;
The latest Nielsen ratings for local television news stations show the revamped KTVA still trails longtime leader KTUU by a wide margin.
The ratings come from July sweeps—one of the four times a year when Nielsen measures television audiences. In those ratings, KTUU continued its long string of dominance in TV news over local competitors.
In 2013, local cable TV and data communications company GCI spent millions to buy and upgrade KTVA, in both technology and on-air talent, to compete with KTUU. It is now almost three years since KTVA launched their new slate of news products, yet the station still dramatically trails KTUU across the board.
KTUU held their ground or saw a slight uptick over this time last year for almost all their news products. The lone exception is in the morning. The KTUU Morning Edition, which airs from 5-7 a.m. weekdays, went from a 42 to a 27 share during the 5 a.m. hour and from a 48 share to a 36 share during the 6 a.m. hour.
KTVA, on the other hand, did see a slight uptick during the 6 a.m. hour, going from a 14 share to a 16 share. Given KTUU’s declines during the timeslot, that is pretty decent news for Megan Mazurek and crew over at Daybreak.
Unfortunately, it is the only good news for KTVA. The station’s news department saw no significant movement in closing the gap on KTUU’s massive ratings lead anywhere else.
Here is a full breakdown of the ratings:
Excellent post. I do think that KTVA has improved in recent years, but I still think that KTUU shows less bias than KTVA, and my perception is that KTUU spends more time reporting news and less time on human interest issues than KTVA.