Monthly Archive for October, 2005

Insider says:

Top executives and Nielsen are considering whether to cancel November sweeps altogether. Since so many people are .. and will be.. without power and cable, they think the prudent decision is to cancel next month’s ratings sweeps. November is known as the most cutthroat of sweeps months. Stations fight hard to earn top spots every year. Last November, WFOR swept with wins in all newscasts and hours except early mornings.

There are over half million households without power at the moment in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale market with 95% to be restored by November 8 as per FPL’s schedule. Even though there’s hurricane coverage overload at the moment, I think most people are trying to get back on track with their lives, especially the ones hardest hit by the hurricane.

November sweeps begin this coming Thursday, November 3rd.

Update Nov 1: Word is that if the November sweeps get canceled, the ratings measurements from October will be used by most advertising buyers. Household results from October were released today, with the demos (age groups) to be released on November the 11th. In the household ratings WPLG is seeing increases in every newscast except noon, and they are now second at 11pm. WFOR is #1 at 11pm but they are seeing major declines in their other newscasts. WSVN still rules the mornings but they too are seeing major declines in all other newscasts.

So basically WPLG is now becoming a contender in the news race, their 11pm is strong because of ABC’s prime-time programming so they have a good lead-in for that newscast. But what I find interesting is that without lead-ins for other newscasts they are actually gaining viewers. 6pm newscast comes to mind.

Or maybe we are in the cycle of viewers getting tired of one station and moving to another one. In West Palm Beach everyone’s favorite is WPTV – NBC 5, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale is a market where people aren’t hooked on one station only. Something very evident in past ratings periods where stations were 10th of a percentage point apart from each other. WFOR used to be the underdog, then they were gaining steam, now they’re losing viewers. WPLG wasn’t performing untill recently and now they’re seeing audience gains even without any help from preceding programs. WTVJ were once at the top but now nobody seems to be interested in them at all. WSVN seems to be the only one not going thru any changes, but the other guys copying them might be having an effect on the ratings. I wonder why if what they do in the morning that keeps them at the top isn’t applied to the other newscasts? Of course once you start tweaking something a bigger disaster might happen so some things are better left unchanged.

It will be interesting to see what the demos are though. They are the most important part of the ratings game and that’s how stations make their money. I’m curious if WPLG’s gains in household numbers are close to the demos as well.

The nominees for the 2005 local Emmy awards are out.

Continue reading ‘And the nominees are, 2005 Regional Emmy Awards’

SkyNews have gone all out to promote their makeover. And they’re not just releasing a couple of photos and a press release, they’ve put out a whole flash-based interactive tour of their new digs complete with a behind-the-scenes look at how they handle breaking news and the actual process involved in getting the story on the air. There are also interviews with anchors and behind the scenes staff such as camera operators, floor director, sound and so on.

Very interesting and the studio is awesome, I’m diggin the huge monitor wall behind the anchors. And something that I though was strange is that what we in the US call the control room, in the UK they call it “The Gallery”

Check it out – SkyNews virtual newsroom

They just ran this at the close of the 6pm newscast. Gary Freeman is a 7News engineer who’s been with the station for more than 30 years and passed away today from a long battle with cancer.

Video