Billy McDowell

In Part I of TVNewsCheck‘s three-part special report on audience measurement, Media Ratings Council Chairman and Raycom Media chief researcher Billy McDowell discusses the state of local TV ratings and what’s being done to make them better. He also gives no ground in the battle over what measure should be used in local TV: live-plus-same-day is the only way to go.

Raycom Media’s head of research, Billy McDowell, conducted a survey of the viewers in its Southern stations in the wake of this April’s devastating tornadoes. He learned that 71% of adults living in those affected areas first learned about the approaching storms through TV. At a focus group recently, one of the participants said of a local meteorologist: “He saved my life.” Says McDowell on the value of TV stations’ service to their communities: “No other endorsement is needed.”