Local TV Promos Don't Always Translate To More Viewers

More local news TV promos spots do not mean more viewers for local TV news programs.

In looking at the key 25-54 viewers -- the strongest news viewers -- the optimum promo media plan, according to one Seattle TV market, came from seven to nine exposures. That yielded a 22% increase in tune-in from 10% before the campaign started, according to Nielsen.

Overall, Nielsen says people -- defined as viewers who normally did not watch this Seattle station’s early morning news program before the campaign -- made up 65% of the total program audience after the campaign.

Looking at other promo frequency levels, Nielsen found that with no promo exposures, tune-in rose 1.6% before the campaign to 7.8% after the campaign. From one to three exposures, there was 4.7% improved tune-in before and an 12% after the campaign.

More exposures from this point yielded lower results: four to six exposures saw tune-in rise 20.4% before to 24.3% after the campaign. When being subject to 10 or more exposures, there was a 43.1% tune-in rise before and 45.9% after.

Nielsen also notes that prime-time and early-fringe dayparts were the best times to reach a new, potential audience.

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3 comments about "Local TV Promos Don't Always Translate To More Viewers".
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  1. Paul Greeley from 2Cimple, October 25, 2012 at 7:24 a.m.

    This article raises more questoins than it answers. First off, the title is contradictory to the article. And changing people's viewing habits or purchasing habits, isn't just about how many times they see an ad. What would have made the article a little stornger would have been more detail--what station, what was the creative, what were the results, etc?
    Paul Greeley
    pgreeley98@aol.com

  2. Claudio Marcus from FreeWheel, October 25, 2012 at 9:50 a.m.

    The title of the article does not reflect the research findings which indicate that program promotion does yield incremental tune-in, even if it declines in impact with too many exposures.

  3. Ron Stitt from Fox Television Stations, October 25, 2012 at 11:49 a.m.

    News flash from 1990? This sounds like classic R&F/frequency distribution theory to me. If you had asked me about optimized frequency distribution 15 years ago when I used to do this stuff for a living, this is basically what I would have told you. Foundation of traditional media planning. Surprised the concept of "recency" didn't come up too.

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