Is Local Television News Going the Way of SportsCenter?

Not as familiar with Nexstar as I could be... but saying there's someone worse than Sinclair is a damn bold statement.

 

Denver's not the best example. In both my times being there and knowing those who transplanted there, nobody gives a shit about anyone else in Denver. I've had four friends move there over the years. The only one who's still there has a spouse with a dental practice, and that helped them plug in. The rest all reported it was one of the loneliest places they'd ever been. It's spread out, it's ultra-wealthy, and everybody's always gone.

 

Don't know what the viewership numbers are these days, but the stations in Miami-Fort Lauderdale actually have beefed up their offerings in the past 10 years. The ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates are solid news from 5 p.m. through 6:30 p.m., and the Fox affiliate (the longtime ratings leader) runs local newscasts from 4-7 p.m. Wasn't that long ago that the NBC affiliate had the likes of People's Court and Dr. Phil on until 5:30, but no more.

It's a good market if you like crime news. The Fox affiliate moved to the top of the ratings in the '90s with a sensational approach to covering crime, and the other stations have followed suit over the years, though the emphasis isn't quite as over-the-top. Weather coverage, with the frequent thunderstorms and occasional hurricane threats, is top-notch and gets a lot of air time. Sadly, the sports broadcasts aren't good for much of anything other than catching the scores of the local teams, although the sportscasters themselves are fine -- when they get air time. Occasionally, one of the news anchor people does the sportscasts because they aren't much of a priority.

 

Nexstar is worse than Sinclair.

There are also some good size ownership groups that aren't extravagant but aren't cheap. They have no desire to be in large markets because you have to pay anchors 400k, fewer people per 100,000 watch and it's a higher tax/higher cost to operate. They're happy to chug out Midwest/SE US newscasts where more people watch per capita and the labor costs are lower with lower paid anchors and few unions.

 

It's not the quality is better. It's that the SFLA stations can make more muffins with the same amount of batter.

Newspapers could only put out one edition daily. TV can pump out 7 hours of news a day. 8 or 9 if you add other sub channels.

Run and gun crime newscasts are cheap and easy. Fox changed the Miami market forever twenty years ago with it but people are used to that now.

 

I think in some markets in the South, anything football related gets eyeballs. A lot of the stations here in central Mississippi do high school highlight shows on Friday nights and blow out SEC football coverage.

Also being we're in Dixie Alley, which is the second worst place in terms of tornado activity, weather is another part of the newscast that will always have huge viewership. This weekend, we had a small tornado outbreak with four tornadoes and all of the local stations went wall to wall.

Birmingham, Alabama's TV market is another one of these, with ABC 33/40's meteorologist James Spann having more name recognition than the governor in the market.

I agree with the other posters that a divided political area means big money for local stations. The question is how do you make money when it isn't campaign season?

 

You can make money but it isn't easy. Car dealers. HVAC. Local banks. National is really soft right now.

Starting in November of this year, just turn on the faucet in swing states and 11-12 months of endless ads.

 

One reason Boston has five local news operations is that Massachusetts is next to New Hampshire.

 

I know that's not the experience of all who come through Denver, but for me, it was. Almost everyone I knew had relocated from elsewhere. All were far more invested in what went on "back home" than in their own backyard, myself included. All that anyone seemed to care about locally was going to the mountains in the winter and bragging to those they left behind in other places about the pleasant summer days and nights with little to no humidity. It didn't help, honestly, that more than a few locals treat newcomers as though they are an infestation. That was my experience, to be honest, so I felt no reason to really ingratiate myself into the community.

 

A lot of stations better get their "Obama is the anti-christ" editorials ready to roll.