For Louisville Local TV, Sweeps Still Important

Trust me, the local TV stations are still going to be pulling out their big guns for the TV ratings sweeps this month, but no matter what happens it's not going to mean much to the stations' bottom line.

There are plenty of reasons. First, there's no valid comparisons to last February, when the country's TV viewers were all worked up over the digital transition, and Nielsen put off the ratings period to March.

http://www.louisvillemojo.com/blogs/Louisville_Blogs/84604/Sweeps_Are_All_About_Bragging_Rights

Leno at 10 Ends on the 11th

NBCU Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin tells TV critics in Los Angeles that the low-rated primetime hour will end the night before NBC's telecast of the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics. Primetime Leno "did not meet affiliates' needs," he says. Replacing Leno after the Olympics will be a mix of original shows, repeats, extended Dateline and shows pulled from cable nets Bravo and USA, he says.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/articles/2010/01/10/daily.1/

Why Andrews is Out at 11 on WKRC

So why did WKRC-TV remove Kit Andrews from Channel 12's 11 p.m. news last week after 19 years?

The official word from Local 12 was that she "expressed an interest in ... a lifestyle change."

But Channel 12 also was looking for a ratings boost by promoting Cammy Dierking to main co-anchor with Rob Braun.

Clyde Gray and Carol Williams on WCPO-TV (Channel 9) have been closing the gap at 11 p.m.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100110/ENT11/1100332/1175/ENT/Andrews+wanted+off+evening+news+

WWHO Signs Up for Rentrak

LIN TV signed up its CW affiliate in Columbus, Ohio for Rentrak’s local measurement service. WWHO-TV will be using Rentrak’s StationView Essentials service for detailed local metrics derived from set-top boxes.

http://www.televisionbroadcast.com/article/92620

WLKY Scores Big With the Battle of the Bluegrass

Louisville CBS affiliate WLKY-TV scored big ratings with last Saturday’s men’s basketball game between the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky.

http://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/stories/2010/01/04/daily23.html

Leno Doesn't Hurt WLEX

In the months before Nielsen measured Lexington's television viewership in November, much discussion was had about Jay Leno.

Nationally, the comedian's weeknight prime-time talk show has been disastrous for many affiliates' late-night newscasts. In markets where viewership is measured more frequently — Nielsen measures Lexington just four times annually — the newscasts following Leno's show hemorrhaged viewers.

http://www.kentucky.com/103/story/1081543.html

Columbus Stations Weather Recession Well

Business is gaining momentum in Columbus, home of The Ohio State University, and WBNS is, too. The Dispatch Broadcasting station has long been a ratings giant in Columbus, but it has extended its lead over the rest of the pack. Thanks to private ownership based in Columbus and a well-established anchor crew, WBNS had a memorable November book. “We've won every news race before,” says President/General Manager Tom Griesdorn, “but not by this margin.”

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/441111-Market_Eye_Bucking_the_Trend.php

Evansville Ratings - Leno Effect at Play?

Well, folks, the numbers are in, and as I suspected, there's good news and bad news for just about everyone at the local news stations.



Get the full details after the jump ... the graphic is just part of the story!

When I wrote recently that I wasn't sure if WFIE's 14NEWS at 10 would overcome the inertia of Jay Leno's almost complete failure at 9:00, I told you that I thought NEWS25 had the opportunity to take the time slot.

http://jakesdtvblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/ratings-are-in-wfie-maintains-lead-in.html

WBNS Continues Its Ratings Domination

Building off of a very successful May ratings book, WBNS-10TV continued its dominance in local news and syndicated programming, winning key time periods, from sign-on to sign-off, including every local newscast, the station announced Thursday.
Since July 2006, WBNS-10TV has won the average household ratings for every daily newscast in the quarterly Nielsen Sweeps.

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/station/stories/2009/07/30/story_july_sweeps.html?sid=102

Simon Cowell Offered $144 Million to Stay With 'Idol'

EARLY salary figures from Simon Cowell's "American Idol" contract negotiations are leaking out and they're eye-popping.

Cowell, who reportedly made $36 million last year for judging the hit competition show, has been offered three or four times that amount -- between $100 million and $144 million per year -- by co-producers Fox and 19 Entertainment to stick with "Idol" when his contract expires next May, according to The Guardian, a London newpaper.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06302009/tv/enormous_money_176757.htm

The Truth About Teen TV Viewing According to Nielsen

Nielsen is taking on the panic in traditional media that teens are too busy "texting, Twittering or LOL-ing" to pick up a newspaper or flip on the TV.

Nielsen's June 2009 How Teens Use Media report, presented today by Nic Covey, director of insights for the Nielsen Company, at the annual What Teens Want conference at the Time & Life Building in New York, states that American teens actually watch more TV than they ever have (with a 6 percent increase during the past five years) and spend half as much time browsing the Internet than the rest of America. That's only 11 hours and 32 minutes a month!

http://www.observer.com/2009/politics/nielsen-teens-are-all-web-and-no-tv-lies

USA Leads in Cable Ratings

With one week left before the second quarter ends, USA Network is drawing away from TNT in the primetime ratings race. According to Nielsen data, USA now enjoys a 3% lead among adults 18-49, and the latest batch of weekly ratings numbers sees the network all but sewing up the title.

USA blew out the competition in the week ended June 21, averaging 1.7 million adults 18-49, topping runner-up TNT by some 728,000 viewers. The NBC Universal cable powerhouse also put together another convincing victory among total viewers, drawing an average audience of 3.95 million in primetime while walking away with the week's biggest deliveries of adults 25-54 (1.87 million) and viewers 18-34 (745,000).


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i0849a35b3cfeb85957715b6a48c76a2b

Dayton Station Ranked #1 CBS Affiliate in Country

In nearly every measureable category, WHIO-TV is the number one rated CBS affiliate in the country. The CBS television network released national rankings for the month of May and perennial powerhouse WHIO attracted viewers like no other CBS affiliate in the country.

The Cox legacy station was rated number one during weekday mornings, primetime, late news, late night, and several other dayparts. WHIO-TV was also the number one rated CBS affiliate in the country overall, all dayparts, all seven days of the week.

http://www.whiotv.com/station/19668586/detail.html

Fox Wants Answers to Nielsen Ratings Issues

Fox Networks Group chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra is taking on ratings giant Nielsen Media Research.
Vinciquerra told Daily Variety he's frustrated by Nielsen's recent admission that its TV ratings may be off by as much as 8% -- and believes the company isn't acting promptly to correct the problem.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118003924.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

WCPO and WXIX Narrow Ratings Gap with WKRC

All those promotions for Kathrine Nero and WCPO-TV's "Good Morning Tri-State" paid off.

The audience for Nero's 6-7 a.m. news on Channel 9 jumped 44 percent in May sweeps from a year ago, and into a tie with a 4.8 rating for second place with WXIX-TV (Channel 19).

Both stations narrowed the gap to three-tenths of a ratings point - or 2,747 TV homes - of longtime morning leader WKRC-TV (Channel 12), which drew a 5.1 rating.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090524/ENT/905240347/1175/Channel+9+gets+some++Good+Morning++news

WBNS Continues Ratings Domination in Columbus

Building off of a very successful March ratings book, WBNS-10TV continued its dominance in local news and syndicated programming, winning key time periods, from sign-on to sign-off, including every local newscast, the station announced Thursday.

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/station/stories/2009/05/21/story_may_ratings.html?sid=102

WBNS Dominates Columbus Ratings Period Again

Television's February "sweeps" were delayed this year until March because of the government-mandated deadline for stations to switch to digital broadcasting.

But the results -- at least locally -- were much the same as before.

As it did in November, WBNS-TV (Channel 10) led the pack with each of its newscasts -- chalking up victories in the early morning; at midday; and at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.

http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/yb/128391129

Nielsen Blunder Postpones Cable Ratings

A Nielsen snafu in measuring viewers for The Weather Channel and Fuse has resulted in the delay of some cable ratings, including the scheduled release of third-quarter numbers set for Tuesday.

Nielsen apologized for “recent errors in our Cable Dailies processing” for Saturday through Monday in a client memo Tuesday. As a result, the ratings firm said its audience estimates for Saturday, Sept. 27, won’t be available until the end of today, Tuesday.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6600675.html

Broadcast TV Anxious Over Upfronts

With their extraordinary TV ratings, the Beijing Olympics have captured the gaze of nearly everyone in the media and ad business. Back on these shores, however, there's another contest that has begun to absorb attention: whether broadcast TV can rebound from an awful season and keep ad dollars flowing into its coffers.

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=130585

Nielsen TV Homes Rise

The Nielsen Co. today announced that the total number of television households within the U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii) for the 2008-09 season will be 114.5 million, an increase of 1.5% from last year. Nielsen also estimates that the number of persons age 2-plus in U.S. TV households will increase by 1.3% to a total of nearly 290 million.

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/08/28/daily.9/