Since we almost never see any kind of local ratings, I wanted to bring this to your attention. There's quite a significant article past this link that I'd encourage folks to read if they are interested.
Lots of local news stations showed big increases in viewing from November 07 to November 08. Broadcasting & Cable tries to spin it in some sort of "look, even in a down economy these local news ratings are up", "local TV news is still a strong medium" way, but with the information presented I can't see any way to draw that conclusion. It could just as easily be entirely related to the election. Since this is likely a one time peak at these numbers, we may never know. Enjoy them, all the same.
From Broadcasting & Cable.
We asked whether local newscasts were sharing in that ratings boost, and Nielsen produced a custom ratings report comparing newscasts in 56 metered markets for the “early fringe” time of the evening during November. The chart below is limited to stations that achieved a rating of at least 5 (5% of the total viewing “universe” for their market).
that the word “election” was only used twice in that article is kind of amazing. but I guess if your headline is “Growing Ratings Despite (Because Of?) Down Economy” you write the story you’re trying to tell, facts be damned! Surely that data already exists for December and January, (and probably February, too).
Sorry, I didn’t know where else to ask — but does TbtN no longer get Cable News ratings?
Anonymous, we’ve missed a couple days, likely just a clerical snafu, but we should be getting them back today.