TV news faces
shrinking audiences

While TV station rankings saw little movement in the most recent rating period, the latest numbers indicate the audience for locally produced news is shrinking.

Bragging rights come with ranking, but advertising dollars come with success in viewer demographics. Most advertisers seek to air their messages on stations that have the greatest share of the adult viewers they covet. Those audiences are shrinking.

"Everybody held the position that they were in the past, but everyone suffered from a demo-poor ratings period," said Mike Rosenberg, president and general manger of KITV-4. "The number of people behind the TV sets was down."

KHON leads among all newscasts. The Channel 2 News rating and share doubles that of second-ranked stations KITV-4 and KGMB-9 at 6 p.m. and its rating and share is double that of third-ranked stations KITV and KHNL at 10 p.m.

The rating is the percentage of overall households that are watching a station, while "share" is the percentage of those households watching TV that are tuned into the station.

Those numbers are then broken down demographically according to age and gender.

Generally, the demographic most desirable to advertisers is 25- to 54-year-olds. According to this year's book, most local newscasts attracted fewer of the adult viewers that their advertisers covet.

"We can't control how many people will be watching, but we held our position in the market," Rosenberg said.

While a reduction in the households and people using TV is a concern for the industry, the lowered numbers could be an anomaly due in part to the inclusion of the Thanksgiving holiday period, when fewer people watch TV, Rosenberg said.

KHON was the only station to show growth from year to year in the Monday through Friday morning, 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts in both demographics and the number of households, said Rick Blangiardi, senior vice president and general manager of KHON and KGMB.

"Less homes were watching TV so it was a significant accomplishment that KHON was still able to post these kinds of numbers," Blangiardi said. "We've been working quite diligently with market research to ensure that at the end of the day that KHON2 News is the station viewers want to turn to first."

NBC affiliate KHNL at 10 p.m. has audiences "equal to or exceeding the NBC audience; it's the best retention we've ever had," said John Fink, vice president and general manager. KHNL and KFVE, the first two-station duopoly in the United States, are both owned by Alabama-based Raycom Media, but KFVE does not have a separate news operation.

Fink also was satisfied with KHNL's one-point growth at 5 p.m. and with the introduction of KFVE's K5 News at Nine evening news show, which garnered a 2 rating and 4 share. The show, which is the only newscast to run at 9 p.m., was introduced in October just weeks before the rating period, Fink said.

"The feedback has been great," Fink said. "The business and professional types and the working moms and dads have said they enjoy having the opportunity to get the late news earlier."

While poor demographics might dampen an advertiser's enthusiasm for a station, the strength of the economy should keep pricing strong, Rosenberg said. Also, few advertisers make decisions based on the strength or weakness of one ratings period, he said.

"We certainly won't be dropping prices," Rosenberg said. "The economy is good and you know what they say -- a rising tide carries all ships. Right now, I'd say this is very healthy broadcast market."