NEW YORK & MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Stacey Lynn Schulman, SVP and Chief Research Officer of the TVB (www.tvb.org), the trade association of America’s commercial broadcast television industry, today commented from the Media Insights & Engagement Conference regarding the Pew Research Center report titled, “Local TV audiences bounce back.”
Schulman said, “Pew’s report today, which indicates that the audience for local TV news grew in all three major time slots in 2013, is yet another validation that local news has become a stronger, more vital source for Americans in their search for actionable, timely information that is relevant to their everyday lives. American consumers view about 87% more local news than national cable news precisely because of the facts that Pew makes clear in its report – local news viewing is correlated to the very issues that affect the lives and safety of viewers.”
The Pew report indicates that a likely reason for the 2013 audience growth was viewership of major news events. For example, in November 2013, the month with the biggest audience increase, the launch of the ACA websites in their states and the related technology issues was of interest to nearly every American as was coverage of dangerous weather patterns including tornados in the Midwest, and floods in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Schulman continued, “In times of joy and times of tragedy, local broadcast news is on the scene to get viewers the details they demand and in many cases need for their safety. Like other years, in 2013, we saw big spikes in viewers and ratings as local television broadcasters served their communities with wall-to-wall coverage of events and developments to keep citizens factually informed and safe. One of the best examples of the mission critical nature and service of local broadcast TV was last year’s Boston Marathon bombing. Local TV stations, with knowledgeable local Boston reporters, played a critical role as a relied upon source of essential news broadcast over-the-air, and as a result, local viewers overwhelmingly chose their local station news coverage over cable with ratings as much as 535% higher than the cable news networks in Boston.”
The Pew Study is the latest in a series of research conducted in the last year that points to the saliency of news content with viewers and the trust they place with their local television stations. TVB’s American Conversation Study, released in Fall 2013, identified news content as the top generator of offline, word-of-mouth conversation among consumers each day. Local broadcast news (and the advertising within) was cited more-often than every other TV genre, including primetime entertainment and cable news, as the source or spark of their conversations about both News-of-the Day and various consumer products.
More information about the TVB can be found at www.tvb.org.
