Hurricane Sandy

From Friday, Oct. 25 through Tuesday, Oct. 29, Tribune’s New York CW affiliate will  remember the heroes, check on recovery efforts, re-connect with communities it visited a year ago and showcase the area’s resilience in the face of last year’s devastating Hurricane Sandy.

Has there ever been a more crystal-clear example than Hurricane Sandy of why it’s so imperative to keep exploring improvements in media measurement? The reality is that we’re in a data-centric world with media options growing all the time. It’s necessary that our measurement capabilities continue to keep in step. And it’s not just because of a random natural act, but because we can’t measure the media of the future with technologies of the past.

When the hurricane devastated the coastal areas of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in October, broadcasters turned to the cellphone-based technology to get live feeds back to the stations when microwave or satellite delivery systems wouldn’t work. “It continues to improve,” says CBS’s David Friend. “The delays are less, the signals are better, there’s less dropout. When we took the risk of using this technology very early on, it was hit and miss. Now we are more confident in its stability and its performance. We view it as an essential tool in our newsgathering efforts.”

Nielsen disclosed more about the magnitude of Hurricane Sandy on national and local TV ratings during a “recovery plan” briefing with clients, confirming that at least eight metered markets representing nearly 17% of U.S. TV households were impacted to some degree, and that the method it used to fill in the blanks for national audience estimates — mathematical weighting — “overstated” some national TV ratings during the period.

Two weeks after Superstorm Sandy knocked much of the East Coast —including many Nielsen households — off the grid, Nielsen held a meeting with its East Coast clients to brief them on some important developments, but essentially ignored the elephant in the room: Sandy.

NEW YORK (AP) — Less than three weeks after Superstorm Sandy came ashore on the East Coast, three television networks will offer the chance to relive the experience on the same night. PBS’ “Nova” series will air a one-hour special on Sandy on Sunday evening, the same night that History is scheduled to run “Superstorm […]

Donation follows $100,000 by parent company Cox Enterprises to aid American Red Cross efforts

Cablevision Systems Corp has been accused in a $250 million lawsuit of continuing to bill and failing to offer rebates to more than 1 million customers who lost TV, Internet or phone service because of Hurricane Sandy.

The one-two punch of Hurricane Sandy and the following nor’easter wipe out ratings for nationally-aired shows in the week ending Nov. 4.

While Nielsen execs say they are still assessing the full impact of Hurricane Sandy, they began notifying some customers late last week that among other things, Nielsen would not “release November 2012 survey data for the New York DMA,” the nation’s largest media market, accounting for nearly 6.5% of the U.S. population. Nielsen also informed clients that it is still evaluating which days will be excluded from the “survey data” it reports for at least four other major markets — Philadelphia (No. 4), Boston (No. 7) Cleveland-Akron (No. 18) and Baltimore (No. 27) — which, like New York, are part of Nielsen’s local people meter samples.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rachael Ray is donating $500,000 to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to help pets and families who are struggling to rebound from Superstorm Sandy. The Emmy-winning chef said Friday that her pet food brand, Nutrish, is also shipping 4 tons of wet and dry dog food […]

During the beginning of this month, it became eminently clear to millions of Americans in the Northeast that at least one part of the future can’t come soon enough — mobile digital television. Mobile DTV doesn’t use mobile cellular service. It uses over-the-air TV signals only, formatted specifically for mobile devices — smartphones, tablets and laptops.What’s more, during events such as Hurricane Sandy, broadcasters weather the storm well. They never stopped broadcasting, even when absorbing a direct hit by a major hurricane. So viewers equipped with mobile DTV devices won’t lose their TV news lifeline.

StepLeader Digital reported that mobile usage for its local news partners’ mobile sites and apps skyrocketed during coverage of Hurricane Sandy and Election Night.

Paul Rotells, president-CEO of the New Jersey Broadcasters Association, sent out the following message today: Dear Fellow Broadcaster: As you know, our area has been left nothing short of devastated in the aftermath of Sandy and our great NJ Salvation Army has asked that the following TV  Public Service Announcement be aired as soon and […]

Throughout its programming Monday, the network urged viewers to contribute to the American Red Cross to help victims of the storm, which affected several Northeastern states. Appeals were aired all day on ABC programming, on Disney’s syndicated shows and across other Disney-owned networks.

ABC said Monday that Barbara Walters donated $250,000 to the American Red Cross and George Stephanopoulos kicked in $50,000 for Superstorm Sandy relief on ABC’s “Day of Giving.”

The Philadelphia ABC O&O uses a news van and a mobile generator to offer power to electricity-starved area residents.

Gannett-owned ABC affiliate WZZM Grand Rapids, Mich. (DMA 39), and the America Red Cross of West Michigan raised nearly $34,000 to help the victims of Super Storm Sandy with an 11-hour telethon. “Our viewers and digital users showed their generosity” said WZZM President-GM Janet Mason. “We asked them to make a difference, and they responded […]

10.4 million unique visitors logged onto the websites of TV stations in states affected by Hurricane Sandy between Oct. 28 and Oct. 30. This was more than double their normal traffic.

The group’s stations in seven markets raised cash and supplies through phone banks and telethons to help flood victims and the American Red Cross.

Hurricane Sandy is expected to cost the media industry as much as $500 million, according to a new report out this week from Pivotal Research Group.

NBC’s Friday hour-long telethon resulted in nearly $23 million in donations to the American Red Cross.

I didn’t see much of the post-storm coverage on TV. My power went out Monday at around 6 p.m. just as the storm was starting to peak in my town of Chatham, N.J. I thought the broadcast coverage before and after the storm was great. But it could have been better. As I clicked through the affiliates when I had power, I found that the coverage had a certain sameness. My suggestion: when the next disaster threatens New York, the stations should coordinate and pool their coverage.

CBS is making a $1 million dollar donation to Hurricane Sandy recovery as part of a wider effort that includes PSAs and matching employee contributions through the end of the year.

The community event this Sunday will benefit Connecticut victims of Hurricane Sandy and will ask for non-perishable food, personal care items, warm coats and cash donations.

Helping Our Neighbors: Surviving Sandy will be raising money for the American Red Cross on the air from 4 to 6:30 p.m. today.

CBS Local Media’s TV and radio stations join forces with the American Red Cross for Operation Brotherly Love: Sandy’s Aftermath.

A number of major media companies, including the owners of ABC News and Fox News Channel, are making sizable donations to charities to benefit the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Scheduled performances on the Friday, Nov. 2, primetime Red Cross benefit include Christina Aguilera, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Sting. Jimmy Fallon and Brian Williams also will appear and Matt Lauer will host.

Hyperlocal news sites that focus their coverage on small towns and city neighborhoods — including Baristanet, Sheepshead Bites and AOL’s Patch — are reporting big traffic surges from Hurricane Sandy, with local residents keen to find out about their towns’ storm preparedness Monday and about property damage and when power would be restored on Tuesday, with much of it driven by search.

The climate for growth among U.S. ad companies had already been looking stormy for the second half of 2012. It’s getting worse, thanks to the superstorm.

The sites for ABC stations WABC New York and WPVI Philadelphia each logged record page views with the help of live-streamed Hurricane Sandy coverage, hitting 7 million and 13.1 million respectively.

As the city took account of the damage wrought by the storm on Tuesday, the aftermath of Sandy continued to cause the cancellations of TV and flim production, film premieres and more. But the New York entertainment industry was fighting to go on with the show, and none more than several of the city’s latenight TV shows.