My33News No more

I’ve become aware of this acouple of weeks ago. I have been hearing STRONG rumors that the CBS owned my networks stations may not last much longer. CBS doesn’t want to keep going with the contract once it runs out in 2010/2012. I have heard that CBS is interested in bring MTV3s to Miami. With the Huge ratings that other spanish television stations have it would be a smart move.

[sigh] What comes next? News 12 at 10 on FOX 29? NBC6 News at 10 on CW South Florida? Although, both titles, especially the latter, seem rather cumbersome.

Up here we have “7News @ 10:00 on CW56”

Michael

I agree , We all knew it was Cbs 4 News we didn’t that name change . My 33 news sounds much better than CBS 4 new at 10pm on my 33 . Short and brief is much better and easier to remember .

I believe the most cumbersome of these names was in Orlando several years ago. I believe the UPN station aired “The Channel 9 Eyewitness News at 10 on UPN 65.” That newscast was canceled long ago.

I believe My Network TV name is hurting WBFS all together outside the Latin viewing community. It would be a different story if it had become independent, but the popularity rebranding of local news is becoming annoying and troublesome.

I think it would be interesting if CBS did indeed bring in MTVr3es to South Fl. The demographics for it would be from 18-28 and if you have an edgy newscast i think it could work

what’s this MTV3 supposed to be?

MTV tres is a spanish/english mtv station aimed at the latin community. I dont know about florida but in Boston its aired on cable

MTVtr3s is a spanish/english network that airs on cable and some places on a network digital channel. It aimed at 12-35 age groups. it airs videos and shows. In orlando it airs on digital channels for network.

I beg to differ.

Ever since ‘BFS lost the UPN affiliation last year and rebranded itself as My33 News, the show lost steam. ‘Sides, since most of the people on My33News also cover the SAME stories on Channel 4, why not brand your newscast that way. Same people, same news, same brand, same schmuck.

One problem they have is not many people watch the channel to begin with.

The other problem is that the newscast, last time I bothered watching felt like an ad for CBS4 at 11.

The stories will brush up on details quickly and then the reporter or anchor will say something like ‘we’ll have more on this story on CBS4 News at 11’ or ‘full details on this exclusive story on CBS4 News at 11’.

Kind of a waste of time considering 99% of the stories can be found online or any other local news channel.

My Network TV is not owned by CBS. It’s owned by Fox, formed to fill the gap when so many fox-owned UPN stations lost UPN affiliation. The CW network, which combined the WB and UPN networks, is partly owned by CBS. It was not available to 33 because Tribune, which owns 39, had first call in this market.

In the end, it’s the quality of the program which counts, not the name.

Right on admin, you are right on the money. The problem with news managers today is they rely on focus groups and all kinds of other nonsense that supposedly tells them what to do to drive ratings. More attention is given to promos and teases than is given to the actual stories themselves.

So, while the news managers are sitting around scratching their heads wondering why all of the focus groups and studies didn’t lead them to ratings nirvana, the viewers are long gone.

It’s amazing that so many viewers like us on this site understand why these stations fail.

Here are a few easy tips for news managers that may help you with your problems.

1) Don’t hire women who have done porn (Jennifer S.) or simply because they look hot. This never works. If it did everyone would be number 1. Hot women are everywhere on Tv and the ‘net, so that is no big deal and porn is as free as water. If you want to do porn than do it. Don’t go half way. If you want to do news, than do news.

2) Focus on content and not promos or teases. Viewers and readers want good content. Period. They will go anywhere to get it (Internet, AM radio, TV, whatever.) Quality content rules. Rehashing what everybody else in the market has doesn’t cut it.

3) Focus on long term credibility. Your credibility is everything. Few stations have any of this any more. Flashy graphics and swoosh sounds don’t get ratings. Viewers bond with the talent not computer graphics. Talent, talent, talent.

4) Keep interns off the air. I watched a pretty young woman recently on the air locally who looked 18. She referred to the U.S.Coast Guard as the Coastal Guardians. She was not even corrected by the so called veterans who were anchoring.If you are watching a news story and you know more about it than the young girl reporting on it turn the channel. If you want to see a pretty girl get on the Internet or go over to South Beach.

5) Quit ignoring your real audience in order to appeal to younger viewers who don’t watch news. Local news is one of the only businesses where they totally ignore their core customers in order to appeal to people who are not their customers. If you want to reach young audiences than develop programming they watch. This would not be local news. This is the biggest problem with local news.

Please note this advice is free of charge and might upset your brilliant and pricey consultants.

Bobbie is dead on, but management will never see it that way. T’m in the young demographic they’re aiming for, and I turn the channel when I see the clueless young reporter, whether they be male or female. Who cares as long as the “talent ” comes cheap?

Another reason wbfs tanked is because they went too long without an EP. The cbs 11pm EP did double duty on copy-editing, but in terms of specials projects, promos, and general direction My 33 became the basterd child no one paid attention to. I’m not knocking the 10 producer, he has a lot on his plate and no help from management, but the show had actually its own individual feel before the old EP left the business.

I agree with oy vey and BobbieB on that one. Unfortunately, I have to say this:

I spoke to my brother who is about 3 years younger and my sister who is two years younger than I am and they certainly disagree on what you guys have to say. They feel that if there is something that people didn’t know about and now they know, that’s considered news. No matter how hard I tried to disagree on that, they believed that they were right. And because of that fact, the station managers at all the channels 4/33,6/39,7, and 10 are doing a “great” job in targeting those viewers.

It’s a sad fact that although that Quality should be the main focus of the news industry, the corporate bosses care more about QUANTITY. I mean think about it. WSVN is one good example, after watching the YouTube video from 1987 it was Joel CHEATwood that made south florida F*cked up when it comes to news. And because of that, including the fact that they launched the NewsPlex and wild graphics and hire some more pretty faces it helped change the face of TV News altogether.

“Maybe in a perfect world everybody would be watching MacNeil/Lehrer,” Ansen told Newsweek. “But we can’t afford to be boring.”

That’s just it, in the eyes of news directors and news consultants, the term “quality” means a boring, Pat Boone-like newscast with just stories about children and education, and politicians that help make this “community” a safer place. In their eyes, crime, CRIME and MORE CRIME are the breadwinners when it comes to breaking news. When opportunity knocks, you don’t want to be covering stories that is relevant to the older viewers like health care and city hall stuff, OR cover stuff on education. To parahrase Bart Simpson:

Bart: …. Those do-gooders are all a
bunch a pitiful losers…every last one of them. Want
results? You have to go to the [Rick Sanchezes], the
[Laurie Jenningses], and to a lesser extent, the [Shannon Horis]

well Joel Cheatwood didn’t really put a gun to anyone saying they must copy what he did at 7.

The other stations followed on their own.
They saw 7’s ratings grow, something that worked
so they copied to not be left behind in the ratings game.

Nowadays with the internet everything is news.
But hasn’t it always?
I think it was called gossip before. Now it’s on TV with nice packaging

The other thing is.
Would people watch quality news?
They may say they want them but would they really watch.

Why aren’t more people watching PBS Newshour if they so want hard news?
How many people actually care to watch local news or news period, on a regular basis?

Crazy whacked out news or not the ratings have been falling.

Around 5 ratings points seems to be about what would be considered success around this market. (It goes up to around 7.7-ish from what I’ve seen)
Which equals to about 75k households!
Out of over 1.5 million!

3.5 mil people live in Metro FTL/MIA 12year old .
Let’s say 2.4 million are 18
And how many of those 75k households are actually tuned in and watching full attention? 50-60,000? That’s like ~3% of the local households. Only.

And then of course comes the question how reliable are the ratings.

Hundreds of channels
With many distractions
People now can choose what and when to watch.

The stations are stuck in their templated newscasts
With their templated teases
And templated stories
And they’re scared shitless of changing something
so the ratings don’t drop, more.

So they resort to gimmicks
And people are going online more and more for news
So naturally the stations template everything online as well.
Which may or may not work
Especially considering I can read the same AP story on a local station’s site at a newspaper site, Google or a blog.

Often the stations are headed by veterans in the tv business.
Who are set in their ways.
Along with consultants also set in their ways.
Some will take the risk and change.
Others wont.

I’d guess TV news won’t go extinct like radio hasn’t
But they’ll have to fight a lot more for eyeballs
now that internet speeds are growing and video
is becoming more and more popular.

Damn
Big rant
😀