It’s pretty much all the same as before.
WSVN is on top from 5am to 9am, and at 5pm, 5:30pm. Oddly 7 displaced 10 from the 6pm as most watched for that time. 7News was also #1 during the 10pm hour. NBC6 sits on top fo the Monday-Friday 11pm show, and if weekends are included WFOR is on top. By the way they’re still fighting over who’s #1 at that time. Overall WFOR came first, followed by WSVN, WTVJ was third and sadly WPLG was dead last. ABC hasn’t helped them much at all.
In the Palm Beach market WPTV was the clear leader as it has been for so many years and if that’s not enough their ratings in all time slots are bigger than those of their competitors combined. How’s that for kicking some serious news ass. The 10pm newscast from WFLX-Fox29 beat WPBF’s 11pm show
Hispanic channels, news rule market
WPTV’s still spry at 50 – and No. 1 in sweeps
Viewers don’t channel to WPBF revamp
Hispanic channels, newscasts rule market
By Tom Jicha
TV/Radio Writer
Posted May 28 2004
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The influence of Spanish-language television continues to grow in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market.
WLTV-Ch. 23 again leads the market overall, in prime time and in early and late news, as it has for the past several years. However, for the first time, Spanish newscasts are first and second at 6 p.m., as WSCV-Ch. 51 also moved ahead of the English stations. What’s more, a relatively new Spanish channel, WJAN-Ch. 41, ranks second at 10 p.m., behind clear leader WSVN-Ch. 7 but ahead of the English-language news programs on WBFS-Ch. 33 and WBZL-Ch. 39 (which is owned by Tribune Co., the Sun-Sentinel’s parent company).
Behind the dominant Spanish-language stations there are tight battles among the English-language stations in the most important news time periods. WSVN enjoys a slight advantage over WPLG-Ch. 10 at 6 p.m. WSVN also is the leader at 5 and 5:30 p.m. as well as in the morning against the network information shows.
The late-night ratings battle is even closer. From Monday through Friday, when the frontline anchors generally work, WTVJ-Ch. 6 (a news partner of the Sun-Sentinel) rules by the slightest of margins, with the 10 p.m. newscast on WSVN also in the picture. When Saturday and Sunday are included, WFOR-Ch. 4 vaults over WTVJ. WFOR also enjoys a clear-cut victory in midday news.
The English rankings in prime time reflect the national standings. CBS-owned WFOR pulled out a close victory, just as the parent network did across the country. WSVN, fueled by Fox’s American Idol, eked out second place over NBC-owned WTVJ, which also benefited from the finales of Friends and Frasier. WPLG, which is saddled with ABC’s slumping lineup was well behind, in a tie with Telemundo’s novellas on WSCV.
WLTV’s continued hold on prime-time and sign-on to sign-off leadership as well as significant gains by WSCV in the face of Friends, Frasier and American Idol underlines the strength and loyalty of the Spanish audience. WFOR finished slightly ahead of WSVN among the English stations.
A celebration for WPTV
In the Palm Beach County market, WPTV-Ch. 5 celebrates its 50th anniversary in August. If that isn’t reason enough for a blowout bash, the results of the May sweeps are.
From the day its transmitter was turned on, WPTV has been No. 1 in the market, often by ridiculous margins. May brought more of the same. WPTV (a news partner of the Sun-Sentinel) not only is No. 1 in news at 5 a.m., 6 a.m. and 5, 5:30 and 6 p.m., its ratings in each of those time periods exceeds the sum of all its competitors.
The NBC affiliate is also first in news at 11 p.m., albeit by a lesser margin.
WPEC-Ch. 12, the only serious competitor for WPTV, has to settle for dominance in midday news and improved performances in most of the other highly competitive news time periods.
Contrary to the national prime-time ratings, NBC programs on WPTV nosed out CBS shows on WPEC in a tight race.
WPBF-Ch. 25 and WFLX-Ch. 29 scuffled for third place in most key time periods. Thanks to American Idol, Fox affiliate WFLX won third by a clear margin in prime time. Its 10 p.m. newscast also outrated WPBF’s 11 p.m. news, which was hindered by the poor performance by its network partner ABC.
WPTV also ran away in the sign-on to sign-off category. It’s not hard to do that when you win 20 of the 24 hours in the day.
Tom Jicha can be reached at tjicha@sun-sentinel.com.
WPTV’s still spry at 50 – and No. 1 in sweeps
By Tom Jicha
TV/Radio Writer
Posted May 28 2004
Email story
Print story
WPTV-Ch. 5 celebrates its 50th anniversary in August. If that isn’t reason enough for a blowout bash, the results of the May sweeps are.
From the day its transmitter was turned on, WPTV has been No. 1 in the market, often by ridiculous margins. May brought more of the same. WPTV (a news partner of the Sun-Sentinel) not only is No. 1 in news at 5 a.m., 6 a.m. and 5, 5:30 and 6 p.m., its ratings in each of those time periods exceeds the sum of all competitors.
The NBC affiliate is also first in news at 11 p.m., albeit by a lesser margin.
WPEC-Ch. 12, the only serious competitor for WPTV, has to settle for dominance in midday news and improved performances in most of the other highly competitive news time periods.
Contrary to the national ratings, in which CBS ruled prime time during May, NBC programs on WPTV nosed out CBS shows on WPEC in a tight race.
WPBF-Ch. 25 and WFLX-Ch. 29 scuffled for third place in most key time periods. Thanks to American Idol, Fox affiliate WFLX won third by a clear margin in prime time. Its 10 p.m. newscast also out-rated WPBF’s 11 p.m. news, which was hindered by the poor performance by its network partner ABC.
WPTV also ran away in the sign-on to sign-off category.
Spanish TV rules
The influence of Spanish-language television continued to grow during May sweeps in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market.
WLTV-Ch. 23 again leads the market overall, in prime time and in early and late news, as it has for the past several years. However, for the first time, Spanish-language newscasts are first and second at 6 p.m., as WSCV-Ch. 51 also moved ahead of the English-language stations. What’s more, a relatively new Spanish-language channel, WJAN-Ch. 41, ranks second at 10 p.m., behind clear leader WSVN-Ch. 7 but ahead of the English-language news programs on WBFS-Ch. 33 and WBZL-Ch. 39 (which is owned by Tribune, the Sun-Sentinel’s parent company).
Behind the dominant Spanish-language stations there are tight battles among the English-language stations in the most important news time periods. WSVN enjoys a slight advantage over WPLG-Ch. 10 at 6 p.m. WSVN also is the leader at 5 and 5:30.
The late night ratings battle is even closer. From Monday through Friday, when the frontline anchors generally work, WTVJ-Ch. 6 (a news partner of the Sun-Sentinel) rules by the slightest of margins, with the 10 p.m. newscast on WSVN also in the picture. When Saturday and Sunday are included, WFOR-Ch. 4 vaults over WTVJ. WFOR also enjoys a clear cut victory in midday news.
The English-language rankings in prime time reflect national standings. CBS-owned WFOR pulled out a close victory. WSVN, fueled by Fox’s American Idol, eked out second place over NBC-owned WTVJ, which also benefited from the finales of Friends and Frasier. WPLG, which is saddled with ABC’s slumping lineup was well behind, in a tie with Telemundo’s novellas on WSCV.
WLTV’s continued hold on prime time and sign-on to sign-off leadership as well as significant gains by WSCV in the face of Friends, Frasier and American Idol underlines the strength and loyalty of the Spanish-language audience.
Tom Jicha can be reached at tjicha@sun-sentinel.com.
Viewers don’t channel to WPBF revamp
By Susan Port, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 28, 2004
A revamp of the local ABC affiliate’s late-night newscast has not brought in more viewers so far, according to ratings released Thursday.
In April, WPBF-Channel 25 made a series of changes to its local news broadcasts, including staffing its 11 p.m. program with a trio of women anchors and starting the news segments with a weather forecast. Ratings from Nielsen Media Research showed WPBF had a rating of 3.9 at 11 p.m., down from 4.1 during the same period last year.
But Victoria Regan, general manager and vice president of the Hearst-Argyle station, said the ratings will improve with time.
“It’s just the beginning of a multiyear plan,” Regan said. “We are very proud of our product. We provide more news, and we are able to do so because of the strength of having our anchors as reporters as well.”
Also, although WPBF’s ratings number in the period was lower than last year’s, its share of the market remained the same at 7.
Meanwhile, WPTV-Channel 5, the local NBC affiliate, continued to dominate the local newscasts during the May “sweeps” period, which covers April 29 to May 26. Scripps-owned WPTV had rating of 10.2, down from 12.7 in May 2003, but still ahead of WPEC News 12 in second place.
WPEC, the Freedom Communications-owned CBS affiliate, chalked up an 8.8 for the period, sharply higher than last year’s 7.6.
“We had a plan for a long time in terms of focusing on breaking news and investigative reporting and most accurate weather coverage,” said Donn Colee, WPEC’s station manager. “We’ve been implementing that plan for a long time. Viewers seem to be responding.”
WPEC also produces the 10 p.m. newscast for WFLX-Channel 29, the Fox affiliate. WFLX pulled in a 4.8, down from 5.3 a year ago, according to Nielsen.
Brian Lawlor, vice president and station manager at WPTV, cheered his station’s “solid performance.”
“There is a lot of tradition and history here,” Lawlor said. “People have come to count on News Channel 5.”
For local news at 6 p.m., WPTV had a rating of 13.2, meaning that an average of 13.2 percent, or 93,626 of the market’s 709,290 households, watched the program.
WPEC had a rating of 7.3, down from 7.8 in the same period last year. WPBF fell to 2.8, down from 3.7 in the year-ago period.
For the 6 a.m. newscasts, WPTV rated 6.9, down from 7.5; WPEC was at 3.5, up from 2.8; and WPBF fell to 0.7, down from 1.8.
In prime time, WPTV posted a 10.3, down from 10.9; WPEC slipped to 9.4, down from 10.7; WFLX had a rating of 6.1, down from 6.5; and WPBF had a rating of 4.8, down from 5.3.
WTVX-Channel 34, the UPN affiliate, pulled in a rating of 2, down from 2.8. Station manager Brian Kennedy said the station’s 5 p.m. offering, That ’70s Show, had the same rating, 2.1, as WPBF’s 5 p.m. newscast but had a larger share of the audience, 5, compared with a 4 for WPBF.
“This station is becoming more and more competitive in the marketplace,” Kennedy said.
susan_port@pbpost.com
