• by Paul Gough , February 25, 2003

When the February sweeps period ends today, the work will just begin for the local stations that depend on them.

While a lot of the buzz surrounding sweeps periods – particularly this month’s season of Joe Millionaire, The Bachelorette and Michael Jackson – has been around the networks, the sweeps aren’t designed for the networks. The sweeps are designed to boost the fortunes of local stations, which uses the data to help set ad rates

Great ratings can bring higher ad rates – and more attention from agencies – for a local station. Less-than-stellar ratings can mean the opposite.

“They can help or hurt. It depends on what the numbers are,” said John Newcomb, general manager of WRSP and WCCU, Fox affiliates in Champaign, Ill., and Springfield, Ill. It’s the nation’s 62nd-largest market, about 200 miles from Chicago.

Newcomb said great ratings can help boost ratings in April. And while some rates for stations are already locked in for the second and third quarters for national agencies, there’s still a large part of the stations’ advertising base that depends on local advertising.

And that, Newcomb and others around the country say, is sold month to month or quarter to quarter. Newcomb estimates his station sells about 20% of its inventory upfront and 80% scatter.

The largest markets, like New York and Los Angeles, get this ratings and demographics information all the time. But for the rest, they have to make decisions on rates and programming based on the Nielsen sweeps months: February, May, November and, to a lesser extent, July.

Joe Berwanger, VP/GM of WDIV in Detroit, a NBC affiliate in the 10th largest market, said each sweeps offer differences. Stations live with the results of the May sweeps for the longest and do a lot of estimating based on the last book for the new season that starts in the fall; November’s book gives the ratings on how some of the new shows are doing. It’s not that far from February to May, however.

“February has probably the shortest shelf life of them all,” he said.

The sweeps period marks an ultra-busy time for research directors like Maud Hicks from WKMG, a CBS affiliate in Orlando, Fla., the #20 market. Hicks said the results matter a lot to agencies, who are in often-daily contact with the stations.

“The agencies really look at each sweep,” Hicks said.

This season, WKMG has found itself the beneficiary of a stronger CBS schedule between 10-11 p.m., something the network had made a goal for 2002-03. WKMG’s 11 p.m. newscast – the most watched on the station throughout the day – won its time period for the first time since 1984 during the November sweeps. Hicks said it’s due to strong performances by the CBS shows between 10-11 p.m. – like Judging Amy and Without a Trace – and those viewers staying put for the 11 p.m. newscast. The surge between 10-11 p.m. and viewership of the 11 p.m. newscast on Thursday has had a positive impact on WKMG’s early morning newcast Friday.

Throughout the sweeps, local stations are getting daily overnights from metered households. It’s possible through a formula to do household demographic skews based on last year’s ratings to get projections. More reliable is the detailed February sweeps demographic report that is sent to the stations in mid-March. It not only tells demographics but with the STAR (Strategic Target Area Report) they can measure viewers by income, geography or other ways.