KGTV is Number 1

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numbers through the roof….

KGTV, the VJ (or DC) driven station in San Diego has moved way up in the ratings as of the critical May sweeps period. Some newscasts have shown increases of almost 30%.

There has been a great deal of discussion about the impact of the VJ model on any number of local TV newsrooms. I cannot say whether the VJ model was literally responsible for the massive increase in numbers, but it certainly does not in any way hurt our cause.

Kudos to ND Gary Brown, GM Derek Dalton, Group President Ed Quinn and all the fine people who work there.

A great job.

Here are the numbers:

5am KGTV 1.76 rating
KFMB 1.41 rating
KNSD 1.06 rating
KUSI .87 rating
XETV .55 rating

6am KGTV 2.31 rating
KNSD 2.42 ratiung
KFMB 1.91 rating
KUSI 1.58 rating
XETV .90 rating

The two hours combined makes KGTV #1

11am KGTV 2.63 rating (11am news)
KFMB 2.51 rating (noon news)
KNSD 1.27 rating (10am news)

11pm KGTV 5.22 rating
KFMB 4.65 rating
KNSD 3.96 rating
KUSI 1.89 rating (11pm)

10pm XETV 2.91 rating
KUSI 3.19 rating

Michael Rosenblum

For more than 30 years, Michael Rosenblum has been on the cutting edge of the digital video journalism revolution. During this time, he has lead a drive for video literacy, and the complete rethinking of how television is made and controlled. His work has included: The complete transitioning of The BBC's national network (UK) to a VJ-driven model, starting in 2002. The complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United State's Government's broadcasting agency, (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the VJ paradigm (1998-present). The construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company, and the largest producer of non-fiction television in the US. Rosenblum was both the founder and President of NYT TV, (all based on this paradigm (1996-1998). The President and Founder of Video News International, a global VJ-driven newsgathering company, with more than 100 journalists around the world. (1993-1996). Other clients include Spectrum News, Verizon and CBS News.

11 Comments
  • rosenblumtv June 01, 2007

    I asked Gary Brown, the ND which numbers I could post and these are the ones he released for publication. There are VJ pieces in all newscasts. In any event, I think a 30 percent increase in ratings is not so terrible. You remind me a bit of my mother, when I came home with a 97 she would ask, ‘what happened to the other 3 points”! We are back in San Diego at the end of June for another round of VJ training, so things cannot be going so badly.

  • Watching closely June 01, 2007

    you conveniently left out the ratings fot the 4pm, 5pm, and 6:30pm.
    These are the shows that air the VJ stories. If VJ had something to do with the ratings, wouldn’t these numbers be up as well?
    Why didn’t you post those?

  • invitedmedia May 25, 2007

    and the best part is we’re still very early in all of this.

    y’ain’t seen nuttin’ yet.

  • sturgesfam May 25, 2007

    Steve Saffran listed some web stats on his blog yesterday, which includes a breakdown of what broadband users are doing at their computer screens. The survey said that 63% of these folks are using their computers to watch TV.

    I’m willing to bet that only a small part of those viewers are downloading the most recent episode of “The Office,” but rather, given the short attention span of a surfer and the incredible ease with which one can “go away” from a site (labeled in a webmaster’s stats as “bounce rate,”) that the majority of this viewing is of very short, very fresh clips, and who is really good at making very short, very fresh clips?

    A quick peek at the KGTV website shows an exceptionally easy to find series of web news stories. Voila!

    The VJ Paradigm begs for complementary web content, and the news site with the easiest to find (and watch) news clips will turn into a link in someone’s favorites bar. This linkage takes one right back to KGTV.

    Perhaps someone who is “hooked” by a local news story at his desk at lunch might just tune in for the full story at 11, thus the station gets two shots at the same viewer.

    The internet is quickly becoming a preferred delivery device for busy people because it can be browsed “on demand,” and (as a downside for content providers) a surfer can (and will) move on if he doesn’t find what he wants. Further, web viewers don’t seem to mind advertising as long as it stays under 22 seconds.

    Ignoring the influence of the web will prove to be a mistake, as will ignoring the potential of the VJ to create fresh broadcast content as well as the perfect complementary content for the ‘net.

    Ignoring this will leave some folks wondering where their viewers went. Not quite a year ago, Steve Rubel, who runs the Micropersuasion PR/Marketing website said: “On Sunday YouTube said it hit 100 million video streams per day. Last week the four TV networks suffered their lowest weekly ratings ever. Coincidence? I doubt it.” On the same day Hitwise reported that “… [YouTube] has a 29% share of the US multimedia entertainment.”

    The web is coming and broadcast content providers such as news outlets had better get ready – and quickly!

  • invitedmedia May 25, 2007

    yes, but “10news.com” says nothing to their users.

    be creative!

  • Cliff Etzel May 25, 2007

    John – you stated your position very well – BUT, if KGTV is the only station to utilize the VJ paradigm in the San Diego area, one could make the presumption that this could be a major contributing factor in their higher ratings.

    Although their isn’t any substantiated proof that this is the case, one has to wonder the “what ifs” of KGTV NOT having utilized the VJ model…

  • John Proffitt May 25, 2007

    Like so many things in life, I doubt we can tease out exactly what caused the ratings bump for KGTV. Was it VJ material? Regular material? A promotion? Who knows?

    But I would bet that any station willing to actively and intelligently take on the questions that the VJ revolution proposes — what constitutes news? what makes a newscast a newscast? how much does reporter “voice” play in the piece? how many people do you have to have to do a “good” news piece? what’s more important, content or presentation? — is probably staffed with some smart folks that are thinking hard about how to best serve their audience and thereby capture better ratings. I mean, if you’re thinking about it, then at least you’re focusing on it. And if you’re focusing on it, most likely things will improve. So many stations just sit on their fat asses and do the same thing forever, even when the ratings slide begins.

    I think the VJ thing is really just a reflection of an attitude that says, “Is this the only or the best way to do what we’ve been doing? Might there be a better way?” The fact that the questions and answers are playing out with cameras and journalists and TV stations is kind of a secondary thing (though the most visible thing). This station clearly has challenged its assumptions about news and news production. If they had done that without a single VJ in the bunch, I bet their ratings would have improved.

    That said, I’m still impressed and think the VJ model is the way to go. I’m fighting my own TV battles with entrenched moro… I mean old-school TV managers.

  • Cliff Etzel May 24, 2007

    Rick’s perspective is one of always seeing the glass half empty.

    Rick – if the VJ content is so bad at KGTV – why is Michael going back for a FOURTH time to do more training if he isn’t doing such a great job? If he wasn’t, would management be asking him to come back? I think not. Why is it that those who make the check signing decisions are asking him to come back?

    Of course you have no answer because it refutes your position. You just want to piss and moan.

    Looks like another time out for you…

    And your website link is truly lame…

  • rosenblumtv May 24, 2007

    Truly some people are never satisfied. If the numbers were down we would have heard no end of it. We will be back in san diego in two weeks for another vj bootcamp…the fourth for kgtv. And congratulations to all who work there.

  • Rick Reality May 24, 2007

    If this was an all VJ newscast you might have reason to be proud. It is not. You ignore there are more than half the people producing news stories there who are not doing it the VJ way. They deserve as much credit for the ratings as the VJs. This is still not a station doing VJ news the way it has been sold for so long. It would be nice if you included the numbers the station got a year ago at the same time so we could see a true comparison as to if there was an increase in viewers or not.

  • Cliff Etzel May 24, 2007

    This is great news and a positive outcome of this new paradigm of solo VJ created content – it was because of your expertise and training that they are #1

    I can’t resist – I believe someone who recently ranted like a prepubescent teenager about how VJ’s have diminished the craft is receiving their comeuppance.