November Sweeps 2008

Something for Everyone

The November Nielsen TV Sweeps ended right before Thanksgiving, and the results give all of the stations some reasons to be grateful. Nielsen and station researchers are still sorting out the demographics, but the basic results are somewhat surprising, but perhaps expected.

One might have thought that KXAN TV’s absence from Time-Warner Cable would have hurt their ratings—out of sight and out of mind for Central Texas news viewers. One might have thought that KVUE TV might be at a disadvantage with only one anchor on the set. One might have thought that KEYE TV would have taken a leap forward with news viewers supposedly sampling them while KXAN was off the cable and KVUE was in flux. What is true apparently is that Austin news viewers still want one thing, and it doesn’t matter who delivers it—The viewers/users/consumers of TV news want content.

Here is how the November, 2008 ratings are sorting out:

Morning—Fox wins early and KXAN wins late. KVUE comes in third both hours.
Midday—KVUE wins.
5 p.m.—KVUE wins.
6 p.m.—It is a virtual tie between KXAN and KVUE. If you round up the ratings to a 6 rating and 11 share. KXAN comes out on top in raw numbers including KXAM viewers in the Hill Country. KXAM TV is a full-power station operated by KXAN broadcasting from a tower near Llano. Nielsen adds those viewers to the ratings and calls them KXAN+. Naturally, Michael Fabac, KXAN news director, says his station is #1 at 6. “At 6 p.m. we split with KXAN,” says Frank Volpicella, KVUE news director. KEYE was a distant third.
10 p.m.—No splitting hairs here. KVUE is still #1. KEYE comes in a strong second. “It was no 3-way tie. There was definitely more of a spread,” says Suzanne Black, KEYE news director. KEYE considers the late news their newscast of record.

Over all, KVUE is still the #1 station even with only one prime time anchor on the set, although it was "very competitive," quoting Volpicella. Tyler Sieswerda will be joined by his new co-anchor Terri Gruca next Monday, Volpicella says. KXAN fared well winning 6 a.m. and 6 p.m (technically). KEYE can celebrate a clean #2 at 10 p.m.

The station researchers will sift the data determining their strong points and the all-important desired demographics. The ability of a station to reach a target audience is what sales reps want. In this economy those demographics become more important than ever.

One way to look at depressed advertising is the possibility that viewers may be seeing more content, but “Doing More With Less” was the topic of an earlier post.

© Jim McNabb, 2008