TVNewsCheck The Business of Broadcasting
from Philadelphia Inquirer Television Critic
Philadelphia's TV stations scramble to cope with new financial and technological picture
By Jonathan Storm
And then there was one.
6ABC is now the only Philadelphia TV station that has its own helicopter - not the big story in the grand scheme of local television, even if the station does air a promo every five minutes.
The big story is bigger. The city's major TV stations are doing all sorts of things to boost revenue and keep up with technology: joining forces, rebooting websites, reformatting news shows, branching into new time slots, creating new shows, and, in one instance, starting a new local channel.
It's the best-of-times, the worst-of-times as local TV climbs out of the economic morass of 2009. The long-term trend is down, but revenue increased last year, even as ratings continued to drop.
Prying financials from local stations is like trying to get an American Idol contestant to sing softly, but figures from Borrell & Associates, a leading media-research firm, show advertising revenue from local TV operations reversing a years-long slide, up 2 percent in 2010, but down more than one-third since 2006.
Nielsen Co. figures show average full-day viewership among the six largest Philadelphia stations dropped 8.3 percent between 2009 and 2010 in the November "sweeps" period, when ratings in many markets are used to set advertising rates. It's hard to get a true picture from year-to-year sweeps comparisons, but over the last four years, viewer numbers have dived 17 percent.
Still, for the first time in several years, there's joy in Mudville. "The market's been very healthy for quite a while," said Patrick Paolini, vice president and general manager of Fox29. "I'm optimistic for the rest of the year.
"Within this market," said Jon Hitchcock, president and general manager of CBS3 and CW57, "I think you'll start to see more and more local programming" as stations try to build revenue.
As the general economy rebounds, local businesses are seeking to advertise themselves out of the recession. Auto dealers, a TV staple that virtually vanished from the screen at the height of the downturn, are back strong.
Not only will TV get more advertisers, executives believe, it will be able to raise rates despite lower ratings. That is because television, unlike print or digital media, has a finite inventory of ad space; there are only 24 hours in a day.
"It's basically supply-and-demand forces at work," said Bernie Shimkus, vice president of research for Harmelin Media, the Philadelphia market's biggest media buyer, in an e-mail. "Most advertisers . . . are still interested in reaching the largest audience, as quickly as possible. Despite declines in ratings, local broadcast channels still provide the best opportunity to achieve that goal."
Borrell Associates, which researches advertising data across all platforms, has found that Philadelphia stations lost $327 million, about one-third, in annual revenue from their TV operations over the last four years. Newspapers in the region sustained a drop of more than 40 percent, about $700 million.
But Borrell found regional online advertising nearly doubling in the same period, from $787 million to $1.5 billion, something that benefited all the traditional media that have started websites.
The digital revolution itself is a boon to TV, with all those ads for Xfinity, and Verizon, and Apple, but the stations are also working to get a bigger share of the online market itself. In addition to $625 million earned in TV operations in 2010, Borrell estimated, Philadelphia's stations took in nearly $45 million in online advertising.
CBS and NBC have revamped their sites, with CBS Corp. combining all its Philadelphia TV and radio entities that carry news - CBS3, CW57, WIP-AM, WPHT-AM, and KYW-AM - on one site.
"Since September [when the sites merged], total page views, unique visitations, and time on site are significantly up," Hitchcock said.
NBC changed its site this month, and it wasn't just for money. "It's cleaner, more user-friendly, easier to navigate, more aesthetically pleasing," said Chris Blackman, NBC10 News vice president.
"If anything," Blackman said, "I think our website enhances our ratings. . . . We're all about connecting with our viewers. We see the website as one other way to do that, solicit opinions, generate discussion, get story ideas."
Advertisers like TV websites, too. "Cross or multiplatform opportunities are increasing in importance," Shimkus said. "Most advertisers and agencies recognize that media fragmentation continues to grow, and that additional platforms or channels are required to reach today's consumer."
According to comScore Inc., which measures online activity, the four major TV-station websites are among the top five in the region. In February, 6ABC.com and CBSphilly.com each had an estimated 13 million page views, an important metric by which advertising is sold. NBCphiladelphia.com had 11 million views, and Myfoxphilly.com had 5 million. Philly.com, owned by Philadelphia Media Networks, publisher of The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, had more than the four stations combined. (Data may vary depending on the method by which page views are counted.)
In their search for advertisers, TV stations are offering more than website packages.
CBS's Talk Philly, launched in September 2009, joined NBC10's The 10 Show (which airs at 11 a.m.), and Fox29's Good Day Philadelphia, in providing sponsorship opportunities within the show that media buyers can obtain either separately or as part of a package including traditional commercials. One recent episode of Talk Philly, for instance, had physicians from the Einstein Health Care Network, which paid a promotional fee, discussing colorectal cancer.
News programs, in which stations can sell all the ad time themselves rather than splitting with syndicators or networks, are also expanding. Fox29 and CBS10 have both backed their morning news show to 4:30 a.m., and 6ABC, rather than running something syndicated when The Oprah Winfrey Show bows out in September, plans a brand new local news show at 4 p.m.
NBC10 has gone CBS3 and 6ABC one better, establishing a separate station that broadcasts 24 hours a day on Channel 10.2 (248 on Comcast, 460 on FiOS). It premiered Oct. 25 and mostly provides original local shows, including a one-hour newscast at 7 p.m.
Shimkus has a caveat for local broadcasters. Just as NBC pushed viewers to cable, in search of quality scripted programs, last year when it moved Jay Leno to 10 p.m., he said: "The continual expansion of local news into more and more time periods could have a damaging effect on stations over the long haul," as viewers seek more entertaining fare elsewhere.
Fox29 may have made the most noticeable change since TV tanked in 2009. Last year, it introduced an entirely new and somewhat controversial format for its 10 p.m. news.
The screen has more the appearance of a cable news show, with one box in the corner telling what stories are coming up, a printed crawl across the bottom, and frequent use of split screen.
The format is less static, emphasizing longer stories, which Fox29 can do with its full hour. The other stations have 35 minutes at 11 p.m.
Like cable, the newscast includes lots of opinion, as anchors Thomas Drayton and Lauren Cohn express themselves and grill their own reporters, outside commentators, and newsmakers about stories, frequently fretting that the government is operating inappropriately.
"There's an appetite for that type of coverage," said Paolini, who came to the station in fall, 2009 and said he decided something needed to be changed in light of the protracted decline in local news ratings. Since the changes, the station said, Fox29 has had modest increases in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic that advertisers crave.
Which brings us back to helicopters. In January, CBS3 joined NBC10 and Fox29 in their Local News Service co-operative, which Blackman described as a "quasi-independent" outfit, with staff and resources from all member stations that responds to their requests and also sets its own agenda.
It covers scheduled events, and, sometimes, breaking news, using one reporter instead of three, cutting costs and allowing each station to spend more time on bigger things. It also operates what used to be the CBS3 helicopter, providing aerial shots to all three stations.
"I've been thrilled with how it has been working," Blackman said. When there was a gas explosion in the Tacony section of the city Jan. 18, "LNS got the definite, actual moment that the blast occurred. That video went all over the country."
Viewers, reporters, and executives alike all know that, in good times and bad, no matter how many bells stations ring or whistles they blow, nothing beats a big blast on the TV news.
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