The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Creative Dimensions has carved out a speciality designing sets and temporary studios for many sports teams and networks, including ESPN and MLB Network. The company, headquartered near Hartford, Connecticut, has also been involved in developing installations and exhibits for major brands like IKEA, Dairy Queen, and PepsiCo.

Brad Hogan, CEO of Pinnacle, noted that the addition of Creative Dimensions bolsters Pinnacle’s strategic focus on the intersection of marketing, culture, and branded content.

Pinnacle’s experience includes over 25 years in sports and entertainment marketing, with significant involvements in events like the Super Bowl and MLB All-Star games, as well as a growing presence in university esports programs.

“This is a natural evolution in Creative Dimensions’ progression of serving brands in and out of sports and entertainment,” said Joel Roy, president of Creative Dimensions, who will transition to the role of Hartford division president at Pinnacle. “Joining Pinnacle, as their sixth location nationwide, allows our team to expand our reach from coast-to-coast and offer our clients a host of additional experiential capabilities.”

FX Design Group and Exhibit Design Group announce merger, combining scenic and experiential services

This acquisition by Pinnacle follows other industry M&A including the merger of FX Design Group with Exhibit Design Group (EDG) in 2023.

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The new show, set to debut March 3, 2024, will be known as “The Hill Sunday with Chris Stirewalt,” leveraging the name of the political publication Nexstar bought in 2021.

NewsNation already produced a daily version of “The Hill,” which is hosted by Blake Burman.

Stirewalt is already politics editor for NewsNation and is also a contributing editor to the right-leaning publication The Dispatch. He’s also a fellow at the right-leaning think tank American Enterprise Institute. 

He also is featured in the segments “Pulse of the People” and “Stirewalt Breaks it Down” on the weekday version of “The Hill.”

Early in January 2024, NewsNation announced some schedule changes, including launching weekend morning news. The new weekend “Morning in America” will lead into “The Hill Sunday.”

The 10 a.m. timeslot doesn’t compete with CNN’s “State of the Union,” which airs at 9 a.m. eastern. It also avoids “Fox News Sunday,” which also airs at 9 a.m. on the Fox broadcasting network and 2 p.m. on the network’s cable channel.

ABC, NBC and CBS Sunday morning political affairs programming, “This Week,” “Meet the Press” and “Face the Nation” have varying airtimes depending on market. 

“Meet the Press” is typically offered at 9 a.m. but airs later in different markets, including 10:30 a.m. in Washington, D.C. and New York. “Face the Nation” starts at 10:30 a.m. eastern, with some stations carrying the full 60 minutes and others either breaking the show into two different airtimes or not carrying the second half. “This Week” is offered at 9 a.m. eastern, but times vary by market.

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David D. Smith, who grew up in Baltimore, has purchased the publication for an undisclosed price from Alden Global Capital’s MediaNews Group. He made the buy with Armstrong Williams, a Republican media personality who hosts a commentary show that airs on Sinclair stations. 

The purchase was made by Smith personally and not by Sinclair itself, similar to how Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post without Amazon itself having any business stake in it.

Smith said was he was driven to buy the paper as a longtime local resident. 

The Sun is part of the Baltimore Sun Media, which was also purchased by Smith. 

The company also owns The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, and several other publications in the region. The Capital Gazette office was the site of a 2016 shooting that killed five employees. 

Both Smith and SBG have a history of supporting and even championing ring-wing causes and views. 

Sinclair itself came under fire in 2018 after it forced its stations to air promos touting the dangers of “fake news,” a term popularized by Donald Trump. These promos largely used nearly identical scripts and were later nicknamed “hostage videos.” 

The company has also required its stations to run commentaries and other content critic of the left and Democratic candidates and Smith himself has donated to conservative causes. 

Smith is the son of Julian Sinclair Smith, who founded what would become Sinclair Broadcast Group, which was then known as Chesapeake Television Corp.

David D. Smith previously sold pornographic videos for profit. In 1996, he faced a series of legal troubles when he was charged with an “unnatural and perverted sex act” (oral sex) in a company-owned vehicle. He was sentenced to community service and met that requirement by having Sinclair’s WBFF in Baltimore produce a series on a drug counseling program.

Despite having separate ownership, that doesn’t mean that Smith couldn’t orchestrate cross-promotions or other marketing efforts between the two companies, especially in Baltimore via WBFF, the local Fox affiliate. Bezos, for example, has created promotional tie-ins between The Post and Amazon Prime and other Amazon efforts.

The Sun, like most newspapers, has seen steep declines in advertising and subscription revenue and previous owners made massive cuts to save money. 

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As previously announced by the network, “Balance of Power” host Annmarie Hordern is set to join the television version of the program with current host Tom Keene shifting back to radio. Keene helped launch the “Surveillance” franchise on Bloomberg Radio in 2008, anchoring various television versions of the show, including the current version, which debuted in 2020.

Keene is also set to launch a new weekly program, part of the franchise, later this year.

For the revamp, the network has invested in a new broadcast studio for “Surveillance,” designed by Clickspring Design, and located at the network’s headquarters in New York City.

The new studio incorporates large LED display technology and hints of architectural detail, with a flexible design to accommodate the various outputs Bloomberg produces. The space is wrapped in a skyline view of New York City, with a curved LED providing the primary background.

The space includes subtle nods to Bloomberg and the financial market, including a backlit Bloomberg Terminal logo on a wall panel.

Designed to shoot basically in the round, the layout includes multiple presentation positions and a hub desk with Terminal’s included.

Current editions of the program broadcast from the studio initially launched for the network’s political program, “With All Due Respect.”  

Jonathan Ferro will continue to lead the television version of “Surveillance,” alongside Lisa Abramowicz and Hordern. Meanwhile, Kailey Leinz is set to co-host “Balance of Power” with Joe Mathieu, marking a shift in the presentation team for this program.

Simultaneously, Bloomberg Media has announced changes in its anchor lineup.

“Bloomberg Technology,” helmed by Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow, is slated to shift its broadcast time to the 11 a.m. ET hour. “Bloomberg Markets: European Close,” which previously occupied the 11 a.m. ET slot will be discontinued.

The daily feature from Bloomberg Television’s weekend program “Wall Street Week,” anchored by David Westin will now be featured at the 10 a.m. ET hour. However, the main “Wall Street Week” program will maintain its regular airing time on Fridays at 6 p.m. ET.

“Bloomberg ETF IQ,” which airs on Mondays, “Bloomberg Crypto” on Tuesdays, and “Bloomberg Real Yield” on Fridays, will all be moving to the noon ET time slot on their respective airing days.

“Bloomberg Markets” is set to move to a new time at 12:30 p.m. ET daily. 

In the afternoon lineup, “Bloomberg Markets: The Close” is scheduled to air from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET. The show will be hosted by Romaine Bostick, with Alix Steel joining in the 3 p.m. ET hour and Scarlet Fu contributing at 4 p.m. ET. 

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KDKA, which is owned by CBS, and Cox’s WPXI have been sharing a helicopter for several years now as a way to share the cost of having an aircraft on standby for news stories. 

That agreement, however, is slated to end soon, and neither station plans on replacing the chopper with one of its own.

Instead, photojournalists licensed to operate drones equipped with cameras will be used to gather more aerial footage as needed.

The move means that Hearst’s WTAE will be the only station in the market left with its own helicopter, which is branded as Sky4.

Most local TV stations don’t actually own their news helicopters outright, instead paying a third-party to hold own and maintain the craft, but typically it’s only used for newsgathering purposes by the station or stations in question.

Going forward, it is possible that KDKA or WPXI could pay a daily or hourly fee to a local helicopter charter company if aerial footage is needed that can’t be achieved using a drone (this is common in markets where stations have gotten rid of helicopters as well).

Helicopters used to be more popular at TV stations, especially in larger markets and were often featured with much fanfare in station promos and would also sometimes touchdown at local events. 

However, as operating costs rose and drones emerged as an alternative to capturing aerial footage, including live views, many station management was left questioning if the expense was worth it. 

Some opted to share an aircraft as a way to cut down costs, but it now appears even that expense is becoming harder to justify.

News choppers are popular for allowing stations to patrol local interchanges and freeways for traffic snarl ups, capture video of fires, car accidents and, of course, infamous car chases.

Drones used for commercial purposes, including newsgathering, require an operator to obtain a license issued by the FCC, though one is relatively easy to obtain and does not require anything close to the training or skill to pilot a full size aircraft.

Drones do have some disadvantages over helicopters: They often can’t fly as high as most helicopters or for as long. Most drones use batteries while helicopters use fuel. 

When gathering news footage, drone operators are also required to maintain “line of sight” to the drone, meaning they must be able to see it (or have a second spotter in communication with them who is watching).

This could limit how far the drone could fly from the launch site, though in many cases the battery would drain if the drone flew that far away and likely end up losing power and ultimately crashing.

News helicopters, like many small aircraft, do have some significant safety issues. 

Back in December 2023, two staffers at WPVI in Philadelphia were killed when their helicopter crashed on its way back from an assignment. Unfortunately, the station is not alone in ones that have lost staffers to chopper crashes. 

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Contrary to the common perception that Gen Z (ages 13-24) predominantly indulges in short-form content like social media clips and streaming music, the study reveals a significant engagement with professional, long-form television content. The research shows that Gen Z audiences are nearly as likely to watch professionally produced TV shows as they are to engage with non-TV content such as social media videos, user-generated clips and video game live streams.

Surprisingly, 70% of Gen Z respondents report watching full-length TV content weekly, closely following the 80% who view short-form videos with the same frequency. This trend is consistent across both the older (18-24 years) and younger (13-17 years) segments of Gen Z.

Interestingly, Gen Z’s TV viewing habits are not confined to traditional television screens. Over half of the respondents typically watch long-form TV content on their TV sets, while more than a third prefer viewing on smartphones. This is in contrast to the 65% who use smartphones to watch short-form content. Notably, around 20% of Gen Zers, especially the older demographic, also view non-TV content on their television screens. This crossover suggests potential opportunities for media companies and advertisers to incorporate mobile-centric behaviors, like content sharing and interactive commerce, into the larger screen experience.

Gen Z’s appetite for diverse content is catered to by their use of multiple streaming services. On average, Gen Z streamers subscribe to 6.1 streaming services, an increase from 5.0 in 2020. Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) services like the Roku Channel, Tubi and Pluto TV are gaining popularity among this demographic.

The study also highlights the preferred TV content genres for Gen Z viewers, which include movies, animated series (excluding anime), dramas and music-related shows. Older Gen Z members generally report higher viewership in these categories compared to their younger counterparts.

Adriana Waterston of Horowitz Research, notes the engagement of Gen Z with long-form content and the implications for content development, user experience and revenue models. She anticipates a keen interest from these younger audiences in new content, especially post the resolution of writers’ and actors’ strikes.

The complete “Focus Generation Next” report offers a detailed analysis of Gen Z’s interaction with various forms of video content, entertainment, brand relationships and their unique position as politically aware digital natives. The study, which includes responses from 812 Gen Z individuals in the U.S., also over-samples Latinx, Black and Asian demographics, ensuring a comprehensive and diverse perspective.

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This will be MacCallum’s second tour at the network, having previously worked on digital products including the mega-flop CNN+.

MacCallum is an experienced product, business and media executive who joins from the Washington Post where she served as chief revenue officer overseeing subscriptions, partnerships and advertising.

At the Post, MacCallum began the transformation of the Post’s business, from changing the way its advertising team was structured to evolving how cross-functional work happens across the company.

She returns to CNN after previously serving as global head of product for CNN Worldwide and general manager of CNN+ where she managed product, data, design, growth marketing and business operations.

At CNN the first time, MacCallum led cross-functional teams to the launch of CNN+, a direct-to-consumer streaming service as well as re-structured the core CNN.com product teams to better serve its users.

MacCallum was one of the key leaders behind the high-profile failure that the network’s CNN+ streamer ended up being — with the service costing the company millions and staid in operating for less than a month.

She left CNN in June 2022 and is now poised to return less than two years later.

Since her departure, CNN launched CNN Max, a channel on parent Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming platform as a way to distribute its content directly to consumers, both live and via VOD.

There were numerous reports that WBD wanted CNN to wait to launch CNN+ until after its deal to acquire then-CNN parent WarnerMedia closed, but legal issues prevented them from communicating that message. CNN went head with launching CNN+ before the deal was done only to have WBD take over and shut it down after less than a month.

The closure reportedly cost job losses as well as millions of dollars the network (even causing its profit to dip below $1 billion) had invested in talent, editorial teams and other investments to launch the streamer, including staff focused only on the streamer.

Before joining CNN the first time, she spent eight years at The New York Times in various roles, including head of product for standalone products, a NYT portfolio that included Cooking, Games, Wirecutter, Audio and Kids, and as the founding masthead editor for audience in the newsroom. She was the founding product leader on NYT Cooking, leading the creation and growth of the product in partnership with editorial. She also spent time in the newsroom overseeing NYT Video, re-focusing the team on user-oriented formats and experiences.

MacCallum has deep experience in building products that bring world class journalism and storytelling to life. At the Times, she championed a cross-functional product development process that allowed for rapid iteration, new product creation and innovation in product and in particular, direct to consumer businesses.

She began her career in media at the Washington Post and was the first news editor for the Huffington Post. She graduated from Brown University and holds a law degree from U.C. Berkeley.

MaCallum’s first day back at CNN will be March 4, 2024. She will be based out of CNN’s New York bureau.

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CNN also announced that it is canceling a planned for Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024, because only Ron DeSantis has agreed to participate. Leading candidate Donald Trump has yet to attend any debate or any town halls outside of right-leaning media and Haley announced she would only participate in a future debate if Trump would appear.

That was apparently a no-go with the Trump camp and DeSantis can’t exactly debate himself without it becoming, essentially, a second town hall.

ABC News also announced it would cancel its planned Jan. 18, 2023 debate for similar reasons.

The event comes two days after candidate Ron DeSantis appeared on a separate CNN town hall. 

He and Haley trailed Trump, who nabbed just over half of all caucus nods, with DeSantis getting a slight edge on Haley — approximately two percentage points.

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Almost all of the in-depth caucus coverage was carried on cable, streaming or both. 

MSNBC anchored its coverage from Studio 3B, as usual, using its existing election graphics look with some minor updates.

It brought back its extended reality technology that could be added to the west side of 3B, which is outfitted with a green screen surround. 

The look was tweaked a bit from the last election, with less of the structural girder supports visible and some bolder colored elements.

Sister streamer NBC News Now offered its own coverage from Studio 3B West, the same space used the previous week for special election coverage. The space’s plentiful video walls allowed Now to showcase multiple video feeds coming in from all over the state as well as some data-driven looks.

CNN took the opportunity to launch a new election graphics package at 7 p.m. eastern. More coverage of that is coming.

Fox continued to use its “Democracy 2024” branding and look. The network was only one of the major cable networks to send most of its hosts to Iowa, with CNN and MSNBC covering from New York and Washington, D.C., though all of them had scores of reporters on the ground throughout the state.

The “PBS NewsHour” team offered special coverage of the caucuses as well, introducing a new election look designed by Vivid Zero.

The new open also includes a new “Vote 2024” logo combines blue and white angled backgrounds with red and white ribbons with shadowed folds that conjures some connections to the flag icon in NBC News’ election logo.

The “Vote” logo itself is now italicized and producers added the “Iowa Caucuses” subtitle to the open using a condensed sans serif. 

CBS and ABC offered coverage via YouTube and their respective streaming platforms. 

Nexstar’s NewsNation anchored coverage from its New York City newsroom featuring Elizabeth Vargas, Chris Cuomo and Dan Abrams, who each host separate shows on the network.

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The show, announced earlier in January 2024, uses a panel format and is hosted by Alicia Menendez, Michael Steele and Symone Sanders-Townsend.

“The Weekend” originates from Studio N5 at the network’s Washington, D.C., bureau near the Capitol.

The show brought out the high circular table often used in this space for the three hosts and guests to sit around, which is placed slightly forward of the studio’s large video wall alcove. That background is used at the top of the show when Menendez, who sits camera center of this view directly in front of the center wall, introduces herself and the other hosts.

“The Weekend” uses circular elements as a major motif in the show’s design — including showcasing the trio of hosts in at the start of the open in three “arches” that could be seen as a nod to the NBC peacock’s feather shape.

View on Giphy

The open takes viewers through a kaleidoscope of scenes, including a multicolor-banded animated wipe with the show’s logo repeated inside of each. 

Hosts are then each showcased with their own unique sub-look, if you will, which is first hinted at in the triptych of photos at the very start of the open. 

Menendez gets top billing against a red, orange and violet background with halftone dots and yellow text. Halftones are, by definition, a series of repeating dots and they often change in size to create the illusion of darker areas of an image, so it’s a natural choice for a textural pattern for the look. 

Steele is next with a dark blue background accented with red lines in increasing or decreasing thicknesses — a look that’s probably the simplest of the three. The lines are similar to the color-changing backlit staggered horizontal elements found along the base of the video wall and part of the wall opposite the setup.

Sanders-Townsend is placed in front of a green background (which happens to be one of the signature colors of her previous show, “Symone”). Violet lines and a repeating colorful array of silhouettes are also used.

All told, there’s a core set of visuals blended in one or more of each of these looks — lines, circles, halftones, oversized typography, and color. 

The view then shifts to an off-white background with black halftones, line accents and a series of black shapes that, through somewhat choppy animation, move around the screen and eventually serve as the base for the various letters in the show title. 

For example, three different circular shapes form the three “e”s in “Weekend,” echoing their roughly circular shape, while three triangles form the “W.” Other elements include cursor-like rectangles and angled lines in both thin and thick varieties. 

The lowercase “n” is formed with the curved arch accent and a series of halftone marks, which fill in the space under the letter’s curved leg in the logo. A circular bubble forms in the middle right of the screen and quickly reveals the host three-shot in the studio in front of the video walls.

In this view, the perpendicular video wall behind Steele’s position camera left draws much of its look on his part of the open. On the opposite side of the table, Sanders’ green is used.

Menedez’s color palette runs along the bottom of the center video wall behind her camera center position. As the center portion, the design also features a stylized D.C. skyline placed off-center with an irregular array of repeating circles used as a matte along the top.

All three backgrounds feature additional photography inspired by Washington; again, many of them are placed inside circular frames.

Steel’s blue background features a widely spaced series of marks that slowly get larger as the eye moves from the top to bottom of the graphic, similar to how the lines change thickness in his part of the open (incidentally, those lines find their way into the camera center background behind Menedez). 

Sanders’ background, meanwhile, has slightly more imagery and features a tightly spaced circular pattern that winds up with lighter greet four-pointed sparkle shapes.

No camera blinds are used to capture “in the round” layout; instead cameras for Steele and Sanders-Townsend appear on either side of the studio at various times. They’re positioned so that Steele’s body blocks most of Sanders-Townsend’s camera from view and vice-versa.

Menedez’s one-shot largely features the D.C. cityscape and the bold bands running horizontally along the lower part of the graphic.

Steele is shot in front of Studio N5’s real windows overlooking the Capitol, with the LED column found here fed a blue image with the show logo, an array of red dots and a thin curved line that appears to be either taken from the show’s graphics or part of a peacock feather.

Sanders-Townsend’s one shot typically includes a video screen with internally lit frames built into the wall along one side of the studio and an edge-lit peacock element. 

It’s worth noting how both the CR and CL positions both have a peacock-like element in the background — and how, in its simplest form, a peacock feather consists of a circular tip with straight but angled lines, much like many of the elements found in the show’s graphics. 

When an in-studio guest is featured, he or she sits across from Menendez, though slightly off-axis. This person’s one shot is the blocky column in the corner where a three-panel array of screens meets the wall of windows. The background, in this case, is the wood-toned column and its blocky edge-lit horizontal accent segments (similar in profile to those found in the open to form the “k”). 

The smaller on-set monitors throughout the studio typically feature different looping animations of the show logo against a constantly morphing wash of colors borrowed from those in the open and other spots. The loops typically don’t match, allowing a myriad of colors to be on-screen. In some cases, these arrays are also used to promote social media profiles or other MSNBC programming with a camera slowly zooming in on the panel with a corresponding graphic. 

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