Stations Lose News Viewers
By Vince Horiuchi, The Salt Lake Tribune
Dec. 6–During the all-important November ratings, local television news stations were cursing the very thing viewers were praising: warm weather.
Thanks to Utah’s toasty temperatures through November, television viewers were out enjoying the weather rather than watching TV news. The result is that the number of households using television was down 2 percent from November 2004.
Consequently, news ratings for three of the four local television stations fell in November.
“We had so much weather last year, and that affects news viewers,” said KSTU Channel 13 general manager Tim Ermish said. “There also wasn’t any great big news. There was no election this year. It was a quiet time.”
According to Nielsen Media Research, the November ratings for Monday through Friday at 10 p.m. and 9 p.m. for KSTU’s nightly newscast were: KSL 14.7 rating and 26 share; KUTV 11.8/20; KTVX 6.2/11; and KSTU 5.4/9. KTVX was the only station to gain viewers from November 2004. It gained two-tenths of a rating point.
Each rating is the percentage of Utah’s 800,000 television households that are watching a particular program. The share is the percentage of those homes with TV sets on that are watching a particular program. Each rating point is worth about $1 million in advertising revenue. November, like February and May, is known as an important “sweeps” period after which advertising revenue is calculated.
KSTU had the biggest ratings drop from November 2004: 31 percent from 7.8 to 5.4. That drop puts KSTU in last place, with KTVX Channel 4′s news moving into third place for the first time in about two years.
Perhaps the biggest reason for KSTU’s decline is that its 9 p.m. newscast now has competition. Beginning last August, KUTV started producing a 9 p.m. newscast for KJZZ Channel 14 under a new partnership, and that has affected KSTU’s 9 p.m. ratings.
“Clearly having — for the first time ever — competition has affected our 9 p.m. newscast,” Ermish said. “But these newscasts [built on partnerships between two stations] tend to have a life of 12 to 18 months.”
KUTV began a partnership with the Larry Miller-owned KJZZ to provide a newscast seven days a week for the independent station, home of the Utah Jazz. Anchored by Shauna Lake on the weeknights and Mike Headrick on the weekends, the newscast is the only television alliance of its kind in the state.
Although the new KUTV news on KJZZ has hurt KSTU, the ratings the new newscast is getting for KJZZ are still lower than what the station used to get at 9 p.m. when it showed reruns of movies. In November 2004, that time slot was a half rating point higher when it was showing movies.
But KJZZ programming director Bob Quigley said the movies in that time slot were starting to drop because “the availability of good movies to broadcast stations were becoming increasingly thin. All the movie packages are being sold to cable stations.”
The Salt Lake Tribune maintains a news-gathering partnership with KUTV Channel 2.
NOVEMBER RATINGS: Three of Salt Lake City’s four local television news stations saw their ratings fall in November (KTVX Channel 4 was the only increase). For the Monday through Friday 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts, ratings and share for each station are as follows. (The rating is the percentage of Utah’s 800,000 television households that are watching a particular program. The share is the percentage of those homes with TV sets on that are watching a particular program.)
KSL (Channel 5): 14.7 rating, 26 share (Nov. 2004, 17.4 rating, 29 share)
KUTV (Channel 2): 11.8 rating, 20 share (13.2 rating, 22 share)
KTVX (Channel 4): 6.2 rating, 11 share (6.0 rating, 10 share)
KSTU (Channel 13): 5.4 rating, 9 share (7.8 rating, 12 share)
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