If you didn’t know WPTV and WPEC were in a for ratings this will put it into some perspective.
May sweeps ended Wednesday May 21, and a little before then WPEC started giving away a $1,200 gas card every night.
Fearing for its crown, WPTV announced on Wednesday during Oprah they’ll give away two $1,500 gas card during their 11pm newscast.
But then WPEC got in their face and was like Oh yea we’ll we’re going to give away four gas cards on our 11pm newscast.
WPEC won with 7.4 vs 7.2 ratings points.
Wonder if advertisers ever feel hosed buying TV ads based on sweeps results
It’s a shame it’s not about news anymore
Oh yeah, the “four winners” thing was on May 21, the final night of the contest which coincidentally was also the final day of sweeps. Maybe that’s what pushed 12 ahead?
Well it wasn’t exactly groundbreaking journalism that pushed 12 ahead.
Don’t forget, upon the time when WPEC went HD, they have improved their graphics significantly better than when 5 went HD.
When WPTV 5 went HD, I was only impressed with the 1080i, not the graphics package, the people, or the music. 12 has done a great job in re-branding themselves from the old “1-2 Turn 2″/News 12 moniker and acquired a CBS 12 branding. I think it makes them stand out from the Palm Beach crowd. WPTV 5 has more work to do. Plus I’m a bit biased because I’m friends with a prominent employee of 12.
techno935
No one cares about HD1080i except for perhaps 1 or 2 viewers, especially on a CBS station which skews to the retirement home set. Graphics has nothing to do with this. No one cares that you have a “prominent” friend.
This is about a cheap and desperate ratings ploy. How desperate does a TV station have to be when they have to beg for viewers with gas cards?
From a business stand point, I were your prominent friend I would be concerned about the business decisions being made by their employer.
I am not sure how long a station can survive if they have to buy viewers.
Maybe 12 should just hire some viewers and put them on the payroll. That way they could at least show advertisers some consistency in viewership levels. Plus, they could hire viewers to watch in the most desirable demos. In fact, they could drop the news budget to just about zero because as long as the paid viewers are doing their jobs in doesn’t matter how crappy the news is. They wouldn’t have to worry about that boring old journalism stuff.
Fins:
You seem to forget Channel 5 got SOOO desperate, they copied 12 and did their own gas giveaway on the very last day of the book! Who is the “crappiest” station now? It appears both stations have reached a critical point: whatever works. If contests help, so be it. However, it should be interesting to see the demos in a couple of weeks. I bet 5 will be even more nervous when that comes out.
Remember, Nielsen calls this ‘stunting’ and the fact the TV stations used a monetary award will be disclosed to advertisers, calling both stations ratings into question. The #1 crown for news ratings is just PR bullsky, as the real reason for the ratings is to set advertising rates. This will help neither station, and matters only to people who believe ratings hype anyway. It’s sort of silly, and is the kind of crap which will become useless when stations are monitored 24/7/365, as is set to happen in Miami in late July.
In case nobody has noticed, in the West Palm Beach/Boca Raton market, CBS12 has been gaining ground on Channel 5 in the local news battle for more than 5 years now.
Channel 5 is a powerful force in the market, with several excellent talents including Jim Sackett, Kelly Dunn, and Glen Glazer. (Glazer has more talent and personality in his little finger than Rob Lappicola had in his entire body).
Both stations deliver a credible news product. The NBC TODAY Show and OPRAH deliver HUGE numbers for Channel 5. NOT converting those viewers to your local news should be a BIG concern.
Give CBS 12 credit where credit is due.
The management at TV12 has attracted and kept the most creative and recognized telents in the area, and when you couple that level of talent and personality into one cohesive unit of people who really like working with one another, you eventually WIN!
Suzanne Boyd is about the best anchor in all of South Florida! The same goes for sports guy Pat Murphy, John Matthews, Liz Quirantes, and the list goes on and on. CBS12 is “Loaded” with talent! Then when you add New talents with the experience of someone like Juan Carlos Fanjul, and combine that with truly aggressive coverage of breaking news, weather and traffic by reporters who really want to be here, fresh new graphics, a beautiful new “HD News-Set”…and one creative contest at just the right time, only adds to the sweetness of victory.
Radio has “contested” during “sweeps” for half a century. What’s the big deal? The people at CBS 12 have earned it!
Oh yea, and FINS..when you finally break down and buy an HDTV…you’ll understand.
“Suzanne Boyd is about the best anchor in all of South Florida!”
LOL. I just spat out my soda.
You list WPB talents and miss out excellent reporters like Shannon Cake and Jamie Holmes @ 5. Funny.
“OPRAH deliver HUGE numbers for Channel 5. NOT converting those viewers to your local news should be a BIG concern.”
Um… 5 wins at 5pm, 5:30pm and 6pm…
Media Observer,
Quit all your babbling. What are you, the news director or something?
Face it, it was a cheesy and cheap stunt. And why don’t you be honest. Now, the sales team will take those inflated audience numbers based on free gas giveaways and scam advertisers into believing your normal audience is bigger than it really is. That was the plan from the start. It was a sales scam. Some genius there must of come up with a way to prey on the rising price of fuel in order to get people to watch who would normally do otherwise.
And no one cares about your graphics or HD set or blah blah blah. Most of your audience gums its food and is too cheap to buy an HD TV.
What does that have to do with a cheesy gas card viewing contest anyway? No HD set can mask a good old fashioned sales scam.
To Fins and Tim,
First of all, in the numbers war, I thought 5 was the ratings king of those who can’t chew their food?
I am not 12s News Director, nor am I a TV12 “employee”.
Which one are you, Shannon Cake? Jamie Holmes? By the tone of your comments, you must be Channel 5s increasingly nervous sales maqnager who’s catching heat for not coming up with the gas card idea first. Your defense of the local advertiser is pure management BULLSHIT!
I am not hired to go into a market to “trash” people or their respective stations. EVERY element of a local news product is important. My specialty is talent, covering everything from personality, to camera presence, to warmth, to delivery, to interaction, to market longevity. I’m sorry I ever engaged myself in this childish ratings/contest argument.
In my report, the West Palm Boca market has 22 talents that are rated excellent or very good. Channel 12 comes in first with 12 people at the top of the talent list. Channel 5 comes in second with 6, TV25 comes in third with 4 of the best “personalities”.
If you are one of the people that didn’t make the top of my list, or the second tier “good” category, I would update my resume before November if I were you.
Consider yourseves very lucky, at my next stop, Orlando, There were only 5 people that rated excellent to very good in that entire market that last time I was contracted to do a telent study there.
Curious… who were the 12? And who were the 6?
Media Observer
Now you sound like a lame consultant. I don’t live in that market so all the names are meaningless. As far as your list, well I am sure you know what people say about consultants. If research and consultants got a station ratings everybody would be number one. But its a good haven for people who couldn’t succeed in the biz.
If you are the cat that came up with that lame gas card idea than your “talent” list can’t be worth much. TV news has become the land of the brain dead and since viewers are evaporating you may want to consider something other than tricks, stunts and talent lists to keep eyeballs on the tube. Your career may depend on it.
He’s not a consultant. He’s Suzanne Boyd.
THE PALM BEACH POST REPORTING RUMORS GOING AROUND THE WPBF ANCHOR LISA HAYWOOD IS OUT. HER CONTRACT IS UP AND WILL NOT BE RENEWED. MAYBE BEATEZ CANLAS WILL TAKE HER SPOT