Where Have Local TV News Watchers Gone in a Decade?

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Friday, December 03, 2010

Jeff Derderian, Media Critic

This week, GoLocalProv broke down the November ratings for local news. We let you know who is winning and losing the nightly news battle for viewers. At 11pm, Channel 12 edged out Channel 10 with a win. Something like that in the past would have be unheard of given Channel 10's leadership position in the market place. At 6pm, the story was much different. Channel 10 easily number one with viewers compared to Channel's 12 & 6.

But how have audiences changed when it comes to local news? It's a question we'll look at here. Think back to November of 2001 - which is almost a decade ago.

The state was a different place then.

Lincoln Almond was Governor
Rhode Island's unemployment rate was 4.1% in November 2001 - in November 2010 it was over 11%
Tom Brady had taken over for Drew Bledsoe - now he owns a winery on the West Coast.

You get the idea.

But an analysis of local tv news ratings by Nielsen Research for November 2001 compared to now shows that viewer trends have changed and one particular station has lost a lot of viewers in 9-years.

Sharp decline in WJAR viewers

The steepest decline in viewers is attributed to the "Team you Trust" over at Channel 10 for it's 11 o'clock news, according to ratings numbers. When looking at rating numbers for November 2010 ,- the station had a 6.2 rating. Each rating point represents about 6,500 households so the math goes as follow:

So a 6.2 rating x 6,500 households = approximately 40,300 local households watching the 11pm news in November 2010

For November 2001, according to Nielsen numbers provided to Mediaweek at the time, WJAR had a whopping 14.1 rating for the 11pm news. Back then the households watching Channel 10 in that time frame looked like this:

Therefore, using what was reported as a 14.1 rating X 6,500 households = approximately 91,650 households were watching their 11pm news back in 2001.

This is a LOSS of about 51,000 households or a drop in viewers of about 56% comparing 2001 to 2010.

So where did those people go? Well, many simply are not watching local tv news anymore. Others were lost to the internet and different programming like MSNBC, Fox News, Anderson Cooper 360 and so on.

WPRI sees viewers rise

Applying the same logic for Channel 12, the station can say...its viewership has gotten better in comparing 2001 to 2010.

For November 2001, WPRI had a 5.8 rating for its 11pm news. That translates into the following:

5.8 rating X 6,500 households = approximately 37,700 households watching the 11pm news broadcast.

In November 2010, WPRI had a 6.4 rating for its news. That translates into the following:

6.4 rating X 6,500 households = approximately 41,600 households watched Channel 12's 11pm news. That represents a 10% increase in viewers.


WLNE stays exactly the same

Oddly enough, Channel 6, according to numbers released by Nielsen, the station had the exact same number of households watching in November of 2001 as it did this time in November of 2010. The station measured a 2.7 rating which equals about 17,550 households tuning in for their 11pm news.

So, that is a look at how audiences have changed.

Many Media experts agree with the expansion of the internet and cable news programs, local tv news viewers will go away in larger numbers as more time goes by and a once sacred institution is quickly becoming irrelevant in the lives of many people.


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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