The markets impacted ranged from New York, the No. 1 DMA, to Zanesville, OH, the smallest of Nielsen's 202 DMAs.
Local newspaper distribution also was curtailed in major metros such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Hartford, though daily newspaper staffs worked feverishly to produce extraordinary blackout coverage.
While TV HUTs (households using television) likely will be reflected when the week's national and local market Nielsen data finally is compiled, it was unclear what the impact will be on the tabulation and release of Nielsen data.
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TV, Internet and daily newspaper distribution may have been adversely impacted, but the event likely triggered record radio usage levels in the affected markets, as car and battery operated radios tuned into local radio stations. Local Radio Shack stores in Manhattan sold out of battery operated radios and TV sets within the first couple of hours of the outage.
The impact on media industry negotiations was less clear, though was not expected to be significant. The outage did not occur until the end of the day Thursday and kept much of New York City based agencies and media companies out of commission for most of Friday. However, Friday's in August tend to be light media trading days in any case.
While power was restored relatively quickly to Manhattan's upper West Side neighborhoods, ABC's offices remained closed to the public midday Friday.
Media Markets In States Affected By Blackout Of 2003
Rank Market Households % U.S.
1 New York, NY 7,301,060 6.924
4 Philadephia, PA
2,801,010 2.656
6 Boston, MA 2,315,700 2.196
10 Detroit, MI 1,878,670 1.782
17 Cleveland-Akron,
OH 1,513,130 1.435
21 Pittsburgh, PA 1,148,340 1.089
28 Hartford/New Haven, CT 953,130 0.904
32 Cincinnati, OH 836,190 0.793
34 Columbus, OH 809,940 0.768
38 Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo/Battle Creek, MI
702,210 0.666
46 Harrisburg/Lancaster/Lebanon/York, PA 617,830 0.586
47 Buffalo, NY 616,610 0.585
60 Dayton, OH
494,960 0.469
68 Toledo, OH 418,340 0.397
71 Rochester, NY 400,090 0.379
81 Syracuse, NY
363,340 0.345
90 Burlington, VT/Plattsburgh, NY 307,670 0.292
93 Tri-Cities, TN-VA 303,500 0.288
96 Johnstown/Altoona,
PA 285,050 0.270
98 Youngstown, OH 275,410 0.261
105 Springfield/Holyoke, MA 254,020 0.241
117 Traverse City/Cadillac, MI 233,400 0.221
143 Erie, PA 155,720 0.148
150 Wheeling, WV/Steubenville, OH
140,660 0.133
156 Binghamton, NY 131,360 0.125
168 Utica, NY 100,930 0.096
173 Elmira, NY
92,420 0.088
176 Watertown, NY 84,900 0.081
191 Lima, OH 56,740 0.054
202 Zanesville, OH
32,150 0.030
Source: Nielsen Media Research's local universe estimates.