FOX Television Stations CEO, Jack Abernethy told Broadcasting & Cable, all 18 FOX owned stations will soon begin airing Harvey Levin’s celebrity gossip show ‘TMZ Live.”

“We were always interested in the show,” Abernethy told Broadcasting & Cable about launching the show in 2007. “We knew Harvey knew television, and it was the kind of thing we needed. It was intentionally structured to work for a Fox station— it was young and hip-looking.”

WWOR, FOX’s owned MyNewtorkTV affiliate in New Jersey, has begun airing a show called “Chasing New Jersey” that emulates the tone and pace of TMZ in place of its newscast.

“TMZ is incredibly efficient,” said Abernethy. “We are trying to steal pieces of this model. If you look at TMZ, you see how many people are actually researching stories, covering stories, touching stories—it’s virtually everybody. The more people you have covering stories and bringing stuff in, the better product you are going to have.” Read more

Gray Television reported $84.3 million in total revenue during the second quarter of 2013, a decline of 11% compared to the year-ago quarter.

Local and national advertising revenue both increased 5% compared to the year-ago quarter. Internet advertising revenue was down, as was political advertising, which fell 94% in the non-election year. Retransmission revenue rose 13% compared to the second quarter of 2012.

“We are pleased with our operating results for the second quarter of 2013. We experienced period over period increases in national advertising, local advertising and retransmission consent revenue.  Our period over period decrease in total revenue was primarily due to the expected decrease in political advertising revenue,” the company said in a statement.

Media General reported total gross revenues, excluding political, increased 4.7% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2013. Political revenues experienced an expected decline, from $7.5 million to $1 million, in the non-election year.

The company reported $5 million of operating income in the second quarter of 2013, down from $17 million in the second quarter of 2012. Media General attributed the year-over-year decline to significant expenses, including $7.2 million in expenses relating to its merger with Young Broadcasting, and an 86% decline in political revenue.

Cable and satellite retransmission revenue increased 38%, while digital revenues were up 17%.

“Our stations are doing a good job this year replacing last year’s robust Political revenues with new revenue initiatives and business development programs,” George L. Mahoney, president and CEO of Media General, said in a statement.

Sinclair Broadcast Group reported $279.3 million in net broadcast revenues for the second quarter of 2013, a 28.4% increase on the year-ago quarter. The company had operating income of $84.3 million for the quarter, compared to $71.9 million in the second quarter of 2012.

Local net broadcast revenues, which includes local time sales, retransmission revenues and other broadcast revenues, were up 35.9% in the second quarter. National broadcast revenues were up 7%. Political revenues declined in the non-election year: the company reported $1.5 million this quarter, compared to $11.4 million for the year-ago quarter.

“The first half of 2013 has been very successful for the Company, not only with respect to the Company’s results but on growing our platform through additional acquisitions of broadcast assets, especially our most recently announced planned acquisitions of the Allbritton stations and their local news cable/satellite channel,” Sinclair president and CEO David Smith said in a statement. “…We are excited about the successes we have achieved and the additional value that we have created and anticipate creating for our shareholders.”

Nexstar Broadcasting reported net revenue of $126.2 million for the second quarter of 2013, a 42% increase compared to the year-ago quarter.

Local and national core revenue was up 44% compared to the second quarter of 2012, with local revenues up 40.9% and national revenues up 51.8%. E-media revenues and retransmission revenues were also up significantly for the quarter, increasing 73.2% and 63.1%, respectively. Political revenues fell 69.5% in the non-election year.

“Nexstar’s growth and operating momentum is accelerating in 2013 and we remain confident that continued year-over-year growth in all of our non-political revenue sources in the second half of the year will result in record annual revenue and free cash flow,” Nexstar chairman and CEO Perry A. Sook said in a statement.

Revenue for the Scripps station group was $111.4 million in the second quarter of 2013, down $5.7 million from the year-ago quarter. An expected decline in political advertising lead to the loss in revenue. Excluding political advertising, the company’s television revenues increased 4.5%

Local and national advertising revenues were up 1.5% and 3.3%, respectively, in the second quarter. Retransmission revenue was up 34%, and digital revenue was up 14%. Expenses for the station group were down 1.6% due to lower syndicated programming costs, and profit in the television division also declined from $34.9 million in the second quarter of 2012 to $30.5 million this year.

“Although masked by the near absence of political advertising in 2013, the off year for elections, our core television revenues showed good growth on the strength of  expanding local audiences,” Scripps chairman, president and CEO Rich Boehne said in a statement.

The Washington Post Co. reported a $99.3 million in revenue for the Post-Newsweek stations during the second quarter of 2013. This was a 4% increase compared to the second quarter of 2012.

Operating income for the quarter was up 9% to $47.7 million, from $43.7 million in the year-ago quarter. For the first six months of the year, the company reported a 4% increase in revenue, $186.5 million compared to $177.1 million int he same period of 2012. Operating income for the first half of the year also increased 11% to $83.1 million.

“The increase in revenue and operating income reflects growth in advertising demand across many product categories; incremental advertising revenue from the NBA finals broadcast at the division’s ABC affiliates in Miami and San Antonio; and increased retransmission revenues. The increase in revenue and operating income was offset partially by a $5.3 million and $8.1 million decline in political advertising revenue in the second quarter and first six months of 2013, respectively,” the company said in a statement.

Hearst Television has named Angela Betasso vice president of sales. Betasso joins Hearst from Belo Corp., where she has been vice president of sales since 2010.

Betasso’s appointment, expected to be effective in early 2014, will give her responsibility for sales activities at Hearst’s 29 stations. She will share oversight with Kathleen Keefe, who is also a Hearst Television vice president of sales.

“Angela’s distinguished herself in our industry as a top sales executive at one of the finest station groups,” Hearst Television chairman and CEO David J. Barrett said in a statement. “She appreciates the importance of local stations to their communities, and is experienced in serving marketing partners in today’s highly competitive multi-platform media world.  She and Kathleen will make a formidable team leading Hearst Television’s sales initiatives and future direction.”

Raycom Media stations in 36 markets have gone dark on Dish Network after the two companies failed to reach an new carriage agreement by midnight Wednesday.

“We are ready to listen to a fair proposal from Raycom to bring this impasse to a swift end,” Dish director of programming Sruta Vootukuru said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the broadcaster has not been willing to pursue an agreement that would have avoided this disruption of service to our customers and Raycom viewers.”

“We understand this is frustrating for DISH Network customers, we share their frustration, and we are committed to doing everything we can to resolve this issue,” Raycom Media president and CEO Paul McTear said.

CBS and Time Warner are facing a Friday deadline in a similar dispute.

Journal Communications reported $43 million in revenue from television stations during the second quarter of 2013, up 22.5% (6.9% on a same-station basis) from the year-ago quarter, excluding political revenue.

Political advertising revenue dropped from $5.2 million in Q2 2012 to $0.2 million in the non-election year. Local and national advertising revenue, excluding political, were up 43.2% and 31%, respectively. On a same-station basis, local ad revenue was up 6.8% and national ad revenue declined 1%.

Operating earnings from Journal’s television station groups were $8.5 million, a decrease of 2.2% on the year-ago quarter (48.2% on a same-station basis). Both declines were due to “the loss of high-margin political revenue in 2013,” according to the company’s press release. Operating expenses increased 30.6%, (4.9% on a same-station basis), excluding acquisition costs, due to increases in network fees and employee-related costs.