Michael J. Hayes has been named senior vice president and group head of Hearst Television.

Hayes comes from WTAE, Hearst’s ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh, where he has been president and general manager since 2011. Before that, he spent eight years as general manager of WYFF, Hearst’s NBC affiliate in Greenville, S.C.

“In every step of his career with Hearst Television he’s been a high performer, and we are delighted that he’ll be joining our talented management team in New York to work with our stations and help us compete at an even higher level in the years ahead,” Hearst Television CEO David J. Barrett said in a statement.

Hayes’ promotion is effective June 1. His replacement at WTAE will be named at a later date.

Elizabeth Tumulty has been named executive vice president of Affiliate Relations for the CBS Television Network.

She will report to CBS president of affiliate relations Diana Wilkin and will work with Wilkin on negotiating new affiliation contracts and all affiliate related initiatives.

“I’m thrilled to have someone of Elizabeth’s professional caliber joining our team,” said Wilkin. “Her business acumen and vast knowledge of the inner workings of the affiliate-network relationship make her well-suited to keep CBS and its affiliates at the forefront of an always-evolving industry.” Read more

Gray Television has announced it will add the Syncbak internet TV platform to all of its 41 TV stations.

“Gray Television was one of the very first broadcasters to launch mobile DTV service,” said Bob Prather, Gray’s president and COO.  “Over the past few months, Syncbak has proven that they can provide another critical route to reach our local viewers.  We are therefore excited to be able to improve our local products by adding all of our stations to the Syncbak platform.”

The Syncbak platform allows stations to stream their signals over the internet to mobile and connected devices. Syncbak uses a “location-based authentication technology” to keep station signals within its market reach.

Syncbak is being tested by all the major networks in over 150 TV stations in 98 markets. Gray Television has stations in 30 markets including Wichita, KS, Winchester, VA, Rockford, IL, and Knoxville, KY. 21 of Gray’s stations are CBS affiliates, 11 are affiliated with NBC, eight are with ABC and five are FOX affiliates.

[TVNewsCheck]

LIN TV Corp. reported net revenues of $141 million in the first quarter of 2013, a 37% increased on $103.2 million in the year-ago quarter.

Local revenues, which include net local advertising revenues, retransmission revenues and station website revenues increased 47% to $99.4 million. Net national revenues were also up to $29.5 million, a 28% increased on the year-ago quarter. As expected in a non-election year, political revenues were down.

“After achieving record results last year, ad revenue is off to a slower start in 2013. However, retransmission revenues and the continued growth and contribution of our digital business more than offset declines,” president and CEO Vincent L. Sadusky said in a statement.

Cox Media Group has named Jane Williams executive vice president of television effective immediately. CMG also named Marian Pittman vice president of news and marketing for television. Pittman will report to Williams.

Williams, who oversees all of CMG’s television stations, was named senior vice president of television in 2012. Before that she was the publisher of the Cox owned Austin American-Statesman. She started her television career at WSB in Atlanta in 1988.  In 2007, she was promoted to VP of Sales for Cox Television and became CMG’s VP of Sales in 2009.

Williams welcomed Pittman by saying, “We are thrilled to have Marian lead our Television News and Marketing efforts.” Williams added, “She is the consummate news professional and has been an integral leader in one of the most successful, legendary local news operations in the country at Atlanta’s WSB-TV and will now work with all of our Television properties as we build for the future in a rapidly changing media environment.”

Most recently Pittman was the station manager for WSB. During her 25 year career in media, she has worked at WFTV in Orlando, WSOC in Charlotte and WHIO in Dayton, OH.

Nexstar Broadcasting reported $112.2 million in net revenue during the first quarter of 2013, a 34% increase on the year-ago quarter’s $83.6 million.

Local revenues were up 31.9% for the quarter and national revenues were up 34.3%. Political revenues were down significantly in the non-election year, but retransmission fees were up 64.2% and e-media revenue was up 57.3%. Broadcast cash flow was $39.8 million, an increase of 16.9% on the year-ago quarter.

“Industry revenue improved each month during the first quarter and this trend continues for Nexstar in the second quarter to date,” Nexstar chairman, president and CEO Perry A. Sook said in a statement. “As such, we are well positioned to grow all of our non-political revenue sources throughout 2013.”

Matthew C. Hupfield will join Texas based London Broadcasting Company as vice president and chief financial officer on July 15.

“We are extremely pleased to add Matt to the management team at LBC,” said Terry E. London, president of LBC. “He has tremendous experience in the television industry and his expertise will greatly contribute to our growing company. As a University of Texas graduate and a Texas native, Matt brings added insight to our Texas-based strategy.”

Hupfield is currently the VP and CFO for Newport Television.  Newport is in the process of selling off its 50 TV stations. Before working at Newport, Hupfield was divisional chief financial officer and VP of finance for Clear Channel Television.

London Broadcasting owns stations in Dallas, Waco, Tyler, Corpus Christi, Beaumont, Abilene and San Angelo, Texas. Read more

The E.W. Scripps Co. reported a $96.9 million in revenue from television stations in the first quarter of 2013, a 2.8% decline compared to the year-ago quarter.

Local advertising revenue was down 4.9% to $53.7 million and national advertising revenue was up 4.6% to $26.9 million. Digital revenue increased 23% and retransmission revenue increased 35% compared to the year-ago quarter.

“In the first quarter, which is our seasonally smallest revenue period, results were complicated by an expected absence of political advertising and difficult-to-predict advertising patterns coming out of 2012,” president, chairman and CEO Rich Boehne said in a statement. “These tough year-over-year revenue comparisons caused by cyclical political advertising will continue through the balance of 2013.”

Viewers of Nexstar’s Memphis ABC affiliate WPTY, Memphis CW affiliate WLMT, and Jackson FOX affiliate WJKT, will see a new look on-air after the stations move into a new state-of-the-art facility over the next month.

“With our soon-to-open Memphis broadcast and digital operations center and HD news facility, we are simultaneously raising our commitment to our viewers and advertisers with improved and enhanced content, production, marketing opportunities and overall viewing experience for the community at large,” said Ardyth Diercks vice president and general manager of WPTY, WLMT and WJKT.  “Our staff will benefit from the market’s most contemporary facility, fostering greater creativity through a modern work environment.”

Nexstar said in its press release the 27,000 square foot facility would be “operational and fully staffed on June 1,” and will include HD news production, HD commercial production and playback, and updated tech for producing weather and traffic reports.  You can watch a sneak peek video of the facility done by WPTY after the jump. Read more

Fisher Communications’ total television net revenue was $32.6 million in the first quarter of 2013. The 12% increase on the year-ago quarter was attributed to strong growth in the automotive, financial services and retail categories

The station group, which Sinclair Broadcast Group is in the process of acquiring, reported retransmission consent revenue increased 82% to $6.5 million in the first quarter. TV cash flow was $7 million, an increase of 33% on the year-ago quarter.

“2013 is off to a strong start, led by the continued market share growth among our broadcast stations,” Fisher president and CEO Colleen B. Brown said in a statement. “This momentum reflects the quality and value of our local brands and is the direct result of solid execution across our group of broadcast stations.”