[Professional Blog] "Extremely Pleased"

On Tuesday, I offered some commentary on the latest Bureau of Broadcast Measurement (BBM) ratings for the supper-hour TV news shows in this province. In that entry, I noted that an invitation to comment had been extended to Fred Hutton, News Director with the NTV Evening Newshour.

Today, I received a statement from Hutton via email.

The latest BBM Fall Survey Results reveal that the NTV Evening Newshour is still the dominant supper hour newscast in Newfoundland and Labrador, Hutton said. We are extremely pleased with the results and would like to thank the viewers of Newfoundland Labrador for once again making the NTV Evening Newshour the most watched television show in the province.

The numbers show that NTV News has an audience of almost 2:1 in comparison to its competition, Hutton said.

Each week the NTV Evening Newshour has an average reach of almost 210,000 viewers*. The BBM Fall 2009 Survey also shows that the NTV Sunday Evening Newshour is the second highest rated show in all of Newfoundland and Labrador. The fall launch of our newscast NTV'S First Edition with Glen Carter was met with great success capturing over 53 thousand viewers, which was 32 percent higher than the competition. NTVS First Edition is the top rated show in that time slot.

At NTV we are constantly looking for ways to improve our newscast by expanding our coverage and clearly viewers like what they see, Hutton said. NTV News is committed to bringing the best possible newscast to our viewers each and every night.

In my note, I asked Hutton if they planned to make any course changes, to try to reverse the slow bleed of viewers to the competition. He did not reply to that question, though I am not exactly surprised. Tactically, you have to play it cool never let em see you sweat but I expect they will be giving this question serious consideration in the months ahead.

*With this number, Hutton is referring to the total number of different viewers who watch each week. The 119,000 number refers to the average number of viewers per night.