From Donald’s Trump surprise victory to Viacom’s year-long internal struggles to AT&T’s mega-acquistion of Time Warner, 2016 has been a year to remember.

Here are Daily Brief’s picks for the ten most impactful media stories of this year.

1. Trump Victory Stuns Media

It’s been the subject of innumerable post-election debates, but no one can deny, least of all members of the media themselves, that they got their coverage of the 2016 presidential election all wrong.

In watching the election coverage on Tuesday, Nov. 8, there was about a 20-minute period of time when viewers could see broadcasters slowly realizing, across networks, that Donald Trump was looking more and more like the next president of the United States. For weeks, most media outlets had been confidently predicting that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had it in the bag.

Perhaps former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw summed it up best: “What I do know is that the country is more agitated than we realized. People are very unhappy with recent changes, and they wanted to speak out against it. Washington and we in the national media have walled ourselves off too much from where people live.”

2. Rio Olympics Captures World’s Attention

Just weeks prior to the media becoming totally absorbed in election coverage, everyone was talking about a more uplifting subject: the Rio Olympics.

Heading into the Summer Games, many stories were about the difficulties Olympics planners were having in the Brazilian city — including sewage in the water, the spread of the Zika virus and overall economic troubles — but during the games, all anyone could talk about was swimmer Michael Phelps’ incredible comeback to become by far the most decorated Olympian of all time; gymnast Simone Biles’ dominating performance that crowned her Olympic all-around champion at 19; and Usain Bolt’s third Summer Olympics in a row to win the 100- and 200-meter individual sprints as well as the 4x100 relay, meaning the Jamaican has been the world’s fastest man an unprecedented three times.

Primetime television ratings for the Summer Games were down throughout the whole event, although streaming ratings were way up. Jim Bell, NBC’s Olympics executive producer, said at the LiveFronts in October that the Rio Games were the most consumed — with 7,000 hours of content produced to air across all platforms — and the most profitable at $250 million.

3. Viacom Wages Internal Warfare

The internal workings of Viacom — or lack thereof — have been an ongoing drama throughout all of 2016.

To sum up: Viacom — which owns cable networks such as BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and VH1 — started seeing steep drops in its performance over the past several years, including revenue declines and stock-price drop-offs.

In addition, Sumner Redstone, the controlling shareholder of both Viacom and CBS under the aegis of National Amusements, is now 93 and not in the best of health.

Over the course of 2016, Redstone’s daughter, Shari, fought and won an ongoing battle with one-time Redstone right-hand man, Philippe Dauman, finally forcing him out of the company last September.

RELATED: Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman to Depart Sept. 13

Immediately replacing Dauman was Tom Dooley, who stepped in as interim CEO but only remained in that position for about two months. Dooley left Viacom in mid-November, and was replaced by another interim CEO, Bob Bakish, who had been running Viacom International Media Networks.

Also in November, the Redstones reached out to the boards of both Viacom and CBS and ask them to consider merging. Speculation ran rampant that should Viacom and CBS combine — the two have twice before been part of the same company but were again separated in 2006 — CBS chair and president Leslie Moonves would become the new permanent head of Viacom.

On Dec. 12, that offer was revoked and Bakish was named the permanent CEO.

Now it remains to be seen if things will stabilize at Viacom in this time of cord-cutting and on-demand streaming video, which is causing many media conglomerates and cable networks, including such heavyweights as ESPN, to struggle.

4. AT&T to Buy Time Warner for $85.4 Billion

The worst-kept merger secret of the year was AT&T’s intent to buy Time Warner. News that the two companies were talking first broke in August, and was finally confirmed on Saturday, Oct. 22, just a few shorts weeks before the election.

The next day, both presidential candidates — Republican Trump and Democrat Clinton — indicated that they were skeptical about the deal, with Trump saying “as an example of the power structure I’m fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.”

That statement has led many to believe that the deal is threatened, but since winning, President-elect Trump hasn’t said anything further about the pending merger.

On Dec. 7, the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee held a hearing on the merger, with several senators indicating that they would be scrutinizing the deal and that they weren’t entirely sold on the idea that it would have pro-consumer effects.

RELATED: AT&T, Time Warner CEOs Defend $85.4 Billion Merger

5. Nexstar Buys Media General for $4.6 Billion

Another deal long in the making was Nexstar’s announcement in January that it would acquire Media General for $4.6 billion, giving the new group 171 full-power television stations in 100 markets. Almost one year and one election later, that deal is still pending.

Nexstar-Media General is also the last big merger among station groups after a period of fierce deal-making that saw plenty of consolidation.

6. Lionsgate to Acquire Starz for $4.4 Billion

In June, Lionsgate finally acquired premium cable network Starz for $4.4 billion in cash and stock after circling the network for more than a year.

The two companies had been considering merging since February 2015, when Starz’ controlling stakeholder, John Malone, swapped some of his Starz shares in exchange for an ownership stake in Lionsgate and a seat on the board of directors.

After that, two other Malone-controlled companies — Liberty Global and Discovery — also took stakes in Lionsgate.

Lionsgate produces TV shows — such as Netflix’s Orange is the New Black — and movies and also owns Debmar-Mercury, which develops and distributes first-run programming. Starz is a premium cable network that in 2016 launched its own on-demand streaming service and carries such shows as Outlander, Black Sails and Power.

7. Roger Ailes Ousted at Fox News

On July 21, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes resigned as chairman and CEO of Fox News Channel, and Fox Business Network and chairman of the Fox Television Stations. Ailes was replaced by Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine, who were named co-presidents of Fox News Channel while Abernethy remains CEO of the Fox Owned Television Stations.

From start to finish, Ailes’ fall was relatively quick. On July 6, former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes personally. Fox News’ owner, 21st Century Fox, opened an internal investigation into Ailes’ behavior, and several women, including star anchor Megyn Kelly, testified against him.

While Rupert Murdoch, 85, remains very involved with both 21st Century Fox and its now separate entity, News Corp., so do Murdoch’s sons, James and Lachlan, and neither of them are said to be big supporters of the ideology of Ailes or of Fox News, so Ailes had less support going into the turbulent time.

Still, no one’s crying for Ailes, 76. He walked away with a $40 to $60 million buyout, according to reports, and became an advisor to Trump.

8. Channing Dungey Becomes First African-American Woman to Head Broadcast Network

After Paul Lee resigned as ABC’s head of entertainment in February, ABC named Channing Dungey, then executive vice president of drama, as his replacement, making her the first African-American woman to run a broadcast network.

“Channing is a gifted leader and a proven magnet for top creative talent, with an impressive record of developing compelling, breakthrough programming that resonates with viewers,” said Disney-ABC Television Group Chair Ben Sherwood in a statement. “We thank Paul for his many accomplishments at ABC and his devotion to the ABC brand, and we wish him continued success in the future.”

9. Michael Strahan Decamps ‘Live’ for ‘GMA’

Michael Strahan’s announcement in April that he was leaving syndicated daytime talker Live with Kelly and Michael to take a permanent post with ABC’s Good Morning America might not have been more than a one-day story but for what happened next.

Reporters quickly ferreted out that Strahan’s co-host Kelly Ripa wasn’t happy at all about the way the news was handled — with her being kept in the dark until just minutes before Strahan made the announcement on air — staging what seemed to be a several-day sick-out. Moreover, it also was revealed that Strahan and Ripa hadn’t been seeing eye-to-eye for some time. Strahan’s star had been on the rise ever since he gained the permanent co-host position in Sept. 2012, and he’d been moonlighting with GMA for a couple of years.

Strahan ended up leaving Live on May 13.

“After meeting with the producers of both Live and Good Morning America, and after speaking with Kelly and Michael, we have decided on a plan that best advantages both shows for the future,” according to a statement from ABC. “To that end, Michael’s last day on Live will be on Friday, May 13, which not only gives the show the chance to have a nice send-off for him during the May book, but to also immediately begin the on-air search for a new co-host.

“This plan also allows GMA to start integrating Michael into the show more often this summer before his full-time start in September.”

Since then Live has been filling in with guest co-hosts while looking for someone new to sit next to Ripa.

10. Verizon to Buy Struggling Yahoo for $4.8 Billion

In July, Verizon confirmed that it would acquire struggling Yahoo’s core properties for $4.83 billion in cash. Verizon made the move as it works to evolve into more of a mobile-video company. In 2015, Verizon bought AOL for $4.4 billion.

As of this week, whether the merger will go through is in doubt with news breaking Wednesday that 1 billion of Yahoo’s email accounts were hacked in 2013, joining 500 million confirmed to have been hacked in 2014.

In October, after news of the first hack broke, Verizon indicated that it might want to renegotiate terms of its deal to buy Yahoo, potentially shaving $1 billion off the purchase price.

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