TVB Chief: Bostonians Depend On Local TV

With knowledgeable local Boston reporters, that city’s TV stations played a critical role as a relied-upon source of essential news broadcast over the air during the Marathon bombings and city-wide lockdown during the manhunt that followed. As a result, local viewers overwhelmingly chose local station news coverage over that on cable. That’s the opinion of Steve Lanzano, president-CEO of TVB, in a statement released today.

“First and foremost, Lanzano says, “in the immediate aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, the city of Boston came together in a demonstration of community support, caring and pride that Boston is known for.  Throughout the week there was a critical need for accurate and timely information and we are extremely proud that local television broadcasters in the market were able to serve the community with wall-to-wall news that kept the citizens of Boston factually informed and safe.

“From 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday, when the local stations began non-stop coverage of the breaking events, local broadcast adult 25-54 ratings were 535 percent higher than the cable news networks in Boston.  When up-to-the-minute information was most needed to keep the community informed, viewership of local broadcast news coverage of the events remained extremely high, peaking with last Friday’s coverage of the manhunt and apprehension of the remaining suspect.

Throughout the week, local TV stations’ early news (M-F, 5-6:30 p.m.) delivered an average 23.7 household, live + same day rating — a striking 84 percent higher than the previous week.  Friday morning’s home TV usage (HUTs) in the market was up as much as 115% versus the same period from the previous year.

“Local broadcasters have also done a tremendous job building out their stations’ multiplatform media options and this is reflected in the significant traffic to station websites and mobile apps as the world turned to local Boston TV news sources for information.  Tens of millions of multiplatform page views from those who couldn’t watch live Boston TV were reported, with at least one station generating over 72 million multiplatform page views. These multiplatform media options served the needs of the local market and provided accurate information to those from around the country who preferred the coverage of the local Boston television stations over national network and cable news options.

“Serving the local community is a priority of every local broadcast station and it is clear that when viewers need to rely on their television stations for timely and accurate information, local TV broadcasters deliver for them,” Lanzano concluded.