- Details
-
Published on Tuesday, 01 May 2012 15:54
Last month, BIA/Kelsey -- the independent market researcher and advisory firm for media and technology companies, specializing in the local advertising business for those companies -- released information regarding the top earning radio stations locally, as well as nationally. (The Top 10 earning radio stations was exclusively revealed
HERE on CRM.) This month, BIA/Kelsey releases its findings on local television revenues for 2011.
According to BIA/Kelsey, local television over-the-air revenues nationwide in 2011 were $17.9 billion, a 7.8% decrease from 2010 total of $19.4 billion.
One positive note is that online sources of revenue increased by 18.7% from 2010 to 2011. Last year, local television stations earned $535 million in online revenue, compared with $450 million the year before.
Another positive note is that BIA/Kelsey predicts that for 2012, combined over-the-air and online revenues could rise over 10% to $20.3 billion.
Mark Fratrik, Vice President and Chief Economist for BIA/Kelsey, said today: "Local advertising industry revenues typically rise and fall depending on the political year. Advertising income for local television is trending upward and showing signs of rebound, with a good first quarter for many publicly held television companies. Still, the 2012 over-the-air television advertising market is not what it was 11 years ago."
For more information on national totals for local television revenues for 2011, visit this link
HERE.
Locally, here is how the top five television stations fared in 2011, as well as their revenues for 2010 for comparisons' sake.
1. WLS-TV (ABC) 2011 revenue: $164,300,000 / 2010 revenue: $174,100,000 / Decrease of 5.9%
2. WFLD-TV (FOX) 2011 revenue: $111,400,000 / 2010 revenue: $118,600,000 / Decrease of 6.5%
3. WGN-TV (CW) 2011 revenue: $111,100,000 / 2010 revenue: $125,900,000 / Decrease of 13.3%
4. WMAQ-TV (NBC) 2011 revenue: $105,600,000 / 2010 revenue: $121,200,000 / Decrease of 14.8%
5. WBBM-TV (CBS) 2011 revenue: $104,200,000 / 2010 revenue: $103,000,000 / Increase of 1.2%
As the amounts above show, good local ratings do not always equal large revenues, and conversely, low rated stations do not always mean low revenues. WFLD-TV, whose local newscasts are by far the lowest rated ones, still managed to take second place in revenues for 2011. WMAQ-TV and WBBM-TV, which have higher local ratings for its newscasts and local programming could only manage to be in fourth and fifth place in revenues, respectively. WGN-TV and WMAQ-TV saw double-digit decreases in revenue, well above the national average. Only WBBM-TV saw a slight increase in revenue in 2011.
Of course, the big Chicago winner by far was WLS-TV, whose local newscasts and programming are also the ratings winners. Even though WLS-TV saw a revenue decrease of nearly 6%, that was still below the national average and still was good enough to beat its nearest competition by nearly $53 million.
It should be pointed out that the figures above are approximations of revenue brought in by the local television stations and
not profits earned.
(All of the above local & national figures are courtesy of BIA/Kelsey. Numbers are based on figures given to BIA/Kelsey by the television stations.)
