Earthquake Draws Viewers To Local TV

Across the East Coast, concerned citizens flocked to their TV sets to get real-time updates from their local TV stations’ broadcast and online coverage after the East Coast’s strongest earthquake in 67 years, according to data released by TVB.

The markets closest to the earthquake’s epicenter — Baltimore, Norfolk, Richmond and Washington — saw huge spikes, ranging from 156% to 246% increases in household viewers of their news specials, in comparison to the same time period (2-5 p.m.) during the July 2011 sweeps.

Traffic to Washington TV stations’ websites also soared to nearly 550,000 in the hours following the quake — almost three times the number of visits from the day before the earthquake.

“According to a Frank N. Magid Associates study in 2010, local TV station news is considered to be the most important source of community and local information,” said Steve Lanzano, president-CEO of TVB. “The demand for local TV station news, on-air and online following the earthquake on Tuesday is a real-world example of that importance.”

*Aggregate HH Rtg based on special earthquake coverage as reported by NSI

**Aggregate HH Rtg for same time period as special earthquake coverage on same stations as reported by NSIABC, CBS & NBC affiliates looked at in all four markets.