Surprising Results in Local TV News Ratings
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
4-times a year it's like a report card for local TV news.
February, May, July, and November - that's when Nielsen ratings measure who is watching Channel's 12, 10, & 6. The November "book" as its called in the business which means "ratings book" just ended days ago.
Now that the ratings have been crunched and analyzed - GoLocalProv has seen the actual numbers for the crucial ratings period.
Ratings = $$
The reason why so much attention and effort is put into these ratings periods is because its how local stations set their advertising rates. Stations rely heavily on this income to help pay for news budgets etc. A station with low-rated shows stands to receive the lowest amount of advertising so you can see why there seems to be a frenzy during the ratings "sweeps" period.
Years ago, the Providence news market followed a very similar pattern with each ratings book. Channel 10 was always dominate in news pretty much from 5am until 11pm. But viewers habits and trends have surely changed around here. Channel 10, while still a ratings force for sure, is not as strong as it once was in all time periods.
Channel 12 wins 11pm race
For the 11pm news, for the month of November, Channel 12 leads the pack but it was a close race.
The station had a 6.4 rating. A rating point is equal to about 6,500 households watching television. As tradition goes, this is quite an accomplishment for the news department lead by Joe Abouzeid. The fact that the station was able to hold viewers from prime time is quite note worthy in this market. Channel 12, the CBS affiliate, is fortunate to have strong prime time programming which of course helps attract viewers to the station's 11pm news. In year's past, at 11pm, those 12 viewers would be gone. As one Channel 10 insider pointed out to Go Local, NBC prime time programming is close to horrible and that dramatically affects the 11pm news for Channel 10. Still a win is a win and Channel 12 has it at 11pm.
Channel 12 General Manager Jay Howell says "The Eyewitness News team has done a terrific job delivering on our commitment to local news and we are grateful to the viewers".
At 11pm Channel 10, had a 6.2 rating
At 11pm, Channel 6 had a 2.7 rating
Channel 10 wins 6pm race
If there ever was sacred ground in Southern New England (for tv news anyway) it is the time period at 6pm. For decades Channels 10 & 12 have battled it out. For years, it was not much of a competition with Channel 10 leading the way. People who have worked in both buildings for a long time can remember when WJAR, the NBC affiliate, would have a 16 or 17 rating at 6pm and Channel 12 would only be a 3 or 4 rating. That was before the internet, MSNBC and Fox News of course.
At 6pm Channel 10 had a 10.0 rating which clearly shows the station's strength at 6pm. Lisa Churchville, President and General Manager of WJAR, tells GoLocal the station had a "great" ratings book. "I would also say that viewers started watching news again...in 2009 all the news was bad news" Churchville said as it relates to what ratings numbers and trends looked like a year ago.
At 6pm Channel 12 had a 6.5 rating
At 6pm, Channel 6 had a 1.9 rating
Other Honarble Mentions
Channel 10's Frank Coletta continues to his grip on local am news. The coffee cup salute still wins the morning news ratings. A change in the weather department means Gary Ley is back on the anchor desk weekday mornings with Frank. At Channel 12, Patrick Little has done a nice job on the morning show as the new anchor which saw an increase in viewers, especially during the 6am to 7am hour.
The sleeper of the November ratings book
So there you have it. At least until February, the next ratings period, stories about squirrels that drive cars or cats that talk wont be coming to a tv near you.
Jeff Derderian is a former television news reporter and anchor both in Providence and Boston. He is one of the founders of the Station Education Fund. He can be reached at [email protected]
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