doubts ATSC 3.0 “would be possible were it not for the work of the Grand Alliance and the advisory committee,” he said. What “really surprised” Wiley about the Grand Alliance proposal “was how much opposition we got from government and business leaders,” he said. “It all seems still very odd to me,” he said: “Yet all the credit” should go to ACATS and Grand Alliance members “who just continued to plod along and do your work, criticism notwithstanding, and stayed the course and made HDTV a reality.”

ViacomCBS will sell its Simon & Schuster publishing business to Bertelsmann, the parent of Penguin Random House, for $2.18 billion, it said Wednesday. It said proceeds will go into strategic growth priorities like video streaming, and paying down corporate debt. The deal, expected to close next year, got criticism. Robert Thomson, CEO of rival News Corp, which bid for Simon & Schuster, said Bertelsmann "is not just buying a book publisher, but buying market dominance as a book behemoth." Open Markets Institute said DOJ should challenge the deal "to make clear that no further consolidation of power will be allowed in America’s book publishing industry, which is already too concentrated." It urged DOJ "immediately take steps to break Amazon’s power over the sale and distribution of books in America, which is the ultimate source of the pressures on America’s authors, editors, and publishers."

Comments are due Dec. 24, replies Jan. 25 on the FCC proposals to require disclosures when stations are compensated to air content by a foreign entity, said a Media Bureau public notice in Wednesday’s Daily Digest.

The biggest TV platform providers, such as Roku, Apple and Amazon, are growing in influence, but their power is checked somewhat by the fragmented TV platform market, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Sunday. The top 10 platforms have about half the market; the rest is divided among many others. Big content providers are a check, he said, with TV platforms' popularity dependent on having the biggest subscription VOD services.

Sixty-one percent of U.S. broadband households subscribed to two or more over-the-top video services in Q3, up from 48% in the year-ago quarter, reported Parks Associates Monday. ViacomCBS is expanding CBS All Access to become Paramount+ early next year (see 2009150003), joining several other OTT video services that hit the market in the past year, trying to take share from the big three: Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. The pandemic stirred up competition at the top of the OTT ecosystem, as viewers spend more time at home, said analyst Steve Nason. The five main challengers are “filling in important content gaps not currently being delivered by the Big 3 and other services,” said Nason.

Though Warner Music Group’s digital revenue increased 15% in fiscal Q4, ended Sept. 30 from the year-earlier quarter, total revenue declined 1%, said CEO Steve Cooper on a Monday investors call. WMG had a 45% revenue decline “in areas of our business that are most aligned with touring and live appearances, and therefore most disrupted by COVID,” he said. The pandemic “reinforced the importance of technology across every aspect of our business, from how we sign talent to how we market music to how we pay royalties,” said Cooper. WMG sees subscription streaming as “just the beginning” of a new “golden age” in music, one “of many avenues for long-term growth,” he said. Music revenue from social media is growing faster than that of subscription streaming, and gaming “is among the fastest-growing sectors of digital media,” he said.

Nearly a month after departing SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer said a long-term contract renewal with Howard Stern was near (see 2010220019), Meyer’s successor said it lacks a pact. “We’re excited to continue working with Howard,” incoming CEO Jennifer Witz told CNBC Friday. “We don’t have anything specific to announce today, but I’m really encouraged and confident that we’ll have something to say soon.” Witz becomes CEO Jan. 1, when Meyer shifts to vice chairman. Stern's contract expires Dec. 31. The day after Meyer spoke about an imminent deal, Stern shot down speculation that an agreement was near.

BuzzFeed is buying HuffPost, making Verizon a minority partner in BuzzFeed, Verizon Media announced Thursday. Through the content and ad partnership, Verizon and BuzzFeed will syndicate content across platforms, Verizon said. “Our media network will have more users, spending significantly more time with our content than any of our peers,” said BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti.