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Boston TV news ratings????? and could another shoe drop?

Fenway1912

Fenway1912

For over a year now there has been no reliable source to obtain Boston TV ratings, especially for news.

I believe WCVB is doing well top to bottom with WBZ a close second.

I have been told that WHDH is healthy in the late afternoon and still does well at 11 but WFXT and WBTS numbers are awful.

One elephant in the room is the possibility FOX may reenter the market by buying WFXT back BUT I was told by a good friend who works for FOX in LA that while COX signed a long-term affiliation deal to keep Channel 25 as a FOX outlet they violated the agreement by rebranding as Boston 25.

Meanwhile, what is Ed Ansin's endgame? Repacking WLVI gave him a nice windfall but would he be open to selling WHDH and WSVN to Fox? A key in this is the valuable real estate that WHDH owns in Government Center. Keep in mind that when Murdoch sold the LA Dodgers to Frank McCourt, part of the deal involved the parking lots that McCourt owned in Boston.....those lots are now the Seaport District.

WFXT still produces a quality newscast but they have never recovered from letting Maria go.


The TOTAL rejection by Boston viewers of NBC 10 Boston news has been extraordinary.
 
Kemosabe said:
Could that rejection be due to a lingering resentment of the manner in which NBC wrested the network affiliation from WHDH?
Click to expand...

Why would the non-radio/TV-geek public (99 percent) care about that? Both channels are on their cable boxes, and that's all that matters to people who aren't in the industry or don't follow it obsessively.
 
CTListener said:
Why would the non-radio/TV-geek public (99 percent) care about that? Both channels are on their cable boxes, and that's all that matters to people who aren't in the industry or don't follow it obsessively.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I wonder whether that makes me a member of the 1 percent or a one-percenter.

In any case, Bostonians are a peculiar lot; they value team loyalty, tradition, and local ownership. (It is not altogether surprising, for instance, that the CBS O&O brands itself as "WBZ"—not as CBS 4 or even WBZ CBS 4.) When the peacock tried to bully local (Worcester) son Ed Ansin, the hectoring received considerable coverage on WHDH and other news outlets. I should think that NBC left many in Beantown simmering with resentment.
 
Kemosabe said:
Hmm, I wonder whether that makes me a member of the 1 percent or a one-percenter.

In any case, Bostonians are a peculiar lot; they value team loyalty, tradition, and local ownership. (It is not altogether surprising, for instance, that the CBS O&O brands itself as "WBZ"—not as CBS 4 or even WBZ CBS 4.) When the peacock tried to bully local (Worcester) son Ed Ansin, the hectoring received considerable coverage on WHDH and other news outlets. I should think that NBC left many in Beantown simmering with resentment.
Click to expand...

Wasn't Channel 4 rebranded CBS4 for a brief period, though, or at least appear that way on scrolling cable lineups? I recall a discussion on another forum when that happened in which a poster complained about the creeping "de-WBZ-ification" of WBZ-TV.
 
Kemosabe said:
Could that rejection be due to a lingering resentment of the manner in which NBC wrested the network affiliation from WHDH?
Click to expand...

WHDH is still there, with more news than before, and programming between the newscasts. The few viewers that actually know who Ansin is, are not going to boycott WBTS because he may not be adding as many $$ to his millions.
 
Kemosabe said:
Hmm, I wonder whether that makes me a member of the 1 percent or a one-percenter.

In any case, Bostonians are a peculiar lot; they value team loyalty, tradition, and local ownership. (It is not altogether surprising, for instance, that the CBS O&O brands itself as "WBZ"—not as CBS 4 or even WBZ CBS 4.) When the peacock tried to bully local (Worcester) son Ed Ansin, the hectoring received considerable coverage on WHDH and other news outlets. I should think that NBC left many in Beantown simmering with resentment.
Click to expand...
When you describe Bostonians with those particular traits...I would add that they are not unique to Boston. I think those traits also apply to us on the South Coast and Metro Providence.

As a member of "the 99%"...I think the problem WYCN-15 / WBTS-8 has (I REFUSE to give them the satisfaction of calling them what they WANT us to call them)...is that TV viewers in general, and especially those in this region, are creatures of habit. And it's going to take a hell of a lot longer than a year or two to get any appreciable number of eyeballs to watch WYCN-15 / WBTS-8. I'm sure they must realize that they have to be in this for the long haul...or else...don't even bother.

P.S. As far as I'm concerned...WJAR is the REAL NBC-10 in the region! :D
 
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Channel 83 said:
When you describe Bostonians with those particular traits...I would add that they are not unique to Boston. I think those traits also apply to us on the South Coast and Metro Providence.

As a member of "the 99%"...I think the problem WYCN-15 / WBTS-8 has (I REFUSE to give them the satisfaction of calling them what they WANT us to call them)...is that TV viewers in general, and especially those in this region, are creatures of habit. And it's going to take a hell of a lot longer than a year or two to get any appreciable number of eyeballs to watch WYCN-15 / WBTS-8. I'm sure they must realize that they have to be in this for the long haul...or else...don't even bother.

P.S. As far as I'm concerned...WJAR is the REAL NBC-10 in the region! :D
Click to expand...

Exactly. Many / most viewers already watching NBC on WBTS probably stay on it for news. However anyone wanting to watch local news, but not viewing network programming, or not watching TV at all, will tend to select the familiar station. Also, even if they never watch OTA TV, still associate 4, 5, and 7, and to a lesser extent, 25, with local news coverage, while NBCBoston/WBTS/WYCN/WMFP/8/10/15/60/62 is just another one of those cable channels...
 
channel99 said:
Many / most viewers already watching NBC on WBTS probably stay on it for news. However anyone wanting to watch local news, but not viewing network programming, or not watching TV at all, will tend to select the familiar station. Also, even if they never watch OTA TV, still associate 4, 5, and 7, and to a lesser extent, 25, with local news coverage, while NBCBoston/WBTS/WYCN/WMFP/8/10/15/60/62 is just another one of those cable channels...
Click to expand...
Not just that, but—given their incestuous relationship with NECN—they come across as half‐baked and ambivalent, in terms of their news operation....I mean, come on, sometimes on breaking stories or extended severe (or even just blizzard-day) weathercasts, WBTS will just run NECNʼs feed, substituting their bug in the corner (and maybe the ticker scroll along the bottom)!
 
Uncle Kaimbridge said:
Not just that, but—given their incestuous relationship with NECN—they come across as half‐baked and ambivalent, in terms of their news operation....I mean, come on, sometimes on breaking stories or extended severe (or even just blizzard-day) weathercasts, WBTS will just run NECNʼs feed, substituting their bug in the corner (and maybe the ticker scroll along the bottom)!
Click to expand...

Maybe the new Needham studios will help - aka NBC Universal Media Economic Opportunity Area.

https://patch.com/massachusetts/needham/nbcuniversal-breaks-ground-needham-hq-next-week
 
In other BOSTON25 news,..................Is Vanessa divorced now?
 
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